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Activity Forums AJA Video Systems Edit to tape just plane funky

  • Edit to tape just plane funky

    Posted by Dave Gorrie on June 16, 2009 at 3:50 pm

    Hi All –
    I figured I would check here to see if anyone has the same issues as I do! Here are my system specs:
    MacPro – dual 2.8 quad, 10GB Ram
    OSX 10.5.6
    FCP Studio 2(ver 6.0.5 foar FCP)
    Kona3 running 6.0.3 Software
    Everything running SDI via patchbay to/from decks to suite

    So my issue is when I open the edit to tape window, it will begin to show a blinking screen that blinks from black, to the open sequence, to green, and then just really starts going crazy, until I drop the sequence into the edit to tape window and lock up the output. It usually doesn’t hinder the output process, but it is definitely sending out a strange signal to our decks or legalizer until the edit is locked in. Our decks always (SRW-5500, or any of the SD decks) reads asynchronous input and freaks out every second or so – and when plugged into our legalizer (Harris DL860), it says unrecognized format. Again, it does this always, no matter what format, up until you drop the sequence into the edit to tape window. This even happened with our LHe, so I’m not sure if it’s a kona thing, or FCP thing.

    So, it doesn’t really effect the output, but it can freeze up our legalizer every now and then because of the switching between signals so quickly (it seems it’s switching between a bunch of different signals/formats or something). I’ve posted a pic of it “in action” – I just don’t know if this is a common thing or not!

    Thanks for anyone that can offer any help!

    Ramona Howard replied 15 years, 7 months ago 5 Members · 9 Replies
  • 9 Replies
  • Jeremy Garchow

    June 16, 2009 at 8:42 pm

    What’s your incoming video during this process?

    If your incoming video is a stable black source you should be okay as the Kona references incoming video when going in to Edit to Tape mode before the ETT process starts. Once the process starts, it will reference your external reference if you have it.

    Jeremy

  • Dave Gorrie

    June 16, 2009 at 9:44 pm

    We generally don’t have any video going in to the system on output – but I’ll give that a whirl. I never really thought of that, but it kind of makes sense. I think it might be a bit odd to patch some video in to the system on an output!! We do have a house ref signal going in (SD 29.97) – but I’m assuming you mean and actual video signal, right?

  • Jeremy Garchow

    June 16, 2009 at 10:13 pm

    You have to understand how the Kona works. WHen you go to Edit to tape, it basically opens up the Kona to an incoming video signal being from a deck or perhaps FCP/QT. FCP/QT isn’t sending any video when it’s idle and if there’s no incoming signal then the Kona is simply searching for incoming video where there isn’t any video to be found. The Kona references incoming video when it’s in capture (same thing as ETT by the way), so if it’s looking for incoming video when you open Edit to tape and there is none, it freaks out. it also won’t reference external sync on capture as it references incoming video. The reason it does this is so you can automatically playback a tape from the ETT window after the layoff, this is essentially a capture. So think of it not as an output, but rather the Kona is a gateway to playing back or capturing some format of video and that gateway has multiple roads running to it. Send it stable video and it will be stable from an incoming source. Once you start the ETT process it truly becomes an output, the source of stable video is FCP/QT and also, the reference kicks in if you need it to time to external devices. If you can keep the Kona control panel open and visible to you while opening the ETT in FCP, you will see what I mean. As soon as you hit ETT, the ref changes to incoming video. Once you start the ETT, the ref changes back to Ref In.

    Make sense?

    Jeremy

  • Dave Gorrie

    June 17, 2009 at 3:41 pm

    Aha! That does make sense. This is my first real consistent use with a FCP/Kona setup, so I figured these little things would come up like this as we went along! Thanks for the explanation, I figured someone in the Kona threads would definitely know what the deal was – the FCP forum seems to be inundated with “how do I add a dissolve” type questions…not engineer/real tech questions!

    Thanks again.
    -Dave

  • Jordan Woods

    June 18, 2009 at 6:16 am

    with my old patch bay, breaking the “normal” was my best friend for ETT.

    -jw

  • Brad Hodgson

    June 29, 2009 at 9:55 pm

    Hey Jeremy,

    Sorry to jump in here, but I’m having a similar issue… this makes sense as there was no input video signal when I was trying to layback 1080i to an HDCAM deck today with green noise and nasty artifacts from FCP. Sorry for a bit of a newbie question here, but when you say there needs to be an incoming video signal to reference from, does that mean I need to send the HD out from the deck back into my Kona SDI input to get the 1080 video signal input?

    Again, sorry if this is a naive question, but you’ve (and many others) have helped me through things in the past, so I really appreciate it.

    Brad Hodgson

  • Ramona Howard

    June 30, 2009 at 2:43 pm

    Brad,

    Your not sending the HD video signal from the deck, your sending reference. If you don’t have a $400 Tri-sync generator from AJA, then pull the sync from the deck. ugh……this is basic video stuff (sorry a little of Bob was coming out in me).

    In the video world devices need sync (they need to run together), if they are not you get all kind of nasty things.

    Cheers,
    Ramona

    Play hard today, it may be raining tomorrow!

  • Brad Hodgson

    June 30, 2009 at 3:01 pm

    Hi Ramona,

    Thanks for the answer… yea, I know… sorry for the dumb question. I’m a motion graphics guy who is doing much more editing and delivery now, so I’m still learning things about the broadcast world, etc. Tons of help from this forum, so thanks again!

    Brad

    Brad Hodgson

  • Ramona Howard

    June 30, 2009 at 3:31 pm

    No worries 🙂

    You want to learn video quick? If you got a friend in a post house, go hang out for the day in the machine room (if they will let you in), if you already have some basic knowledge this will be uplifting.

    People think they don’t need all that and can do everything on a single computer…..in a one man world yes, but when you need to share, post houses (at least the ones I have know over the years) do this very well.

    I am talking about sharing resources. Decks, sync, monitoring, data, etc…but better yet the tape jockey knows he can’t drive an HD deck with SD sync. Again understanding the basics will only help you in what you do. It is all relative these days.

    Have a good one.

    Ramona

    Play hard today, it may be raining tomorrow!

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