#Skipped Frames
6 messages in this thread
I workk at a small Public Access station in the D.C. area. We are running a
Toaster 4000 with Ami-Link and using Sony VO 9850 3/4 SP decks. My problem is
this. Up till a few days ago animations were running great. Then all of a
sudden they started skipping frames. Our dealer came over and took a look and
after a couple of sessions said that our station's sync was off and thjat that
was what was caus9ing the problem. He suugestewd that we call Ami-Link.
Ami=Link suggested that I change the code as follows
ZZ NS NR NR1 ND1 CL RB0 EI SD3 AI1 PR007 TSV ECST (OR ECGP)
RH
They also told us to change something or other on the Sony 9850 to 6 frames
instead of 1.
Trying this did in fact get rid of the skipped frames, that is, it noe
plays smoothly to the extent that there are no longer black frames intersprsed
throughout the animation. But now,it either does not record some frames at all
or records some twice. As an example., in a 60 frame animation, frame 5 was
recorded twice while frame 47 was missed completely. That may not seem like a
lot but it basically boils down to one glitch per second, which is not really
condusive to smooth running animations.
If anyone out there has had similar problems please reply. This problem
has been going on for over a week now and our schedules are starting to fall
behind.
I'd appreciate any help from anyone,
Thanks.
Lance Atiyeh
F.C.A.C. Channel 10
Fairfax, VA
What they are doing is having you lay down each frame of animation on 3
frames of tape and then incrementing the tape frame count for the next
paas by one. This gives you -0/+2 frame accuracy and just masks the
problem, but does not solve it. (i.e put amin frame 1 on tape 1,2,3, the
put anim frame 2 on tape 2,3,4 ….) They have also increased your
pre-roll to 7 seconds.
I suggest that first you revisit all the decks menu settings. Then make
sure you have black busrt (not compsoite synch) to Toaster Input 1 and
AmiLink. DO NOT send synch to the record deck, and be sure the deck synchs
to the line in that is carrying the animation frame. If none of this
works, it would suggest that either the BB is bad (easy to check with a WF
scope) or the decks control logic has suffered a harware failure.
You haven't upgraded AmiLink lately, have you? That is another possible
source of error. They keep breaking more and never fixing anything in
each subsequent release. They are technical dunderheads who can't fix
diddly but will be happy to rip you of for grand a year for the
priveledge of letting them lie to you. In that regard I w ould advise you
to look for a differnt edit controller to get away from the RGB rip off's
and tech support morons. Get Nueclues PSFC for animation – much more
reliable and easier to use.
wmc – via Autopilot!
Wayne,
Thanks for the info. I kind of figured they were just masking the problem. I
still wonder why it was working perfectly for three weeks straight, and the all
of a sudden decided to start missing frames while rendering… Oh well.
One question (I'm an editor not an engineer) why are we supposed to take
sync OFF the record deck?
Thanks a lot
Lance
I am assuming you'd have a tendency torun house sync to the record deck.
(I've seen many articles with studios set up this way.) You would also
feed the same sync to the switcher, in your case the toaster. So unless
you delay the sync to the record deck by the delay induced through the
Toaster, your deck will be looking for a frame to start before the Toaster
delivers it. It is only necessary to have the deck synch to the video in
from the toaster as that is what you want to get accurately on the tape
anyway. In otherwords, the record deck should only dance to the Toaster's
beat and and not to the beat of something else it is not trying to
record.
So in effect you are not eliminating synch from the deck, you should just
set up to synch to the signal you are trying to record – the incomming
video not an ext ref.
Also look at all the menu items to see if any need to be reset for
animation recording. For example, on myu decks I have to turn off the
auto Hservo lock and set the edit field to field 2.
If it worked find for 3 weeks then quit working well, somehting was
changed, (connectors, cables, deck settings, sync generator, the sockets
the various equipment was plugged into…) and the only thng you can do is
to keep backtracking until you find it. If you ar using those awful 4 pin
Y/C connectors, reseat them. They are notorious for pulling loose and if
you've got a week intermittent connection, it may cause the symptoms you
are seeing (but you should see it at the begining of other edits too..)
wmc – via Autopilot!
Why send black burst, rather than composite sync, to Toaster Input 1? Come to
think of it, what's the difference? Lack of color burst or something?
— David "Color Me Ignorant" Schachter
Caveat – I'm not a video engineer, just a guy who learns enough about
video to solve common edit studio problems (timing, some video noise
and hum problems…).
As I understand it, composite synch only has vertical and horizonal
synch in it, whereas black burst has those plus reference and color
black. So to a simpleton like me it seems that you get only timing
from CS, for the most part, but from BB you get timing and level
information.
My observations with my equipment have been that, except for when
just doing simple single source cuts or fades, if I run the Toasters
with CS and its sources on BB, the Toaster sometimes can't do a DVE
or transition cleanly. And sometimes if the Toaster is getting CS
when I try to invoke it, I either get the "Toaster not Responding" or
a screen w ith waving choma bands over the Toaster logo screen if it
does succeed i n coming up. I see this on both Toaster 3.1 and
Toaster 4000. I have no idea at this point why that is, but if I
just stick to BB, I don't have any trouble.