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AJA + HDW-1800 Channel Condition RED
Hey guys, I just wanted to put this out there and see if anyone knows how to cure this issue, or if I’m mis-diagnosing:
– I’m using FCP 7 on a Mac Pro with a Kona LHi card.
– I have an HD-SDI going out to the HD Vtr’s input, and I have the RSS-422 from the breakout cable attached.
– I have a burst generator going to the Ref In on the VTR and the Ref In from the breakout cable for the Kona card.
– in my Kona settings, Genlock is set to REF IN.
– on the deck, REF IN is set to REFFrom what I understand, that should work fine for an edit to tape – but every time I do it, I get crazy digi-distortion all over my output frames and channel condition red. I have also tried removing the blackburst generator from the setup, and setting the Kona Genlock to Free-Run, and then setting the REF IN to INPUT on the deck. Same thing happens.
So… does anyone think the deck is toast, or is there something that I’m doing horribly wrong here? This deck is a rental – we’ve rented the same one before and as far as I can remember, using the same setup, it worked absolutely fine.
Any thoughts, suggestions, and criticisms are welcome.
-Steve
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4 Replies
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You get your distortion and error condition lights because you are not genlocked. The HDW-1800 and all Sony HD VTR’s can be switched between HD refernce, and SD reference, and they can be switched to reference from Input Video or External Reference. If the Sony VTR is not setup correctly, this is exactly what will happen. Is this a pain in the ass – YOU BET IT IS. I just dealt with this exact issue today with a Sony SRW-5800.
You did not say what type of black generator you have. Is it an AJA GEN10 that puts out tri level sync ? You need to set your HD VTR to Servo Ref – AUTO, put tri level sync into the Ref Video IN of the VTR, set the VTR for HD REF (you only use SD ref if you sent it NTSC black). THEN, you put tri level sync into your AJA LHi, go to the Control Panel/Control Tab, and put it on EXT REF, not input video or free run. ONLY THEN WILL YOUR SYSTEM WORK.
Is all of this an incredible pain in the butt – YOU BET IT IS. Welcome to professional video.
Bob Zelin
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oh yea, are you working at 1080i 59.94, or 1080i 23.98, because if you are working with 23.98, you MUST MUST MUST use tri level sync (and not NTSC black) and you MUST have your VTR setup for 23.98, and not 59.94.
Bob Zelin
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Thanks for the advice, Bob. You’re right about it being a pain in the pooper.
The black generator I’m using is a bit of a relic, and it puts out a 720×486 29.97 black signal, as far as I can tell.
I dug into the operation menu in the VTR, and while I didn’t find an option that lets you sync to an SD source, I found the option where you can set the Ref In to Automatic, which I did.. although that didn’t work alone. I will try to set the VTR to accept an SD In reference signal tomorrow morning and see how that goes. I had a feeling there was some setting in the machine that did that.. but I didn’t have the patience to find it myself :/
I am definitely working in 59.94.
And now, the stupid question – if I’m recording HD to the deck, does the reference signal NEED to also be HD, or can an SD reference be used to sync two HD devices?
Thanks again for the reply, Bob.
S.
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the reference signal for Sony VTRs at 59.94 can be NTSC black, but your Sony VTR absolutely can be set to receive HD Sync (tri level) or SD sync (NTSC black).
Now, you did not say what your black generator is. You can’t use the ESE black generators – they are just useless (AVID forbids them on any system). Horita BSG-50 (not BG-50) will work, but you MUST MUST MUST TERMINATE the looping BNC with a 75 ohm terminator, or you won’t get any black signal into your system. The sony VTR has a switch, AJA Kona K3 boxes for example do not, and you MUST use a BNC terminator.
Bob Zelin
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