Re: House Reference Questions

Hi Piers,
Maurice already answered you accurately (I think Maurice and I will start a consulting firm), but here are my silly answers -


Should we just be using PAL sync to sync all devices, despite also doing HD?

REPLY - what I have been doing is bringing up (for the first time in my career) the reference inputs of the VTR's and edit systems to a video patch bay. I take a tri level out of the GEN 10 and send it into video DA, and NTSC (or PAL) black into another DA, and "normal" it to your VTR's, and then patch tri level sync as you need it. I ALWAYS use NTSC (or PAL) sync for HD VTR's unless I am doing 23.98, but you certainly can set the GEN10 for 1080i50, and keep this hooked up to your HD VTR's if you want (via a DA).



Can an HD signal be synced to SD reference?

REPLY - YES !

If so, is there any point to tri phase HD sync if you're not doing 23.98?

REPLY - you will get many opinions on this, but I do NOT use tri level sync for 1080i 29.97, or 720p 59.94. When I occationally get "into trouble", then I switch to tri level sync, but 99% of the time, I just use SD reference. of course for 23.98, you have no choice.


Can dubs be done between HDCAM and Digibeta using HD sync on HDCAM and PAL sync on Digibeta, or should both be syncing to PAL?

REPLY - this is the perfect example of keeping SD sync on both a Sony HD Cam and Digi Beta VTR, and NOT using 1080i50 reference on the HD Cam.


How can the HD sync signal be distributed, can a standard def distribution amplifier be used?

REPLY - yes, a cheapo video DA works - I currenly recommend the cheap Kramer Electronics VM80V (a cheap 1x8 video DA) as a great inexpensive distribution source for both NTSC (PAL) black and tri level sync.

Bob Zelin