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RetroTINK-5X Pro TBC/scaler with Blackmagic Video Assist to capture & upscale legacy analog to 1080p in realtime

Allan Tépper

RetroTINK-5X Pro TBC/scaler with Blackmagic Video Assist to capture & upscale legacy analog to 1080p in realtime 1

In several prior articles, we have covered devices and software to best capture legacy analog to a native interlaced SD file for later high-quality deinterlacing and upscaling to HD. One of the most recent of those articles was Deinterlacing legacy material + upscaling with DaVinci Resolve (Studio) to 50p/59.94p for smoothness (or 25p/29.97p for a more dramatic look). That does a great job, but consumes several hours per original hour of footage to achieve, even when using an Apple Silicon processor. This is inefficient for people who need to process hundreds of hours of SD legacy material. Today, we are covering a realtime solution to go from the analog signal directly to any desired flavor of ProRes at 1080p HD video at those same desired rates: 50p/59.94p to preserve the original smoothness (or 25p/29.97p for a more dramatic look). As covered previously, capturing this legacy SD analog footage absolutely requires a TBC (time base corrector) to stabilize the quite unstable signal. I have also established that I prefer to make a single A-to-D (analog-to digital) conversion, which excludes the use of most standalone TBC units, since most only offer an analog output. After its acquisition of Teranex in 2011, Blackmagic became a leader in scaling. However, as indicated in the responses of many inquires online, Blackmagic does not currently include TBC functionality in any of its devices, instead recommending the use of a VTR/VCR with built-in time base correction. With the exception of Betacam SP and MII studio decks (which indeed include them), very few models of S-VHS or U-Matic decks have them built-in. Those are scarce and they can cost at least 3x the price of an analog-only S-VHS or U-Matic deck. It is much more cost-effective to purchase analog-only versions of these decks, knowing that they may soon become disposable, so you may be buying a few of these decks. This is why I was so happy to create a perfect marriage between the RetroTINK-5X Pro TBC/scaler (US$325 + a USB power supply you may already own), its optional premium remote control (US$30) and the Blackmagic Video Assist (virtually any version capable of recording up to 1080p at up to 59.94p from HDMI). Ahead are the details (and a single caveat).

About RetroTINK

RetroTINK is not focused primarily on our use-case or our market, even though this device, the RetroTINK-5X Pro, works great for us. RetroTINK was born to make retro game consoles (made for CRT displays) work beautifully on our modern flat displays. RetroTINK does not even advertise the TBC functionality (currently) on its sales page, but does mention in its wiki, where it is indicated that this feature was added with firmware version 3.7 back in 2023. In my testing, I used firmware version 3.71 which is current as of publication time of this article. The way that it worked to match and retain the 59.94 rate was by choosing «Gen Lock» in the menu. RetroTINK uses the term genlock quite differently then way most people have used it within the professional broadcast industry since the 1980s, but we know what they mean.

Among the four modes, this is how the owner of the RetroTINK owner defined the settings for me in an email:

  1. Triple Buffer – free running clock at 60 Hz. All the tink products are really intended for video games and this matches closely many legacy consoles (e.g., SNES). Input frames will be dropped or duped as needed to maintain a constant 60 fps output. The 4K model does have the ability to change it to a 59.94 with a custom modeline but is still fully decoupled from the input rate.
  2. Frame Lock – Output fps locked hard synced to input. This means no dropped or duped frames but any disruption in the input side will propagate right to the output.
  3. Gen Lock – like frame lock, but couples it a bit looser means it may be more tolerant to short disruptions.
  4. TBC – measures the average of the input fps to set the output fps. This is the loosest form of input to output rate coupling which means its best for trying to follow noisy and unstable sources while minimizing disruptions and lost frames.

I clarify that the only one that worked well for me, for our purposes, was number 3, called «Gen Lock», I avoided number 1 (Triple Buffer) since with the RetroTINK-5X (not the 4K model), it is locked to 60 Hz and since its introduction in 1953, NTSC is 59.94 fields per second, not 60. I did not want to retime the original 59.94 to 60, nor did I want to spend US$750 for the RetroTINK-4K Pro when 1080p up to 59.94p is all I wanted or needed for this application. That’s why I chose the RetroTINK-5X Pro for only US$325 plus the premium remote and used it with option number 3, called «Gen Lock».

Six reasons I love the RetroTINK-5X since it can do all of this in realtime

  1. It accepts Y/C (S-video) or even YPbPr (aka Y, R-Y, B-Y) which would be great from Betacam SP or MII, although I haven’t tested that yet. (Yes, it also accepts composite, but I wouldn’t want to use that, as well as RGB and SCART, common on consumer PAL & SECAM decks.)
  2. It has great time base correction built-in and a digital output, without forcing a conversion back to analog and back to digital (which would be required with most standalone TBC devices).
  3. When capturing NTSC, it of course accepts at the standard subcarrier frequency of ≈3.58 MHz. When capturing PAL, it of course accepts at the standard subcarrier frequency of ≈4.43 MHz. But in addition to that (according to a response I received from the forum), it can even accept NTSC at ≈4.43 MHz which is common when playing back NTSC tapes on a multistandard deck. (I didn’t test this personally, but was assured that it does this.) The NTSC at ≈4.43 is a nice feature that is sadly missing from the Canopus/Grass Valley ADVC110 (reviewed here) for anyone who has a multistandard deck.
  4. Can go from 50i (50 fields per second) to 50p (50 progressive frames per second) preserving all of the the original smoothness as originally seen on a CRT… or from 59.94i (59.94 fields per second) to 59.94p (59.94 progressive frames per second) preserving all of the the original smoothness as originally seen on a CRT, all in realtime.
  5. It has a setting for handling the original NTSC at either zero IRE (Japanese NTSC, often used with consumer camcorders in the United States too) or 7.5 IRE (US NTSC) in addition to proc amp adjustments, if desired.
  6. It offers three options for 1080p output, as covered ahead.

