How Important is it to have my Video Satellite LE system Videos REF Locked

[kd_special]

Just curious if there is a need to have my Video Satellite LE system locked to House REF.

Basically the sales man is trying to sell me a 003 for my satellite LE system instead of something cheeper like a Mbox2 or Mbox 2 Mini with PT 8LE.

Hell if I am buying a 003 I might as well just scrap that whole idea and get a copy of PT 9 instead right?

I went with a LE system to try and save a few bucks but he is telling me it should be locked to house REF. I didn't even think that the 003 had a BNC for video ref. And I dont totally see why it should be locked as all the sync is carried through the ethernet i thought. (TDM master system LE system slave)

The Satellite system will be a MAC Pro with a Black magic Intensity Pro Card. (HDMI)

the TDM system is a HD 3 with a sync I/O locked to house REf.

thanks kindly for you input.

kd

[RecRoom]

Are you doing laybacks or some other way syncing up to a video machine? I'm not familiar with the Video satellite.

Also, the mbox pro has a word clock input. Would that work?

[kd_special]

No we aren't doing any layback to machines. This is a setup just to have HD video playback for Screenings. Our machine rooms take care of all the Lay backs.

my gut is telling me it ins't a big deal. since its just to see HDMI picture on out screens. BUt I dont know I would hate to have sync issues which would mean lip sync issues during the layback.

thanks

[kptkarl]

Video REF is used on the BlackMagic Decklink series not Intensity or a 003. Just get one of the Mbox units.

[kd_special]

thanks for the info... yeah after looking at the 003 it only has Word Clock. Which is not video ref from my knowledge.

kd

[vudoo]

Even though i do own a sync io, i've been using Video Satellite LE without one for over a year now and never had any problems.
I don't do any layback to tape from PT, as this is usually done from the on line video suite via FCP or Avid once the final mix have been approved.

My set up is PT HD 6, version 8.0.3cs2, Video satellite LE with PT micro on a MBP or PT micro and Macpro with Decklink HD Extreme.

[kd_special]

That sounds like a sweet setup. thanks man. do you have DV toolkit on the LE station for timecode purposes? Thats something i'm not really looking forward too. Having no timecode in PT LE to load up a video.

I think I should check into using PT 9 perhaps instead of LE system. Then it can open AAFs too.

I dont read PT 9 under the system requirements.

kd

[Eric Seaberg]

What's the length of your video segments? If you get into ANYTHING over 2 or 3 minutes, you'd better consider locking to house-black as well as referencing incoming TC to house.

Whether you do the lay-backs or not, if you lock to a video ref when you're posting, the guys that do the laybacks will NOT want to kill you!!

[kd_special]

Yes I see your point.

But just curious right now we run with Canopus ADVC 100's in all our studios on the main TDM systems and those Canopus boxes are not locked to House REF.

Does that mean we have always been out of sync? If so it cant be that bad as we have never had any complaints. We work on lots of 1/2 hour and 1 Hour shows as well as commercial work.

Heres a question to ask as well. If I am playing the quicktime file (SD DV) on my computer screen (with zero offset of course) how accurate is that Sync. Because I find that I use that sync sometimes to tripple check a certain SFX part or HIT in instances where I dont trust the Canopus.

kd

[hummerZ]

Don't worry, your work done with the canopus wasn't out of sync. (although, the canopus is known to play back with varying amounts of offset, on the order of <1 frame, but don't confuse offset with drift. and you are not crazy for checking your sync in the quicktime window, but you need to set your Video Sync Offset accordingly.)

The only purpose of house ref is to interface with external video devices (decks).

There is some small advantage to locking up your video card to the same reference as your audio device, but it is not a deal breaker.

Having a wordclock input on your satellite system is not necessary, provided that you are only using that system for video playback. The satellite connection is sufficient to maintain timecode sync, and may even be near sample-accurate for audio. (not entirely sure)

If you aren't doing laybacks (or interfacing with external video systems) you simply don't need it. Your mixes are going to playback in perfect sync on the Avid/FCP. A frame is a frame, a sample is a sample.