Why is firewire crushing my blacks?

[Dean Sensui]

Chris has it correct.

The DSR-20 is recording the signal correctly via Firewire.

The problem is that the analog outputs aren’t applying the proper setup of 7.5 IRE to ensure the correct display on a US NTSC monitor.

And there’s no way to fix that on that particular deck… which is what I also use. So I feel your pain… 🙂

I wonder if there’s some sort of relatively inexpensive module that can attach to the back of the DSR-20 that will provide that setup, or if a technician can make an adjustment to the output circuts to get this to work right?

Dean Sensui — Imagination Media Hawaii

[Glenn Chan]

1- I think you can easily get confused about setup because the terminology is imprecise / the context is not always clear.

When people say “DV has no setup”, they are referring to DIGITAL levels.
When people say “NTSC (except for Japan) has 7.5 IRE setup”, they are referring to ANALOG levels.

It’s less confusing if you specify whether you’re talking about:
A- Digital levels.
B- Analog levels.
C- Digital <--> analog conversion.

Problems typically occur due to C, although you can have problems with A or (more rare) B.

The following article I wrote hopefully clears things up:
https://glennchan.info/articles/technical/setup/75IREsetup.html

2- This is second-hand information, but the Canopus ADVC-1xx series should handle digital<-->analog conversions correctly and is switchable between 7.5 and 0 IRE setup.

[Vince Sanchez]

I have a JVC BR DV600 deck and it has set up as an analog output option and I also have one of the canopus DV converters and it has a dip switch that lets you add setup.