SVHS, U-Matic, Sync In, SC in? And more..
James Pritchard
with.
My first old analogue dubbing setup:
SONY U-Matic VO5800 Player
SONY U-Matic V05800 Recorder
Both have SC IN jacks on the back. Is this the same as SYNC IN? The
recorder also has an EXT SYNC IN jack.
1. What is SYNC and how can it help me?
2. What is SC? Or the difference between SC and EXY SYNC?
3. Both also have what looks like a headphone socket on the back
labelled RX DATA, what is this for?
4. What information does the fat DUB wire under the VIDEO wire carry?
My second setup:
JVC SVHS BR5500U Player
JVC SVHS BR5800U Recorder
1. Same question on SYNC IN. What is it, do I need it, how do I get
it?
2. What is the difference between HI-FI Stereo and NORMAL Stereo?
3. To dub in SVHS mode instead of regular VHS mode do I need to use
tapes with colorbars recorded on them? I seem to remember needing
this before.
Finally, is 3/4" superior to VHS or SVHS? The recordings I have seem
to be, but I'm only comparing them to VHS.
Appreciate any and all help! Cheers, James.
Mike
What seems like many years ago (omigosh... it was!) I worked a TV
station that used UMatic 5800's for all the taping. They bought some
SVHS stuff to be an upgrade, but frankly it was not better. U-Matic is
better-than-broadcast. S-VHS is almost-good-enough for broadcast.
If I remember right SC is the Subcarrier, colorburst, 3.58MHz. Studios
have a colorburst generator that they route all over the place. Tapes
are generally prerecorded with a blank video signal, with only the
sync in it. That allows the editor to sync up on a particular frame of
video. These are called "blacked tapes."
I think HiFi stereo is recorded digitally versus as two separate
analog channels.
SVHS is great on the first recording, but subsequent dubs get worse
and worse, with the color smearing and not lining up with the
luminance of the same object.
I have forgotten too much to be of any more help. I would suggest
using Hi-8, as it does not have the same problems as SVHS, and better
resolution. However the tapes are small time-wise.
Haunt the library for old books on video editing, and I bet you'll
find something.
Best,
Mike.
Ken P.
We're still using the 5800 series on a limited basis for our local cable
provider. They still look damned good, all things considered. And, they are
highly serviceable. Most of these guys are going on 20 years and with an
occasional tweak can be brought to spec easily. I doubt I'll be saying that
about the DVCam stuff. Anyway, most of the questions you have pertain to use
in integrated facilities and are moot in a dub environment:
> My first old analogue dubbing setup:
>
> Both have SC IN jacks on the back. Is this the same as SYNC IN? The
> recorder also has an EXT SYNC IN jack.
>
> 1. What is SYNC and how can it help me?
> 2. What is SC? Or the difference between SC and EXY SYNC?
Sync and Subcarrier lock the deck to house reference. You'd need TBC to
adjust timing and phase to house. Unless you're switching, you have no
concern, the deck locks to either the video signal or it's built in
generator.
> 3. Both also have what looks like a headphone socket on the back
> labelled RX DATA, what is this for?
A remote control, Sony proprietary
> 4. What information does the fat DUB wire under the VIDEO wire carry?
Video directly off the scanner. The cleanest way to dub video, scanner to
scanner. No audio is dubbed, though.
> My second setup:
>
> JVC SVHS BR5500U Player
> JVC SVHS BR5800U Recorder
> 2. What is the difference between HI-FI Stereo and NORMAL Stereo?
Audio if frequency modulated to be recorded in the video signal. It is NOT
digital.
> 3. To dub in SVHS mode instead of regular VHS mode do I need to use
> tapes with colorbars recorded on them? I seem to remember needing
> this before.
Only if you're using a TBC with a calibrated WFM. If you're dubbing to send
for broadcast (which I doubt considering the format) they're needed by the
station.
> Finally, is 3/4" superior to VHS or SVHS?
Absolutely.
Cheers,
KP
--
"The TV Business... is a cruel and shallow money trench, a long plastic
hallway
where thieves and pimps run free and good men die like dogs. And there's
also a negative side".
- Hunter S. Thompson
Larry Jandro
keyboard and the electrons formed this:
> I have numerous newbie video questions I hope someone can help
> me with.
