Sync HD drifts and stutters

[original_min]

Sorry to hear about your hassles, a few quick thoughts..

Are the dip switches on the AJA Gen 10 set correctly?
Is the video playing at the right frame rate and without any errors?
Have you changed out the LoopSync and/or SyncHD cables at all?

[evan.jerred]

The dip switches are good. Sync HD and vid card shows lock in 23.98 and 24 sessions (after changing the rate of the Gen 10). As for the BNC cables, they are brand new and I’ve tried both loop sync and word clock between the Sync HD and MTRX studio with the same results. Video plays fine, but has some stuttering when stopping and starting while the Sync HD is active but that smooths out when I disable Sync HD in peripherals.

[smurfyou]

Frank is right, lets not call this drift. Sync Slop is the technical term

It should be very consistent though. What you describe is how PT acts without a Sync peripheral.

I haven't seen this when everything is showing a lock.

The stutters and lag you mention might point to something. That is definitely not normal.

[evan.jerred]

I agree the sync is how it acts without a sync peripheral, but that the stutters and lag are newly introduced by the sync peripheral. Definitely feels sloppy!

Additionally, I can still reproduce the pauses when the only connection with Sync HD is the serial cable (no clocking cables attached), and PT is running on the internal clock of the MTRX Studio. Obviously can't really test the sync this way...

[original_min]

Is everything still rubbish in a brand new session with just PT and the SyncHD?

[evan.jerred]

Yes the issue presents in a new blank session. Sync HD makes a little squeak from inside it's chassis each time I stop playback. Normal? I swapped the serial cable and it's still the same. The only other thing is the serial port on the HDX card but seems more likely the Sync HD is defective? Bought used on Ebay in very good condition, and I have only a few more days to return it... No word from Avid regarding the logs I sent them the other week... Should I just get another used Sync HD and see if that works? I can't think of anything else.

[original_min]

Aside from making it LoopSync master and double checking the actual Sync settings in PT, I can't recall there being much more to it.

[evan.jerred]

Ya in PT it's getting ref in, set to the correct frame rate, set as Clock Master, and showing Green Green Yellow indicators.

[evan.jerred]

Update regarding sync slop:

After trying 2 Sync HDs, 1 Sync X, HDX, HDnTB, AJA GEN10, BM Mini Sync Generator, Mac Studio M1 Max, MacBook Pro M1 Pro, AJA IOXT, BM Ultrastudio Mini HD, every combination of cables and settings imaginable... It seems my TV was at fault.

I tried 4 different Samsung TVs. 2 QLEDs (Q80T, QN95B) and 1 OLED (S92D) didn't work, but one older NU6900 worked after turning all it's processing off. That is to say it held perfect sync for over an hour, the same with two different sync ref gens (with other displays different sync ref gens resulted in different speed of slop, I guess because the TVs take in the frames at one rate, and then display them at their own internal clock frequency). I also tried recording the video and audio (of my Sync One2 test file playing in Pro Tools) into a video card and everything was sample accurate in sync. So the good news is 100% of the gear I used worked fine as far as I can tell. Bad news, after ordering the S92D and it not working, I've decided to give up for the time being. At least I know all my gear works and I can sell the extras.

As for pausing and stuttering while doing fast paced editing and using a sync peripheral, working with Avid has resulted in better performance, but still not as smooth as turning the sync peripheral off or working with it on but in running PT in Rosetta. Performance was the same for Sync X and Sync HD, as well as HDX and HDnTB. I'll be continuing to test this with them.

I'm really curious to hear what displays people are using with their genlocked systems that don't slop... beware of newer/high end Samsungs. If I ever get the chance to test with Sony or LG displays I will but I've had enough testing for now to say the least.