Pro D & A Issue

I wanted to find out if anyone else who uses the Pro D & A BOB has seen this behavior.

I have the same problem that others have posted about having to boot a couple of times before the system sees the Raid Array.

But I also have a peculiar issue with sync. I have to reboot the system a couple of times when first starting to get the system to find sync. First, it was with everything on master/freerun. The NTSC monitor would flicker and jitter the default bars until I fired up FCP and then would have a constant "moray" pattern going through all video (like a "hum" interference problem). When I went into log and capture from the Digibeta deck, it would absolutely flip out and completely lose sync. Sometimes I could toggle the play and stop controls and get a lock, most times I had to shut down and restart the whole computer until the system wanted to lock. When it did, capture worked and the "moray" in my NTSC monitor went away.

I added a BB generator to the system so I could provide house sync to all the equipment. Same thing happens. It takes a couple of boots to get the system to lock up properly, although when it does, everything is rock solid. (Yes, the BB generator and the SDI deck are on BEFORE I boot the computer and BOB.)

Also, it always fires up in Master/Freerun no matter how I left it even though the ref signal is on at start up.

I'm wondering if either the BOB or the Cinewave card is intermittently bad. The BOB is supposed to click a time or two and bars flicker once or twice, but this one does it about 6 or 7 times or more, like it can't lock up to complete the startup sequence.

It's in a 533DP with 1.5GB RAM, a single 22" Cinema Display on the factory-installed card, ATTO UL3D, 2 Medea 240RT's striped with ExpresStripe for OSX, going SDI to and from a Sony DVW-A500 Digibeta deck. I'm running OS 10.2.3, FCP 3.04, Cinewave 3.0 drivers. When I get it fired up right, it is great. I just wonder if this is a driver issue with Cinewave 3.0 or if I have a hardware problem. Everything worked great in 9.2.2.

Anybody have any ideas? Pinnacle? Bueller? Anybody?

Hope that's not true since I have one of these. I haven't tested since I haven't switched yet. More on this would be very interesting. What would be Pinnacles position if this proved true? Free BoB upgrade?

This does sound like unusual behavior. You should not be rebooting into Master/Freerun if you had the Bob set to something else and have a valid sync source. It will switch to Master/Freerun if it does not detect a valid sync signal.

You may indeed have something wrong with the Bob, but before reaching that conclusion, there are a couple of other things worth checking if you haven't already.

1) Trash the TargaCine Preferences in Library/Preferences.
2) Power down the Bob -- disconnect the external power cord for a few seconds. Because the Pro D&A Bob has an external power source, it can retain corrupt settings between boots - removing the power cord from the Bob will clear its memory.
3) Check your connections. Reconnect the cable at both the card and the Bob -- a loose cable connect can cause problems.
4) Restart.

If that doesn't solve the problem, you may want to repeat and try reseating the card in the computer.

Also, triple check your cabling to make sure you are not getting a sync loop anywhere -- if you have an external BB that's probably not the issue, however the symptoms are pointing to a genlock problem. Can you descibe exactly how you have your system cabled?

We'll try to reproduce your case as exactly as possible.




David Ritsher

CinéWave QA
Pinnacle Systems

[Kirk M] "4) Restart.
Still getting that annoying failure to mount the Raid Array about 50% of the time. I know that isn't a CineWave issue, but it's still frustrating. "

Do you have any Firewire drives connected and turned on? I just noticed today that if my Firewire drives are on, the Medea 480RTR mounts inconsitently. Sometimes it will mount with the G4 and sometimes it won't. If I turn off the Firewire drive, it mounts correctly every time.

Walter Biscardi
Final Cut Pro / CineWave Forum Host
Owner/Creative Director, d'Arte media creations
http://www.dartemedia.com

Class on Demand Producer
http://www.classondemand.net

Fired up the system this morning and the thing defaulted to master / freerun again. Now, I can't get it to stay in ref in mode. David, please help.

I'm bringing this to the attention of our engineers. It certainly sounds like you have it properly hooked up. I've been unable to reproduce the behavior you are seeing here.

Out of curiosity, if you disconnect the CineWave SDI out to the DigiBeta SDI In, then do you still get the genlocking problem and the interference problem? (In other words, physically make it impossible for there to be a signal loop.)

The one other thing to try is regarding the CineWave cables -- the cable connections I most thought should be checked were the multi-pin connectors on the CineWave and on the Bob -- I doubt this is the underlying issue, but it is worth disconnecting and reconnecting them to make sure there is a solid contact.

One question, do you get the same genlock problem if you use a component signal instead of SDI?



David Ritsher

CinéWave QA
Pinnacle Systems

Hi Guys,

I'm having a very similar problem with my Pro Digital BOB.

Here is my setup:
G4 with dual 533 processors, 1.12 Gb of RAM
128 mb RAID
OS 10.2.3
Cinewave RT 3.0
FCP 3.0.4
Pro Analog BOB
Pro Digital BOB
Sony DigiBETA machine

On my system, (with both BOB's connected) the Default Output (blue, black or color bars) displays correctly through the outputs of my Analog BOB. No video dropouts. Also, with the Digital BOB hooked up to the DigiBETA, the Beta reads a clear input signal from the computer (SDI input lights on the deck remain illuminated and do not blink.) Genlock Source is set at Master/Freerun.

This is before I go to Log and Capture in FCP. When I attempt to import footage from the deck through the Digital BOB, regular pulsing video dropouts occur (similar to as described in the first post in this thread) over the video that I am importing. Final Cut Pro will not accept the footage because of the dropouts. Also, the SDI input lights on the DigiBETA blink on and off in tandem with the pulsing dropouts. There is NO problem, however, with machine control to the Beta deck. They sync up perfectly, timecode is consistant, and this works great. The problem goes away as soon as I leave Log and Capture. My capture presets are all set to use the Digital BOB.

I am able to recreate this pulsing dropout symptom outside of FCP on my Default Output by switching my Genlock Source to Pro Digital, which leads me to believe that this may be the root of the problem somehow. I have tried the suggestions in this thread, but no change to the preferences or capture presets in FCP seems to affect the problem. The only thing that eliminates it is to use the Analog BOB. This remedies the problem entirely, EXCEPT that the analog sound is captured with an odd delay effect (it sounds as if it was recorded in a stadium). This sound problem may just an incorrect capture preset.

Any suggestions?

Hi David,

Thanks for responding to my problem so quickly.

I have a DVW-A500 deck.

Any hints as to what the Analog BOB sound echo problem could be? The channel outputs from the digibeta are going directly into the XLR audio inputs on the card, and the recorded sound sounds great until I play it back in FCP, and this problem arrises.

Thanks,
Tim

>>Or do you mean that audio pass-thru in Log & Capture sounds fine, but once you capture it sounds bad no matter whether you playback in FCP or QuickTime Player?

Yes.

This is was the case, but I reset the Analog BOB by switching from NTSC to PAL and this seemed to correct the problem...in fact the Digital BOB works now as well. Now it works great! Here's my question: I believe that I tried the NTSC to PAL and back to NTSC switch yesterday (with no success), but I did not cycle through all of the default outputs, (bars, blue and black) -- I may have missed one. Was skipping one default output screen the root of the problem?

Thanks.
Tim