>
> My first old analogue dubbing setup:
>
> SONY U-Matic VO5800 Player
> SONY U-Matic V05800 Recorder
>
> Both have SC IN jacks on the back. Is this the same as SYNC IN?
> The recorder also has an EXT SYNC IN jack.
I'll tackle this part...
The SC (subcarrier) input is for the subcarrier output of certain
older types of TBCs. It's purpose is to convert the output of the
U-Matic machine, which is normally color-under, to direct
interleaved color which is the normal NTSC RS-170 specification.
It _is not_, as others have stated, for "house" subcarrier.
The Sync input is for the Advanced Sync output of the
aforementioned TBCs. You could put house sync into it, but that
would achieve only vertical lock on playback. A TBC would still be
needed for horizontal and color correction and timing.
--
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James Pritchard
As far as I understand from what you've all said, not using Sync or
Subcarrier is not going to affect my ability to do analogue editing.
I'm still at somewhat of a loss to know what having house TBC actually
does for you (and a TBC with a calibrated WFM lost me completely), as
if it has something to do with vertical/horizontal lock and color
correction does it produce a better picture on playback?
Anyway, thanks again, James.
Steve Guidry
Some background on TBC's and their place in your shop :
1) Most analog these days comes from helical scanning VTR's. These use
spinning heads mounted on a "tilted" drum to achieve the "high write speed"
needed to do even VHS video.
2) The mechanics of the scanning introduces small amounts of instability
into the video signal, mostly at the beginning/end of each line of video,
and at the beginning of each frame & field of video.
A TBC removes this instability by stripping out the sync, burst and blanking
portions of the incoming video signal, and replacing it with stable,
internally-generated sync, burst, and blanking signals. This process also
makes it possible to "time" the outgoing signal to another source or in your
case, the switcher or the rest of your video system.
I'm sure I left a lot out. More later, as you explore this issue. Just
ask. But I'm sure others will fill in the blanks or make corrections.
Steve
"James Pritchard" <jimm...@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:eefa766.03041...@posting.google.com...
David McCall
"Steve Guidry" <v...@ballistic.com> wrote in message news:OcidneacKeI...@ballistic.com...
> More evidence that we're swiftly moving into the post NTSC world . . .
>
> Some background on TBC's and their place in your shop :
>
> 1) Most analog these days comes from helical scanning VTR's. These use
> spinning heads mounted on a "tilted" drum to achieve the "high write speed"
> needed to do even VHS video.
>
> 2) The mechanics of the scanning introduces small amounts of instability
> into the video signal, mostly at the beginning/end of each line of video,
> and at the beginning of each frame & field of video.
>
> A TBC removes this instability by stripping out the sync, burst and blanking
> portions of the incoming video signal, and replacing it with stable,
> internally-generated sync, burst, and blanking signals. This process also
> makes it possible to "time" the outgoing signal to another source or in your
> case, the switcher or the rest of your video system.
>
> I'm sure I left a lot out. More later, as you explore this issue. Just
> ask. But I'm sure others will fill in the blanks or make corrections.
>
with a proc-amp (included with all TBCs). I'll just expand on it a little.
By instability, we are saying that a line of video coming from a VCR
may start a little early, or a little late (as compared to a reference standard
which can be internal to the TBC, or locked to a sync signal being fed from
another source). Time variances can even cause the actual lines of video be
slightly different lengths.
The main thing that makes a TBC different from a proc-amp is that a TBC
digitizes the video and puts it into RAM buffer. Then it reads it back from
the buffer and converts the signal back to analog for output. by doing this
the unstable input can be delayed and reconstructed in perfect sync to a
stable source.
On a side note; there is some confusion between a Time Base Corrector,
and a Frame Synchronizer. In the early days TBCs only stored a few lines
of video at a time. This required the connected VCR to be already in sync
with the TBC, allowing the TBC to just remove the slight variations inherent
in a VCR. As memory became cheaper, they got bigger and bigger until
they were capable of storing an entire frame of video at a time. These were
called Frame Synchronizers. Today all external TBCs are actually Frame
Synchronizers. The advantage is that these can be used on non-synchronous
sources like Satellite or microwave feeds, free running cameras, VHS decks,
etc., although you will always have a one frame delay unless your equipment
can provide an "advanced sync" to the VCR.
Many modern VCRs have built in TBCs.
There is more to it, but that gives some of the basics.
David