[quote="Bob Ennis"]As one Producer once told me: "I can't yell at equipment when it can't do what I need - I CAN yell at a person".[/quote] Funny thing is the TD's then yell at the equipment, I find myself complaining about equipment more then producers, b/c the producers will always be bad, the equipment can get better if whomever buys the right stuff.. :) My favorite thing to yell at is the 4K floppy drive, and when it gets corrupted and tells me my emem was saved in 1982 or 2026. I want to beat that thing soo bad.. Bill

As someone who was working for a specific "other" manufacturer for over 15 years, I can honestly tell you that (and I'm speaking about THEM) while input from users is often used to define product features, the person who writes the check is (understandibly) the major player in the eyes of their Marketing & Sales departments. Rick is right in that making an option out of something as basic as a Chroma Keyer is not in the best interests of those who use the equipment...it is done because it allows the salesman to "discount" the selling price of the switcher to the buyer. Unless there's hardware involved, I don't believe that there's any compelling arguement for charging more for something that already exists in the switcher but just needs a "software key" to unlock the functionality - it would be like buying a computer that has has a 500 GB hard drive, but have to pay extra to use anything more than 100GB of the drive. Charging for software-only "options" a way of artificially increasing the profit margin - or it can be used to fool the customer into believing that they are "getting a deal" by discounting the overall cost by removing software to disable hardware that the customer is already paying for, regardless of whether or not the software is there! And it ultimately causes the person who buys the "option" to end up subsidizing the purchase price for those who DON'T buy the option. But my point is that because the person who BUYS the equipment may or may not understand how it is to be ultimately used, or as a vendor over-sell the capabilities of the truck or studio to clients, we as the users often get saddled with equipment that is less-suited to what we need at the time. It's not the fault of the equipment. Don't blame TGV or SONY - they both make products that can pretty much do anything that you need...that is, if the person that wrote the purchase order didn't scrimp. We as users are expected to figure out ways of working around equipment short-comings...unfortunately, we often get the blame when equipment just can't do what Production expects it to do. As one Producer once told me: "I can't yell at equipment when it can't do what I need - I CAN yell at a person".

[quote="Rick Edwards"]Or maybe.... why not blame it on the people who BOUGHT the switcher? Maybe if the customer had spent more money the switcher would have all the features you want. Everyone is so quick to blame Sony as the Evil Empire. Am I allowed to work somewhere with a Kalypso and blame TGV if there are no transform engines. Or maybe better, declare what an awful company TGV is becuase the actually MAKE me buy chromakeyers whereas Sony includes them for free. Come on guys! This is kindergarten stuff you're griping about here. You can buy the Sony with a full PGM/PST buss (in which case it would have all the features - INCLUDING side flags on PGM/PST) or with a limited PGM/PST buss (an option by the way that does not exist on Kalypso). You know there was a thread a bit ago in the TGV forum about someone asking why they couldn't do Transform Engine stuff on their Zodiak or Kayak's PGM/PST bus (I can't remeber). Then someone figured out IT WAS THE EXACT SAME THING YOU ARE SLAMMING SONY FOR right now. Both of those switchers offer a limited PGM/PST that HAS LIMITATIONS. I sure didn't see anyone griping that TGV screwed THAT operator. RE[/quote] I agree with you that it is not right to blame just Sony, but after all these years the "Sellers" & the "Buyers" still don't consult with the most important people of all...the "USERS!" sorry I'm so bitter on this, but it's just a little frustrasting. I made a Christmas list for the Truck that includes some extra DSK's, they gave us 1 out of 4 possible, shadow option on the keyers, PGM/Pst side flags, dme capility DWNSTRM, a macro attachment option, and a pvw button option (it came with pst only). The EIC's looked at me crazy when I handed them this list. :)

