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Condition RED
Greetings herd!
Has anyone had an issue editing to tape (digibeta BVW-A500) and suddenly they audio being laid back sounds like crap? When the audio goes bad while recording, it’s audible (sounds like it goes from 48khz to 16khz) and the ‘channel condition’ on the deck goes from green to red. Oddly enough, when checking the tape after layback, the channel condition becomes green again and the video is superb. The audio is crap though.
I don’t believe this is a deck issue – it seems to happen on longer sequences only. Under 5 minutes and it’s great.
Here’s what’s really weird. I just had to lay video over a tape that was already mixed. To accomplish this task I shut off audio layback and did video layback only. While the VIDEO ONLY was laying back, the channel condition jumped to RED halfway through and the audio coming from tape playback went bad – even though I wasn’t touching the audio channels. Once the sequence was finished laying back, I check the entire thing and the audio was fine again and the finished tape’s channel condition was green.
I believe this is an issue with the system, or perhaps a quirk in FCP.
For reference, I’m using DVW-A500 SDI input, Mac 2.7 G5, FCP 5 Studio, Kona 2, 1.6 TB Sata Array (I/O speed is around 170), a blackburst generator, and working fully with 10Bit material. Everything is digital.
Thanks for any advice guys!
j -
11 Replies
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I think I fixed the problem. I had to change the “Ref Video” switch to “Input Video” rather thant REF on the deck.
Does that make sense to anybody? Wouldn’t it be great if all problems could be solved with the flip of a switch?
j
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[JNeo25] “Wouldn’t it be great if all problems could be solved with the flip of a switch?”
Indeed. And not just editing problems.
– Don
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That makes perfect sense !! We had the exact same issue with a digi recorder.. and decklink. Strange thing, actually. The problems seems not to affect all players.
Anders
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Wow…I thought I was the only one who has experienced the enigmatic “channel condition” problem!
We had the same problem with our A500 (channel condition light & tinny, distorted audio on output to tape), although in our case, the only thing that fixed the problem was to simply physically restart the Blackmagic Workgroup Videohub (an SDI router) which was feeding the deck. Restarting our burst generator didn’t do diddley-squat though…go figure.
It seems to be a completely random problem. I haven’t seen it occur for months now, and the only thing that has changed with our facility’s FCP configuration is software/driver related.
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JNeo25-
We had something similar. In our situation it was a reference issue. Our quick fix was to do a hard record (not assemble edit) with the Digibeta.
Hope this helps.
Jerry -
Ya know, I didn’t bring it up initially because I think I was afraid people would say “hey, your 30k digibeta deck is broken!”. It’s good to know I wasn’t alone in this.
The input ref switch did the trick. Last layback was flawless. Thanks guys!
j -
Could this support article on http://www.sonybiz.net be relevent here? Sound familiar if not TOTALLY related to all the problems mentioned above….
RECORDING OR EDITING AUDIO SIGNAL WITHOUT VIDEO SIGNAL RESULTS IN FAULTY OPERATION
Unit may not operate properly when recording or editing an audio signal without a video signal. As a result,the following symptoms may occur frequently, rarely, or not at all, depending on the operating environment.
– Channel condition shows red while recording or playing back
– Incorrect audio or video signal is output during playbackPrecise processing requires an input video signal as a reference. Recording or editing audio signals without a video signal causes audio and other blocks to begin signal processing at different times. The resulting timing differences may eventually cause faulty operation.
NOTES ON OPERATION Observe the following when recording or editing anaudio signal.
– Input a video signal simultaneously. If no video signal is available, use a test signal from the internal SG.
– Video signal must be in sync with audio signalsource if used for recording AES/EBU audio signals.
– Test signal from internal SG is in sync with incoming video signal. If an unstable video signal is input to unit, recording will not be performed correctly.A typical video signal source (such as from a playback VTR) will be unstable if:
– Power is turned on/off
– A mode is changed from playback to EE
– Tape is loaded and unloadedBroadcast Products
Applies to
DNW-75, DNW-75P, DNW-A100, DNW-A100P, DNW-A220, DNW-A220P, DNW-A25, DNW-A25P, DNW-A28, DNW-A28P, DNW-A45, DNW-A45P, DNW-A50, DNW-A50P, DNW-A75, DNW-A75P, DVW-500, DVW-500/1, DVW-500P, DVW-500P/1, DVW-A500, DVW-A500/1, DVW-A500P, DVW-A500P/1Editec Broadcast Editing Ltd
EVS and FCP specialists
Current Mac systems All Dual 2.7Ghz with Kona 2 and Digital Voodoo cards, 6Gb Ram, Sapphire, SCSI320 Medea and Huge Arrays.
FCP projects include Sky TV coverage of the Ryder Cup and US Open Golf – Live OB specialists. -
Of course, the OTHER way to fix this is to make sure that the reference input to FCP is the same as your deck. We find that occasionally the ‘Ref In’ selector on our Kona 2s will mysteriously change to something other than ‘Ref In’. Putting the setting back where it belongs solves the problem.
tjs
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This might help you:
https://www.aja.com/pdfs/how_to_ref.pdf
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G5 Dual 2Ghz <> 4GB RAM <> FCP 5.02 <> Kona 2
ATTO 42XS <> Huge Systems 4105 Fibre -
Hi Cows,
I know I’m resurrecting an old thread here, but I’m having Digibeta problems that seem to be related to the issues described above. I’m attempting to layback 2 channels of audio via AES onto an A500, from Final Cut Pro using an AJA Pro IO. The Aja and the digibeta deck are both getting reference from a horita black bust generator. The black goes to the Aja’s ref input, then out the loop to the ref input on the deck. The 75 ohm switch by the ref input is set to on. The REF light on the AJA is solid. The Digibeta deck seems to be getting ref too (at least the STOP button isn’t blinking). During layback everything seems OK, audio sounds good and is in synch. However on playback of the tape there are intermittent glitches in the audio, accompanied by “condition red” warnings.
I have tried changing the ref input on the deck from Ref to Input Video and got the same result.
I have done many many laybacks on this setup, and it always works flawlessly. Now all of a sudden I got problems.
If somebody can help I will be forever grateful.
Best,
Matt
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