A time base corrector can fix time base error

Time Base Error Correction

Time base error becomes a real problem when you try to integrate analog videotape material into a production. If you just want to play back the tape, no problem, but if you want to fade, dissolve, wipe, split screen, or key using taped material, forget it! You've got an unstable playback signal trying to match up with the very stable, sync generator controlled video system. If you try to produce any of these effects with tape, the picture will jump, jitter, roll, or tear. In short, it will look terrible. This can be corrected with a time base corrector, which can cost as much as some analog VTRs. Time base correctors will take the unstable signal coming out of the VTR and stabilize it. Exactly how they work will be discussed next.

For some analog VTRs you have to buy a separate time base corrector. Most of the better analog VTRs have time base correctors built into them. Because digital compression, to be discussed later, requires that the signal be taken apart and then reassembled before it can be fed out of the machine, most digital VTRs have a form of time base correction built into them. Many digital switchers will also have time base correction built into their input circuitry.

1.  Integrating helical VTR video without time base correction.

2.  Integrating helical VTR video with time base correction.