[Bob Zelin]

Walter –
what are you using for VTR control – are you using Firewire, or are you using the
Addenda RS-4/L, which has a protocol listed in FCP ?

Bob Zelin

[Bob Zelin]

Mike write –
Do you do work for Motion Picture Studio?

NO – I work for the crap of the crap – infomercial companies, corporate-industrial, training, low end commercials, and Disney/Universal markerting, and some low budget shows on cable. No features, no hi end shows. There will never be a D5 or SR5500 in my market. When I was in NY, it was all commercials (and some did use D5 before 1999) but it was mostly Digi Beta back then – HARDLY ANYONE, with the exception of the highest end jobs, used D1 (McDonnalds and Coke Commericials, from film transfer mainly) – and I was almost never involved with those jobs. I fully understand the implication of 23.98, and it’s use for feature work, and longevity (who knows, internet delivery in the future may be 24 progressive), but for 95% of the market – including in LA – most of the stuff winds up on tape for TV release, or direct to DVD, etc.

If you are fortunate to be working with hi end clients that will deliver to network television, and potential feature release – that is great, and I am envious. But that is a tiny segement of the market, just like current 4:4:4 and 2k demands – it’s fantastic, but only a tiny segment of the market wants it. DAMN – VIACOM won’t even accept an HD master in 2006.

bob Zelin

[Bob Zelin]

I have many suggestions –
1) try a different monitor
2) rent a waveform monitor to observe the level coming out of the Blackmagic card.
3) rent a professional monitor (that has 75 ohm termination

It is very very unlikely that the Blackmagic card has a problem – but you never know. That is what test equipment is for.

Bob Zelin

[Bob Zelin]

The following product absolutely works from http://www.addenda.com

https://www.addenda-elect.com/rs4u.htm

It’s the Addenda RS4U, and it specifically designed for this application, for this VTR.
It’s $148.

Bob Zelin

[Bob Zelin]

Why – because most products can’t handle a 23.98 frame rate – for example, if you have to make a VHS, a DVD, a Digi Beta , a regular beta, display on a standard TV monitor – you can’t do this at 23.98. So if you are dealing with a project that will NEVER be in a theater – and only be on television, or in a board rooom, or conference center – I see no reason to go thru the aggrivation of working at 23.98, when you can work at 59.94 (29.97), and be able to output to anything all the time.

ALSO – if you do work at 23.98, and want to lay back to a VTR at 23.98 (like a HDW-M2000/10), you need an expensive tri level sync generator.

So why – because it’s a pain in the ass to work at 23.98.

Bob Zelin

[Bob Zelin]

this is JUST A GUESS – so don’t kill me if I am wrong. You obviously have machine control, because it is attempting to cue the tape, and read the time code – except that it is getting lost.

this is my guess – you have a BAD TAPE. You are in the heat of your project, and you have to use this tape (or this batch of tapes from this camera) – and they are not working !. I urge you to grab another tape from an entirely different project, and try to capture from it and see what happens. Normally, when the AJA has issues, it give you NO VTR CONTROL – it says “no communications”, and you can’t control the deck. That usually winds up being a bad cable, corrupt preferences, AJA drivers that have to be reloaded, or rarely, a defective RS422 port on the I/O box. But you have control – it’s just getting lost during capture.
I bet you have bad tapes. TRY ANOTHER TAPE – from ANOTHER SHOW – not this show.

bob Zelin

[Bob Zelin]

Hi Mike –
Of course, you are correct. Let’s face it, even in the standard def world, even Digi Beta was never “uncompressed” – but it was “considered” uncompressed by those that count (the non technical ad agencies, and TV QC departments that we had to deliver to).

With that in mind, there are THREE standards of HD delivery today – DVCPro HD, which relates to Panasonic VTR’s, uncompressed 8 and 10 bit – which relates to Sony HDCam VTR’s and D5 VTRs, and 4:4:4 which relates to the Sony SR5500 line. Most customers will not accept an HDCam master from (typically) a HDW-F500 that was done at DVCProHD compression. So we use 8 or 10 bit uncompressed (whatever we can get away with) – and so the “buzzword” “uncompressed” gets related to Sony HDCam VTR’s.

I got used to this in “the old days” with D1 VTR’s and Digi Beta VTR’s, and watched the evolution of how (miraculously) Digi Beta DVW-A500 VTR’s became “uncompressed Video”. I bet you 95% our our industry still thinks that Digi Beta SD delivery is true uncompressed video.

With all this said, the true industry standard – the AVID – is only doing DNxHD220 compression – even with Sony VTRs – like the HDW-F500, and SR5500 – so what the hell does all of this mean anyway.

Bob Zelin

[Bob Zelin]

Maybe I didn’t read everything careful enough here – but is this a film project that will conform back to film for theatrical release, or is this a TV project for broadcast Television – because if it IS for television, and will never see a theater for theatrical release – why would ANYONE care if this project is at 59.94 or 29.97 ?

Bob Zelin

[Bob Zelin]

Mike –
this is exactly the kind of post that makes me go crazy, and gives me my insane reputation. You are obviously not a student that is working at home on a shoe string budget, with no money. You are using the MOST EXPENSIVE VTR, the shoot requirements (D5 uncompressed) are the MOST DEMANDING AND EXPENSIVE requirements in the industry – higher than people like Walter and me see on a regular basis. You have a VERY EXPENSIVE and wonderful disk drive array – a 4TB Huge array, which can easily handle uncompressed HD, and you have the excellent Kona 3 on the latest, top of the line MAC computer.

Your “system integrator” or dealer are idiots, and should be shot (or at least exposed).
I assume that you are in LA, since you are using D5, and a reputable dealer like The DR Group would NEVER leave their customer in the lurch, like this dealer did to you.
YES, you need a color black generator, but more important, you need A HUMAN BEING that can ASSIST YOU in the setup of this system. I fully understand that you are not in front of your system, and it is difficult to do this from memory, but this sounds like a BIG BUDGET JOB, and it sounds like your company has PLENTY OF MONEY to buy the best of everything – SO PAY FOR SOME HELP from SOMEONE QUALIFIED.

The AJA Kona 3 has an optional break out box called the K3-Box. The K3 box connects to the AJA Kona 3 with a big multipin connector, to give you easy access to the HD inputs and outputs of the Kona 3, in addition to the EXTERNAL GENLOCK REFERENCE INPUT. The Reference INPUT is where you plug your black generator into – you plug the SAME black generator into the D5 VTR. Once you are on REF VID or EXT REF (not free run), the two will be locked together to the SAME sync generator. If you are on a feature, and using a rental company that supplied the D5 VTR, they can certainly rent you a hi quality NTSC color black generator to do this job.

Bob Zelin

[Bob Zelin]

If you read the 2 page piece of paper that came with your Sonnet E4P card for your MAC Quad computer (or MAC Pro) – you will see that you MUST install the Sonnet E4P in slot 2 or 4 of the MAC, but NOT slot 3.

Bob Zelin