The TBC is more for correcting the old analog tapes which can stretch over time or with misaligned heads of the VHS player. Televisions are much more accepting of signals that aren't quite still in spec whereas our cards are designed to adhere to a spec. You can't say we kinda follow the spec...
You have to follow the spec or you don't.
So what a time based corrector does is bring these signals back into spec. The more expensive you go, the more options and lines you have to pull data from. Meaning the more out of spec your tapes are, the more expensive of a time based corrector you'll probably need. I don't believe they affect anything with macro vision but that shouldn't be required.
So few things that would cause a black screen in Media Express which you can easily check.
1. The VHS tapes are old and are out of spec and our device is not seeing it properly. Probably not as this normally manifests itself with blinking black frames and not continuous black screen. A TBC will greatly help with this if you are seeing the blinking.
2. The preferences are set incorrectly. In Media Express, Preferences make sure that it is set to NTSC which is the format resolution for VHS. In your Windows Control Panel, find the Blackmagic Preferences and ensure SET INPUT is configured for composite. I believe it defaults to HDMI Video/Audio if you've never adjusted these settings. Processing should be defaulted to OFF.
3. Media Express uses the graphics card to draw the preview overlay. That is why we require a discreet graphics card as part of the minimum system requirements. If you are using onboard graphics or a budget graphics card that does not have the necessary hardware acceleration, your preview window will be black. However, your captured file should still be there.
Those would be the first things to check. Also since it is a USB3.0 device and the system requirements are very strict, I would double check the Device Manager to make sure that the drivers are loaded properly and there are no errors. If you are still having problems, you can give us in tech support a call and we'll be happy to go over any of these settings with you.
Premiere Elements just doesn't offer the plugin structure for us to drop our plugins to work. That's why Premiere Pro is required.