Old guy with a new Tricaster Mini

[Flexmedia.tv]

I have a long story involving, retirement, cancer and a bunch of things but I have a new Tricaster Mini And I’m ready to use it! I have the one with the video in (not HDMI in) I have two old cameras with SDI out. I want to do some church interviews. Haven’t tried anything yet and hope it works but is anyone running the same setup? Any tips?

Gunna pull the old stuff out!
Thanks
Art

[Matt Drabick]

The TriCaster Mini SDI was a little finicky about frame rates and resolutions. You should be OK with those cameras but if not I would recommend using a Decimator MD-HX converter to get the correct signal into the Mini SDI. It has been awhile since I had a Mini SDI in my shop but I remember it didn't like the output from the PTZOptics PTZ cameras I was using a few years ago.

Have fun and good luck!

Matt Drabick,
DigiTek Systems
Raleigh, NC
NewTek dealer since 2001
I have a TriCaster 410 Plus and a TriCaster Mini HD-4 in my shop

[kanep]

The PTZOptics were the exception, not the rule when it comes to SDI compatibility. The majority of NTSC SDI cameras run in non-integer frame rates which are compatible with Mini SDI. The PTZOptics were integer only which was the cause of the issue. This issue wasn't limited Mini SDI compatibility, many other products has problems with this as well.

I believe that PTZOptics has since released firmware that has fixed this issue or you can go NDI on their camera which would resolve the problem.

[Matt Drabick]

Thanks for clearing this up, Kane. I shouldn't have written that the Mini SDI is finicky about what video signals it works with. It was the PTZOptics camera that was the issue. I have never had a problem bringing in an SDI video signal to a Mini SDI from my Canon video cameras, NewTek PTZ cameras or other TriCasters.

[Flexmedia.tv]

Thanks, I haven’t tried anything yet but I wanted to see what to expect. I’ve been with Tricaster since the toaster days but I never could get the first Tricaster to work without freezing. Bought this Mini 3 yrs ago, cancer took me out never had a chance to touch it. Now I’m ready to blow the dust off everything and give it a try. I’m hoping my cameras will be ok. If not I’ll try my old Canon 60D’s
Thanks!
Art