[Chad Brewer]

Hey Chuck, sorry for the delayed response to your inquiry.

I have been talking with the developers and they are very gracious, yet very PAL oriented. Some of them work for Swedish broadcast and understandably they aren’t “that” concerned with our legacy NTSC issues. The new build is not a future project, but one they are working on now and I did express to them that there is a demand for their product on the West coast of the Atlantic.

As far as working through the code, their stance is that if the new build is buggy, we can help fix the open source through testing, because they don’t really have NTSC plant-based equipment to test it like we do. By the way, I hate code and want nothing to do with it – I have my hands full with video engineering.

I’d suggest downloading their free client to see if the interface and capabilities are what you’d look for in a CG. Even if it soon supports NTSC, it is basic. It supports playlist serving of pre-made video/graphics, but honestly our old Abekus A72 has more capabilities than this software. At this point, outside of running pre-made playlists, if we have a dedicated SDI signal off a PC like a Blackmagic card, we can just use an NLE like FCP or Premiere to serve things out in the same manner and have more control, just not completely live, and no I haven’t tested its live switching ability with playlists.

But I take my hat off to them for making something free and open-source and striving to make it better.

Chad Brewer
Senior Broadcast Videotape Operator
TeleVersions, LLC

[Chad Brewer]

Unless you have malfunctioning equipment or a bad RS422 cable or connection, this has to be a simple problem.

Do you have the proper 23.98 sync set on the GEN10 so the deck’s servo will lock? This is assuming the deck is set to HD ref-in as well as the Kona card. Is this an SRW-5500, SRW-5800, SRW-5000?

Is your in-point on your ETT allowing for pre-roll on the tape?

Have you checked that your FCP device control is set to Sony 23.98 (not Panasonic, or any other Sony framerate) RS422 before opening ETT?

Is your AJA control panel set to dual link out for 4:4:4?

Is your Kona RS422 cable connected to the 9-pin I/O on the deck as opposed to the 9-pin I(in) on the deck?

You’re absolutely sure the tape was black/coded properly?

With your RS422 connected to the deck’s 9-pin I/O, if you open log and capture with the deck in remote, can you control the deck?

Chad Brewer
Senior Broadcast Videotape Operator
TeleVersions, LLC

[Chad Brewer]

As you mention TV broadcasting, start by learning about the PAL TV system.

Chad Brewer
Senior Broadcast Videotape Operator
TeleVersions, LLC

[Chad Brewer]

Mark (who turned the thread on to the CasparCG free/open source) and Chuck, et.al.,

I’ve been doing a lot of testing with these very gracious people in Sweden. The current build of CasparCG is specifically designed for PAL. Considering our facility has both PAL and NTSC equipment and monitoring, but our true need is for an NTSC based CG, we’re waiting for the newest build of their software that is supposed to support NTSC. They are supporting multiple flavors of HD as Mark, you were looking for, but currently based on 25fps. They are working on a new build which would support lower field NTSC and 29.97 based HD.

Having got the current version to work with PAL sourced files, it is basic. You need to rely on an NLE or graphics program to create exactly what you’re looking to serve out, not the CG program that seems to only add basic transitions and looping unlike more complex CG/switchers.

But hey, it’s still free and I can be patient for free. If the new build does support serving graphics and pre-rendered video files for our needs with a $300 BMD card and a computer that is just there keeping us company, then it could still serve certain purposes for the price. I’ll post if I find out anything further.

Chad Brewer
Senior Broadcast Videotape Operator
TeleVersions, LLC

[Chad Brewer]

[Joey Burnham] “”warn after capture””

That’s what I was getting at earlier. Then, ignore the warning after capture because the TC is probably fine and the error was created by a transient polling issue which really didn’t affect the TC that was captured. I see this all the time.

Chad Brewer
Senior Broadcast Videotape Operator
TeleVersions, LLC

[Chad Brewer]

Thank you for your reply Hreinn.

I got the CG working on a PC, SDI out of a Decklink card, but ONLY with the test Quicktime that I download from CasparCG’s site.
It won’t serve any of the Quicktimes I’ve made for it – PAL Animation, NTSC Animation, NTSC PNG, etc…

I’ve read mixed reviews that it will and won’t play out NTSC/lower field, but I also can’t get it to play any other PAL Quicktime other than CasparCG’s file. I’m trying to use this strictly for NTSC…

Any guidance would be appreciated.
Thanks.

Chad Brewer
Senior Broadcast Videotape Operator
TeleVersions, LLC

[Chad Brewer]

Eh, FCP says that from time to time when the tape’s timecode is fine.
This is assuming you’ve clip captured with I/O’s.

If you have I/O clip captured the tape and your resulting Quicktime shows continuous TC in accordance with the tape, then I wouldn’t worry about that warning message after capture. You should be fine. My theory (unproven) is that there can be brief hiccups in the bi-directional RS422 signal that makes FCP believe there was a break in the stream.

Again, if your captured file’s TC is fine, I wouldn’t worry.

Chad Brewer
Senior Broadcast Videotape Operator
TeleVersions, LLC

[Chad Brewer]

[Hreinn Beck] “At the moment I’m not sure I can classify it as a simple and user friendly CG”

I’m interested to get it to work. I installed the server and the client and it doesn’t seem like a “drag and drop” in media type of interface. I only see the option of loading crx files (which I don’t even know what those are).

I also downloaded Caspar’s PAL Quicktime test file that they say can be “triggered” in the client, but I can’t find out how to trigger anything in the client. They also said to put files in the _media folder which I don’t see….

Perhaps I need to download another element for it to work or I need to dig further into the application to see how to operate it.

Trying to get it going with a Blackmagic HD card on Windows 7. I’ll keep trying.

Chad Brewer
Senior Broadcast Videotape Operator
TeleVersions, LLC

[Chad Brewer]

[Kathleen Judge] “Primary output will be for DVD but we’d also like to plan for possible broadcast.”

If you anticipate something going to broadcast in the U.S., you could save yourself time and money by shooting and editing at 29.97fps from the start. There are reasons to shoot at 23.98fps and later add pull-down for 29.97 broadcast and DVD, but it’s best to tap into what your final deliverables may be.

Being in pre-production, you’re asking the right questions at the right time, before production and post have to deal with things that will cost your project more time and money than need be.

That being said, provide more information about the cameras, etc. that you plan to use and I’m sure you’ll find further advice here.

Chad Brewer
Senior Broadcast Videotape Operator
TeleVersions, LLC

[Chad Brewer]

I like the looks of that Caspar CG software being compatible with BMD Decklink and Bluefish cards. I’m going to look into that.

We don’t have a need for live switching, but just live keys and static CG. Our Abekas A72 is still alive and well some how, but we’ve found that we can take a Blackmagic HD Decklink that is no longer in use and put it in a PC that is just hanging around and get what we need off that single SDI output. That being said, we have an extensive patch bay and SDI router, so all we need is for the CG to come out on that one SDI and then handle it with routing.

I’m curious to look into how the Caspar CG software could enhance a one PC/one SDI card setup on the cheap like this.

Chad Brewer
Senior Broadcast Videotape Operator
TeleVersions, LLC