[Tom Matthies]

Reading you post, it looks like you have the Grass 100 switcher and you are trying to feed it with the output from your camera and also the output from a DVD player. You are having difficulties getting the two sources timed so that you can do transitions between them on your switcher. Do I have it right so far?

I would take the spare black burst from the switcher chassis and run that to the sync input on your camera. Use the menu controls to time it into the switcher. Are you familiar with how ti time input sources to the switcher?

For the DVD player, the way you have it hooked up, the DVD player is essentially acting as your sync generator. Although it could work, it’s not the best arrangement and also requires an optional external reference input card for the GVG 100 switcher in order for the switcher to “genlock” to an external reference. Does your switcher have this option? It’s been a while since I worked with a GVG 100 switcher. I think it was called the sync regenerator option or something to that effect. It will allow the switcher to lock to an external reference source.

Probably the best way would be to get a frame synchronizer for your DVD player and lock the frame sync to the switcher reference the same as the camera. Frame syncs are fairly cheap these days and are readily available used on ebay. They can be pretty cheap since there are a lot of them being retired as facilities change over to digital or high definition.

A master sync generator or a good black burst reference generator would also be helpful and make the entire setup much more stable and easier to time. With this, you can send each device it’s own reference signal and all of the parts of the system will be locked from the same reference signal.

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[Tom Matthies]

If you have a spare black output from the GV-100, run it to the Genlock input on the JVC camera. There should be timing adjustments (H-phase and SCh phase) in the camera menu that will allow you to adjust the camera so the video looks correct going through the switcher. Most Grass Valley 100 switchers have a blanking processor circuit that will smooth out the differences in timing. Not sure if there are any different issues for a switcher over in PAL-land.

Another not as correct but workable way to do it is to loop the video from the camera through the switcher input and then back out and into the REF input on the back of the switcher. Depending on the options on your switcher, there should be controls on the edge of one of the switcher cards (there should be three of them) for adjusting the timing of the switcher to the camera. A waveform monitor and a vector scope will make this much easier to do. If you have the switcher manual, look up the maintenance modes in the book. These will help in timing the signals through the switcher as well. You usually flip a toggle switch in the card edge and then push a reset button to get into the maintenance mode. The manual will have the rest.

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[Tom Matthies]

No problem. Happy to help.

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[Tom Matthies]

I keep an up to date clone of my system drive on a shelf just waiting for the day that Apple breaks FCP.

Cheap insurance…

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[Tom Matthies]

Old school?! Hey,I’m old. What did you expect? 🙂

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[Tom Matthies]

Take your PhotoShop file (while in PhotoShop) and add a blank layer to the bottom. Select that blank layer. Now, merge the visible layers together and discard any unseen layers. Save as a .png file. Import to FCP. It will come in as a single layer graphic with all of the shadows and effects intact.

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[Tom Matthies]

Also, taking a quick look at the user manual, there appears to be both an optional board for both digital video and for digital audio. Do you have both boards installed?

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[Tom Matthies]

I downloaded the manual for the 650. Quite a different deck than the 750.

If you are using embedded audio, make sure that Item 720 in the menu settings is set to “On” to recognize the audio embedded in the SDI signal. If you are using AES audio, try turning the setting “Off” if it is enabled. The deck had a switch on the front panel that selects between the two kinds of digital audio and the menu settings shouldn’t make a difference (except in accepting embedded audio) but it’s worth a try.
Weird that the video will work but not the audio.

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[Tom Matthies]

You are feeding it AES audio and not SDI embedded, right? I’ll take another look my the deck. I installed the SDI card over 12 years ago and don’t remember if I had to change anything inside the deck. I’ll look at it again.

Does your Canopus output embedded audio or have you tried using a source that does have embedded audio to see if that might work? The 750 had input selectors on the front panel to choose which input to use. Not sure what the difference might be with a 650. I’ll Google info in the 650 and see what I can come up with.

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[Tom Matthies]

Not sure hat the problem might be with your deck. If I feed SDI into my deck and select the serial input setting for both audio and video, it works fine. If the serial signal isn’t present, the serial input will flash as will the audio selection if the digital signal is missing. Dumb question. You are putting the signal into the inputs on the SDI card and not the normal video inputs, right? Sorry, I had to ask.

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