Thanks for your reply. I have no idea! Unfortunately my own knowledge is on the programming side, not electronics or details of how video works. I am very much the grasshopper in those areas.
All I know is analog video looks better if you run it through a time base correction thingy before going into the digitizer thingy. And TBCs are expensive, largely because the specialized chips they use are no longer manufactured now that the world has gone digital.
Anyway, I figured that if the special purpose chips for a TBC are no longer made, perhaps a microcontroller could be programmed to emulate one. And I've seen Arduino used to make all kinds of electronic gadgets, and it is quite popular and constantly evolving so I thought Arduino might be a good microcontroller platform to use, assuming I can learn enough and find others who also might be interested in such a project.
Given enough details (such as a parts list, a wiring diagram, and sample code) I can follow instructions on how to assemble electronic components to build a device and control it by programming the Arduino, but I'm very much a beginner learning electronics and the workings of things like how video signals work. I have never heard of a black pill or PLL (which I just looked up - it's a phase locked loop?). So the hope is that through research, asking questions, and work, maybe I can get it done or find others who would be interested in helping to figure it out.
Developing an open-source time base correction device for analog video would benefit a lot of people who have old home videos they and their families would like to digitally preserve.
Anyway, thanks for the info. I will read up on PLLs and black pills, and see if I can make sense of it, lol.