Advice on setting up for Post

[8dB.co.uk]

If you really desire some form of "Station sync" for all your machines, get a good multi output word clock generator. Tape machines always lock faster on word clock. Why settle for 50 pulses a second as your master ref when you can have 48000 pulses a second?

[cananball]

I have a similar system but running PTHD 10.3.9 with a Black Magic Intensity Pro. I understand that the BM cards don't play very nicely with PT 11 & 12 as the AJA.

Using a Syncheck to set the video offset (15qf @ 720p ProRes Proxy), I can confirm that the sync is solid without genlock. I would expect the same from SDi BM cards

[8dB.co.uk]

The digital only BM cards - the mini monitor PCIe or Thunderbolt, work absolutely fine with 10 onwards. They're a very simple device, very similar to the T-Tap, with the same features. Make sure you have the latest drivers and that you install the drivers AFTER ProTools, as otherwise the BM installer doesn't install the ProTools components.

[cananball]

Oh and I would highly recommend getting your hands on a Syncheck or similar device when setting up your video. Once you determine the offset for a codec/resolution, it should remain the same. Just transcode all incoming videos to that codec/resolution and you're set.

[8dB.co.uk]

As stated before, problems arise as soon as you go out of the digital domain. If your decklink has to live transcode to SD, then delay the digital outputs to align them with the SD analogue, you are always going to have problems, especially with HD only frame rates which have no SD equivalent.

[8dB.co.uk]

Originally Posted by cananball

Oh and I would highly recommend getting your hands on a Syncheck or similar device when setting up your video. Once you determine the offset for a codec/resolution, it should remain the same. Just transcode all incoming videos to that codec/resolution and you're set.

Syncheck (and catching sync) both verify that playback is consistent without a genlock. On my ProTools with a BM mini monitor, the video sybc offset is only needed to compensate for screen latency - the actual output is in sync. No more having to wait for processing. Certainly none of this 16 quarter frames which used to be standard with Mojo and Canopus.

[Stereo Missile]

Thanks guys!

Actually I do not need to interface with any external machines, everyone I work with uses tapeless workflow. I get the edited picture file from the editors, and I send them back the master wav file when it's done. If I had to do any tape transfers or anything like that it would be done offsite anyway.

So given that I do not need to lock to any external time base, does that mean that a system which is not gen-locked like the t-tap will stay in sync and not drift over the course of a piece?

So which computer monitors will play multiple frame rates? Thanks everyone, you are all a wealth of information!

[8dB.co.uk]

A BM MM or Aja T-TAP will output HDMI, which will allow you a huge choice of actual TV screens or projection. A TV or projector is also more likely to be able to handle all the standard HD frame rates including progressive.

[mikevarela]

Question about t-tap and thunderbolt - specifically the mac trash can.

I've been reading about a better sync with it, but the trash can runs on zoned thunderbolt + HDMI - maybe this is mostly for video.

They suggest on multiple monitor setups that you balance the 3 zones.

So my question is if you're running a 2 monitor setup, say thunderbolt and hdmi, do you have any issues with pushing video to the ttap, and, is it like the old canopus where it processed on the device and not in the computer so it actually freed up resources?

just curious?

[reichman]

T-Tap runs like Canopus or Blackmagic. Video output is NOT part of the extended desktop of the black Mac Pro. This is good. No accidentally moving your mouse over the image. I don't know how much work the T-Tap is actually doing. But my favorite part of the new video engine is that the video won't skip if you hit save during playback. I used to hate that with PT10.

Regarding the Thunderbolt zones, I have yet to notice any particular order affecting performance with audio interfaces, monitors and storage devices. I think our needs in the audio world don't come close to saturating any of the TB zones, so I just randomly plug everything in and it works.