The three 1080p options

  1. 1080p (Fill) – In 1080p (Fill) output mode, the video source will be enlarged to fit the vertical boundaries of the 1920x1080p screen.
  1. 1080p (Over) – Overscan. 480i signals are multiplied 2.5 times. The output will slightly exceed the vertical edges of the 1080p frame and be cropped at the top and bottom. This will crop out headswitching noise.
  2. 1080p (Under) – Underscan. 480i signals are multiplied twice. The video output will be centered on the screen with a black border. This ensures that every pixel will appear on your screen and appear very sharp, but will result in more unused space, including above and below the picture. Headswitching will remain visible.

Note that Scaling and Crop adjustments are also available to position the image and crop out unwanted video artifacts.

Why I chose to purchase the premium remote control

I chose to purchase the US$30 premium remote control (instead of using the included standard remote control) to have direct access to many functions, including the input source, 1080p output options and the menu to choose «Gen Lock».

Why I chose to pair the RetroTINK-5X with the Blackmagic Video Assist

The RetroTINK-5X is a TBC and scaler, not a recorder. Some other recorder must be attached to it via HDMI, including the embedded audio. Although it would be possible to connect the RetroTINK-5x to an UltraStudio Recorder 3G from Blackmagic (which I covered twice in 2020), that would tie up a computer for the duration of the capture. By using any qualifying Video Assist from Blackmagic (i.e. any model that can record up to 1080p at up to 59.94p), we can alleviate our computer and record directly to an SD card. Four other features of using the Blackmagic Video Assist are:

  1. The Blackmagic Video Assist has a proper waveform monitor to confirm proper zero black level in the digital world, depending upon whether the original analog footage was Japanese NTSC or US-NTSC, and make the appropriate setting in the RetroTINK-5X menu (as well as to use the RetroTINK-5X’s procamp settings, if necessary.
  2. The Blackmagic Video Assist has a proper vectorscope, in case a Betacam SP, MII or U-Matic tape has color bars at the head.
  3. The Blackmagic Video Assist is among the few such devices on the market that reveals the incoming framerate with two decimals, so we know if we are getting 59.94 or 60.00 (which are not the same) or 50.00p derived from PAL footage. Thank you Blackmagic!
  4. Per Blackmagic’s confirmation via e-mail, the Blackmagic Video Assist shows all lines of the video portion of the raster, so we can decisively determine whether when we have completely cropped out headswitching using the RetroTINK-5X, if desired.

So the Video Assist from Blackmagic Design is not only a great recorder to match with the RetroTINK-5X Pro, but also a great instrument to precisely see any settings in the RetroTINK-5X Pro too. Then we can move it via sneakernet to our computer for any desired purpose, i.e. edit out undesired scenes, add a logo or upload to an online platform like Bunny Stream (covered in 2 articles so far), Vimeo or YouTube.

Caveat

Even though firmware version 3.7 was released back in 2023, the unit that I purchased directly from RetroTINK in February 2025 came with a much earlier version. After carefully following the instructions, I was still unable to update the firmware from macOS or Linux Mint. Fortunately, I was finally able to update it to version 3.71 using Windows IOT, covered in this article. I hope that sometime soon, RetroTINK will start shipping out units with the current firmware (or at least the latest from 2023).

Conclusions

I believe that the RetroTINK-5X, its optional premium remote, together with any qualifying Video Assist from Blackmagic is an ideal realtime solution for digitization with time base correction of legacy SD footage, scaling and recording to any flavor of ProRes at 1008p for all of the reasons covered in this article. One hour of footage takes only one hour from start to finish (not several hours)! This is especially true when hundreds of hours of legacy SD footage must be processed. For more information more information on the RetroTINK-5X Pro, visit the RetroTINK-5X product page here. For more information on the Video Assist from Blackmagic, visit Filmtools here.

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FTC disclosure

Neither RetroTINK nor Blackmagic has paid for this article. Although Blackmagic as lent devices in the past for review, that was not the case for the Video Assist used for this article. Allan Tépper paid full price for the RetroTINK-5X and the premium remote. Allan Tépper paid market value for a second-hand Video Assist. Some of the manufacturers listed above have contracted Tépper and/or TecnoTur LLC to carry out consulting and/or translations/localizations/transcreations. So far, none of the manufacturers listed above is/are sponsors of the TecnoTur, BeyondPodcasting, CapicúaFM or TuSaludSecreta programs, although they are welcome to do so, and some are, may be (or may have been) sponsors of ProVideo Coalition magazine. Some links to third parties listed in this article and/or on this web page may indirectly benefit TecnoTur LLC via affiliate programs. Allan Tépper’s opinions are his own. Allan Tépper is not liable for misuse or misunderstanding of information he shares.

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