Or maybe.... why not blame it on the people who BOUGHT the switcher? Maybe if the customer had spent more money the switcher would have all the features you want. Everyone is so quick to blame Sony as the Evil Empire. Am I allowed to work somewhere with a Kalypso and blame TGV if there are no transform engines. Or maybe better, declare what an awful company TGV is becuase the actually MAKE me buy chromakeyers whereas Sony includes them for free. Come on guys! This is kindergarten stuff you're griping about here. You can buy the Sony with a full PGM/PST buss (in which case it would have all the features - INCLUDING side flags on PGM/PST) or with a limited PGM/PST buss (an option by the way that does not exist on Kalypso). You know there was a thread a bit ago in the TGV forum about someone asking why they couldn't do Transform Engine stuff on their Zodiak or Kayak's PGM/PST bus (I can't remeber). Then someone figured out IT WAS THE EXACT SAME THING YOU ARE SLAMMING SONY FOR right now. Both of those switchers offer a limited PGM/PST that HAS LIMITATIONS. I sure didn't see anyone griping that TGV screwed THAT operator. RE

"if so why do they do this to us?" Maybe the designers never thought of pre-production and in their minds they thought that someone would set the wings up on an ME and then dissolve to that from the program bus.

It's a dual feed baby 8k with 1ME and PGM/PST...you think thats it?...if so why do they do this to us? For some reason with Sony...there always seems to be just 1 or 2 things missing that would help TD's out tremendously. Is'nt it just a software upgrade? The other main issue with this baby 8K, the Dme's dont come down stream either. The 2 channels they gave us can only be used in the ME. We have 2 tape machines that need wings and I can only do it on the ME? (thanks to your help)...thats sad!

[quote="Unger"]Got it to work in the ME's but no luck with PGM/PST?!?!....thats pretty lame that side flags could'nt be attached Downsream?[/quote] Is the switcher a 3.5 M/E or a 4.0 M/E. I don't think that feature is available on PGM/PST when you have the basic 1/2 M/E software. That might be your issue. RE

Got it to work in the ME's but no luck with PGM/PST?!?!....thats pretty lame that side flags could'nt be attached Downsream?

Well, I'm stumped. With everything you're saying, it should work. Maybe Sony can help when they call back. Good luck RE

We are just moving into our new facilities and this is the software with which the switcher was installed. It is version 5.11. It is full 4 ME switcher with two panels. In it standard configuration we uses ME/1, ME/2 and P/P on one panel and just ME/3 on the other. The strange thing that I discovered today is that the Auto-Crop feature on the DME's works. It acts as if the video has side flags, however I still cannot get the Side Flags to appear on the P/P bus or any of the ME's. Hopefully, I will hear from Sony again tomorrow with more answers.

One more question.... Are you using a full 4 or 3 M/E switcher or do you have a 3.5 or 2.5 M/E switcher. I don't think side flags work on the 0.5 M/E simple Program/Preset. I think you have to have a full M/E to use it. RE

First question..... This is on an MVS-8000A right? The original 8000 cannot do this feature. Second.... who installed the software? It sounds like, maybe, all the software did not get installed.... specifically an FPGA update. What's the exact version that you're at? RE

Basically that is what I did. Turn on Auto Side Flags. Set the Input Aspect Ratio to 4:3 and put my graphic on Utility Bus 1. No Side Flags appear. If I turn on the Side Flags Crosspoint button (which appears moves the shift one crosspoint to the left and appears as the right most crosspoint) it tallies on when I put a source I have designated as 4:3 on-line. However, I do not actually see the flags! Any ideas?

[quote="pjkelnhofer"]Has anyone gotten the new Auto Side Flags feature to work? It is new to software version 5. I followed the manual to the letter and no luck. A phone call to Sony tech support did not yield any help (I was told they will do some research and call me back).[/quote] What trouble are you having getting it to work? There are two modes.... Auto and Manual. I highly recommend auto. Go to ENGR SETUP->SWITCHER->CONFIG. Then press Side Flags. Make sure anything that says "AUTO" is turned on. Look in the scrolling table. This shows actual inputs. Scroll to the one that is 4:3 and set its aspect ratio to 4:3. The next time you take the source it should have black bars on the left and right (well, it might have had black bars anyway but.....). Then hold UTIL on the M/E that you've punched the 4:3 source up and then select UTIL 1 -- which is the "A" buss. (I think it's UTIL 1 ... if not try UTIL 2). Whatever you selected on the UTIL buss will appear on the left and right edges of any source designated as 4:3. You only get one util source per M/E. So on a single M/E, every source that's designated 4:3 will have the same side flags. But since each M/E has its own util busses that means that each M/E can have different side flags. And, don't forget that util busses are stored in snapshots and KF effects so you can change what's in the side flags with memory. Hope this helps..... RE