Genlock board quirks

[OBroschart]

Recently installed the new genlock daughtercard onto our Toaster board and we're experiencing some quirky behaviour.

Environment description:
-VT[2] is integraded into a broadcast quality studio facility with house sync connected feeding SX8 BoB
-pro quality external scopes used to adjust VT[2] signal
-VT[2] is upstream to a broadcast quality Ross switcher

Problems:
-when trying to stear the phase using the 75% SMPTE bars supplied with VT[2] install, the signal will be almost at the colour reticules and then suddenly "snap" 180 degrees back. Sometimes (on the rare occasion) we will be able to slowly cajole it to its proper orientation without a "snap" and lock it in place.
-adjusting the horizontal position affects the phase. This is visible on the scopes, but isn't reflected on the preferences sliders. Pro-quality genlocks should allow you to adjust horizontal and phase independently of each other.
-after this is all setup and timed correctly, and shutdown overnight, VT[2] will not be at same timing on fresh launch, and will require retiming for Ross switcher to accept is as a standard signal.

Is this all "normal" behaviour for this new genlock card?

[OBroschart]

We received and installed the replacement genlock board and the problem continues. It is still very difficult to adjust the board and any changes on the horizontal will still affect the phase. More annoying, however, is that we are still experiencing a loss of phase lock after the PC has been rebooted after being powered down, which forces us to readjust the genlock settings before every VT session.

Ok, so we've calibrated the genlock board to working settings and this is what we're seeing on a hard reboot:

- VT is started and we use the 75% colour bars graphic played through the DDR

- On our vectorscopes, the colour vectors have turned 180 degrees from where we last set them. Neither our production switcher nor our vectorscope recognise the VT's output as legal.

- In VT preferences, all numerical values for the genlock settings are where they were saved last.
Vertical: 523.0
Horizontal: 1624.1
Phase: 310.3
Termination: OFF

- We then have to reset the genlock board by simply sliding the phase bar to any location, and retyping the old value back into the numerical field. The vectors snap 180 degrees back in place, and the VT's output is now legal.

Now, this is a simple fix, but still... From a client's point of view, this is not expected behaviour, and at the price of these boards, definitely not tolerable.

I realise that Newtek has many cats to whip, but at this point in time, I would really appreciate knowing if Newtek engineering is aware of our problem, if we are unique with this issue and if anything else can be planned to help resolve this.

On the positive side, receiving a forward replacement unit was definitely appreciated. I'm still a fan of Newtek and I only wish the best for your products.

[tonsofpcs]

you may have overlooked a few basic things:
1) is the genlock signal unterminated?
2) is the genlock signal on a long cable run - this may lead to a delay that varies due to atmospheric conditions [shouldn't vary 180 deg or even 2 deg though]
3) is the genlock signal overterminated?

[rtk]

Try to do next thing, when start PC and toster, go in preferences and if you work in PAL, change to NTSC, click yes, then click to PAL and click yes, if you work in NTSC, clik to PAL – yes, then NTSC-yes. This system works in my television station.

[OBroschart]

Thanks for the reply guys. I passed this bug to Andrew Cross, who told me that they believe this is a software control problem and that it will be addressed in an upcoming patch.

In the meantime, we will need to reset the genlock via preferences whenever we reboot the VT.