Do I need a blackburst generator

[Jeremy Garchow]

Analog beta decks love black burst like kids love candy.

[Alexander Serpico]

LOL

[Bob Zelin]

Gee – the Sony Beta VTR has a Ref Video input for black. The AJA Kona has a Reference input for black. Every piece of professional video gear, since the beginning of video has had genlock inputs. So, do you REALLY need a black generator to lock this stuff together, or is this just one big joke among all the manufacturers, just to waste your time and money ? You tell me ?

bob Zelin

[Carsten Orlt]

the one thing you do NOT need is some smart looking answer which is incorrect.

I for instance run FCP with different video boards and BetaSP and DigiBeta without any BB generator for years. I know its impossible, but hey….

The only real situation you need a BB is when you connect more then 2 pieces of video equipment (e.g. old edit suit with vision mixer and 3+ VTR and bla bla). You can for instance feed the ref out of a PVW2800 into the ref in of the Kona or whatever board you have and this way sync the Kona to the recorder. So it all depends on your hardware.

[Jeremy Garchow]

[cofe] “the one thing you do NOT need is some smart looking answer which is incorrect.”

….but if they had a BB generator, they wouldn’t have this problem.

Yes you can run without it, but it makes every thing easier once it’s there.

With the low cost of the Gen10, it’s really a no brainer.

[Bob Zelin]

Mr. Cofe writes –

I for instance run FCP with different video boards and BetaSP and DigiBeta without any BB generator for years.
The only real situation you need a BB is when you connect more then 2 pieces of video equipment (e.g. old edit suit with vision mixer and 3+ VTR and bla bla). You can for instance feed the ref out of a PVW2800 into the ref in of the Kona or whatever board you have and this way sync the Kona to the recorder. So it all depends on your hardware

REPLY – so that blinking blue stop light on your PVW2800, that has been flashing away, even though your Sony manual says “the flashing stop lamp indicates no reference found” – has not bothered you all this time ? The Ref out of a PVW2800 (is there a ref out of a PVW2800) would not put out a stable reference with burst unless the VTR was in PLAY mode. You can use Grandma’s TV set to see your video out of your Kona, and Grandpa’s Magnavox speakers to hear your audio – is this the correct thing to do as a professional, or is this a smart ass answer ? Perhaps you believe in using the internal speaker of your MAC to hear your broadcast audio. The Federal Avation Administration Safety training facility in Lakeland, FL. masters to VHS for their production shoots – is this a workflow that you endorce ?

BUY A BLACK GENERATOR.

Bob Zelin

[Richard Sutcliffe]

Thanks for the responses. Bob, I appreciate you taking the time to respond. I can assume therefore, that the set up I had was correct and that the blackburst generator was needed. You also specifically used the word analog, is the BBG needed for mastering to digi-beta also?

If these sound like stupid questions, then feel free to talk to me like I am an idiot. Given the recent thread about editors needing to know everything I’m not embarassed to ask. I need to rent gear in for mastering and so I would rather know what I need than rent it and find it wont work.

Thanks in advance

[Carsten Orlt]

I think you should seriously consider an anger management session.

and while your at it, take a course in video too 🙂

[Carsten Orlt]

[JeremyG] “Yes you can run without it, but it makes every thing easier once it’s there.

With the low cost of the Gen10, it’s really a no brainer.”

Point taken and I agree 🙂

[Richard Sutcliffe]

And to keep things on topic and not descend into open warfare, how is it that others can get the beta to work with the kona in the absence of a BBG and I couldn’t. Is it a setting on the beta deck or on my system?

Thanks.

Richard