3D - HD-SDI Output Sync Issues.

[Michael Hardwick]

Hi all -

I posted on some of the threads in the 3D section, but didn't receive much in the way of responses. Perhaps waving a flag here may get some helpful suggestions.

Prepping a job - equipment ships Monday evening, shoot Tuesday morning.

Shooting 3D with a parallel rig. Everything seemed to be going great... Happy with the rig, Matched the optics, FIZ set for stereo NP, Sync and Timecode from an Ambient 203 Lockit - cameras
display the padlock and chain icon. Master and Slave mode working great. File allocation/slate info set properly.

Time to align the cameras.

Sending L and R HD-SDI signals to a Panasonic 2550 3D Monitor. Expecting to see a nice stereo overlay to begin dialing things in.

Wrong

The Panasonic monitor requires both signals coming in to be genlocked, and what we saw was the classic out of sync overlay - you know what I mean... hard to describe - other than completely unusable

So I'm feeding both cameras genlock and timecode, and they report that they are happy. But HD-SDI output/monitor path is not sending out signals that are genlocked.

Granted this was attempted at the end of a long prep day, and I only had about 15 minutes to work on the issue before I had to go and pick up my sons from daycare..

Here are the details:

Both cameras Red MX, Build 30.7 (We have a nod and wink to upgrade to Build 31 Beta but on our own heads be it)

2K, 16X9, Redcode 36

25 frame timebase, 25 Frame Sync signal from Lockit.

Intention is to shoot Varispeed 100 FPS 2K 16X9 - the reason for 25 Frame Timebase.

Could the output sync issue be due to the 25FPS timebase? Pull down issue?

First thing Monday I'll switch to 23.98 timebase on cameras and Lockit to see if that might fix-it

We do have a Transvideo 6" 3D monitor coming Monday, but might be difficult to align using such a tiny screen.

Any suggestions? Many thanks in advance.

 

[Patric Ralston]

Hi Michael,
We have serviced 2 x 3D features now. Build 31 is the way to go.
How is the 203 lockit set? (From memory, i believe this should be 3:2:2?)
We set the cameras to 50hz (when shooting 25fps)

We use 1 x Ambient 203 lockit to genlock both cameras. We don't Master/slave the cameras.

We have found that it is easier to sync the monitoring when shooting 25fps (more problematic at 24fps)

We generally use a transvideo 12" Evolution monitor for monitoring and it requires synced signals....
Let me know if this helps...If not I can check our setup tomorrow when I get in the office and let you know what works for us.

Good luck!

 

[Michael Hardwick]

Hey Patrick

We want to upgrade to Build 31 - but as they are rental cameras, I don't have account permissions to download the firmware. I'll ask if they'll do it for me Monday.

Lockit 203 set to 0,2,2 as dictated on the front of the unit for 25fps.

Setting the cameras to 50Hz? How do you do that exactly? (Is this the same as setting project timebase to 25FPS?)

I like Master/Slave... saves building a custom GPIO record trigger - which I've done before and our L and R files had about a 15 frame discrepancy.

We are up a creek with monitors - the only 3D monitors we have available are a Panasonic 2550 and a Transvideo 6" 3D

Many thanks!

 

[Michael Hardwick]

Oh I see....

Menu Map at the back of the Ops Guide. Monitor Menu - PVW Refresh - 50Hz

Is this what you are talking about Patrick?

 

[Patric Ralston]

Hi Michael, Try 322 on the genlock...

 

[Patric Ralston]

yes refresh at 50Hz. The monitor out signal is definately not synced on the RED One. It also drifts...so we have to cycle the genlock on the cameras...

I will check tomorrow regarding the Ambient 203 lockit, but i'm pretty sure we had to set it at 322. (the RED seems to be a special case)It was definately not what is written on the lockit box. We changed the setting and got instant sync at 25fps.

 

[Michael Hardwick]

Ok will try that setting. Again it is an Ambient 203 Lockit Box, not an AJA Gen 10. It does in fact say 0,2,2 printed on the front for 25fps... those Lying Liars.

Honestly I think the refresh rate not being set to 50Hz was part of the problem.

I'm starting to think I can beat this!

Humble thanks Patrick and Carsten! This is what RedUser is about.

 

[Michael Hardwick]

Copy that. Will implement.