Solved RS-422 problem with decklink studio card

[Bob Zelin]

I cannot believe that this worked. Every Sony VTR uses a “straight through” cable – pin 1 to pin 1, pin 2 to pin 2, etc, etc. This is every RS422 cable for every professional VTR since the linear video days.

the DVW-A500 Remote 1 IN port is a standard RS422 port. Cross wiring the pins does not make it work. I don’t know exactly what is going on at your place, but I cannot believe that you are going into the RS422 Remote 1 IN port on your VTR. A straight thru cable should absolutely work.

bob Zelin

[Remco Wiekard]

I don’t understand why it works, but it does. The only thing I do know is that when I used a straight sony rs-422 cable, the studio card did not see a machine. Crosswiring solved that problem. Blackmagic gave me that solution and it solved the problem

MacPro dual Quad 2,8 GHz – 16 GB RAM – Decklink Studio – FCP 6.05 – OSX 10.5.6 – G5 dual 2,0 GHz – 4 GB RAM – Decklink Extreme – FCP 6.05 – OSX 10.5.6

[Jay Cordova]

Well, darned if I don’t have exactly the same problem. Just got a Decklink Studio, can connect to everything else EXCEPT the DVW-A500.

I hesitate to cross over the wiring for sure but am at my wits end. Gotta be something with the protocol in the Studio card, because the former Decklink card that just came out worked fine controlling all machines.

I haven’t contacted Decklink support. I can’t believe this crossover worked either, and the Blackmagic folks suggested this solution to deal with the A500? Hmmmmm.

Anyone else with the same problem – Decklink Studio won’t work with DVW-A500?

J. Cordova
Springboard Creative/Atlanta

[Remco Wiekard]

here is the original mail i got from B;ackmagic design.

“We believe that this may be a grounding issue, similar to your
customer who tried to ground pins together. The current solution is
we have a small RS422 pin map cable, which so far has shown to solve
the problem in our testing. This will need to be attached to the back
of the Decklink card, and then the RS422 cable run as normal.
This problem will now be examined further in hardware/firmware and an
appropriate solution found.”

Pin out of the pin map cable is:

Cross pin 8 (Receive A) and pin 2 (Transmit A).

8 > 2
2 > 8

MacPro dual Quad 2,8 GHz – 16 GB RAM – Decklink Studio – FCP 6.05 – OSX 10.5.6 – G5 dual 2,0 GHz – 4 GB RAM – Decklink Extreme – FCP 6.05 – OSX 10.5.6

[Jay Cordova]

Thanks. So you have this crossover engaged, and are you still able to control other machines, or are you strictly hooked up RS-422 to the A-500?

J. Cordova
Springboard Creative/Atlanta

[Remco Wiekard]

I’m still able to control any other machine (suchs as xd cam 1500, betacam J3, several DV decks). I am connected to a rs-422 switch in the machine-room.
This is just a temporary solution. I think that Blackmagic will speed up the proces of making a new driver to solve this problem. But in the mean time, I can connect to a DVW-A500

MacPro dual Quad 2,8 GHz – 16 GB RAM – Decklink Studio – FCP 6.05 – OSX 10.5.6 – G5 dual 2,0 GHz – 4 GB RAM – Decklink Extreme – FCP 6.05 – OSX 10.5.6

[Jay Cordova]

Well, go figure. Switching pins 2 and 8 does indeed work. Thanks a ton.

I didn’t mention that not only could I not control the digibeta A500, but I had no machine control with the Panasonic HD-1200A either.

With the pinouts switched, I have control over all of the machines now (BetaSP 1800, Digi M2000, Digi A500 & Panasonic HD-1200).

I do not understand, and I’m an engineer type. At this point, though, I don’t need to. It works.

Thanks again.

So those of you with the same problem (or similar with other decks not mentioned here) might consider this “solution”, even though your engineering brain says “no”.

J. Cordova
Springboard Creative/Atlanta

[Michiel Van haren]

I’ve got exactly the same problem here. No RS422 control with our DVW 500P digibeta deck.
Hopefully BM will fix this in an update soon!

[Martin Eberle]

Well, the 7.1 upgrade didn’t solve the problem. That is really annoying, I am not really experienced with the cutting of cables. Shouldn´t Blackmagic supply it´s customers with a free cable to get everything working?

[Martin Eberle]

Just got a call from Die Agenten from Munich: Blackmagic will provide a cable but a software upgrade is ahead to fix the problem. Strange, didn´t Balckmagic test the remote or was it that they just didn´t care?