problem getting stable video out of VideoHub

[Steven Schoonover]

Eric I am having the same problem. I was sending a DVW A500 signal through a new videohub and received a similar signal to the one that you describe. I took the videohub out of the path and everything works. So I patched the signal to different inputs of the videohub and seems to work. The problem is not consistent and BMD insist that it is my deck. So I connected my ultrascope to the deck and I get the problem which I never had a problem with the deck’s signal through the ultrascope before.
If I run a cable from the deck to any of the three FCP suites everything looks great. My sony deck seems to hate Blackmagic and I am stuck

[Marc Wauters]

We have the same stability problem with three Sony DigiBeta DVW decks (2 players and 1 recorder). When we route their SDI output through the VideoHub, the resulting signal is totally unstable and unusable, even when simply routing them to a monitor. When we by-pass the VideoHub, the deck output is fine. Previously, the decks were connected to a Leitch SDI router for 5 years, without any problems.

We also have Sony HD decks connected to the VideoHub, and they seem “compatible”, the resulting signal is stable.

Since we are apparently not alone, I would think the VideoHub has a problem with Digital Betacam decks.
BM support says that it can’t be the VideoHub, because it is in use across the globe, and my machines must be off-spec. All three of them???

[Eric Hansen]

it seemed like input 16 was giving me the problems. when i switched the decks to 14 and 15, things got better. i also moved the router power from the UPS with our RAIDs attached, to the UPS with the server attached. so this combo seems to have ended the issue.

i say “seems” because we’ve actually captured very few tapes since the problem started. we mainly shoot cameras with flash drives, and we haven’t had to deliver a single tape yet. all of our deliverables have been ProResHQ on hard drives or SD MPEG-2 via FTP to DG Fastchannel.

in a few weeks we’re going to capture about 20 hours of SR, so i’ll know pretty quickly if this issue has returned. we also should have an Ultrascope setup arriving around then

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Eric Hansen – http://www.erichansen.tv

[Ron Shaw]

Hi I’m new here but have been in the video production business since 1984, having started with production formats like Beta I (That’s Betamax kids, not Betacam), then 3/4 U-Matic, 3/4 SP, Betacam, Betacam SP, Digital Betacam (still in use), Betacam SX, IMX, and now XDCam and XDCam HD 4:2:2

OK I won’t bore you any more. I just thought I would comment on a new BM Videohub that we got recently. We are trying it in live production, where seamless “glitchfree” switching is desirable. We have noticed the same issues mentioned in this thread and have sent it back to our dealer for evaluation. It has just been returned after being tested without issue, so we are going to try it again.

We had two situations where noise was visible in the video picture when the Videohub was in the signal path and immediately went away when the unit was bypassed. These were both temporary set-ups for field multi-camera productions.

One was with SD-SDI signals from/to gear like a Sony DVS-2000 switcher, CCU-550D camera control, DVW Digital Betacam decks, BVM/PVM SDI monitors etc. Noise was visible on a Tektronics SDI scope (although I confess that I’m not an expert when it comes to signal evaluation) In this set-up we were also using a legacy Miranda (Nvision) 16×16 SDI router for many of the same sources/destinations, all without issue.

The other was with HD-SDI signals from/to the new Sony BRS-200 switcher, PDW-HD1500 XDcam decks, LMD monitors.

In both cases, we were feeding the Videohub analog blackburst reference and in both cases we ended up pulling the Videohub and manually patching to complete the jobs.

I’ll post if we ever figure this out… take care all.

[Steven Schoonover]

Is you reference signal only NTSC? Black magic mentioned that for HD, your reference had to match resolution and frame rate. Since my last post, I did more testing of the video hub with my DVM A500. Of course BM tested the video hub with their DVM and sent the unit back with “no problems.” I sent signals from a friend’s DVM A500 and the same issues occurred. Looking at the signal through a HDSDI scope (not ultrascope), I did notice some noise in the signal path but not the same as through the video hub. Sony did make at least two different SDI output cards for the DVM, so the conclusion that I made is that the problem is in the SDI output of my deck. Since this issue is only on the output of the DVM, I manually patch that cable.

As for the problem of one input or output not working on the video hub. This issue seems to be random and temporary at least in my case. Just try a new port on the video hub.

The Black Magic Video Hub is a convenient headache.