I'm not exactly sure about the FM capacity we're getting. My familiarity with the switcher is limited to the PDF manual and the two hour demo. After thinking about this I asked the chief engineer the specs on the FM and I THINK thats what he said, and I know some concessions were made to get 6 channels of DME and fit the budget. I'll know more next month when we get it up and running. Apparently we'll be looking at a significant upgrade soon too - whats in store for version 6? I presented the chroma-key solution to our graphics person. He'd prefer not to go that way if possible, but he completely understands what I'm trying to accomplish so we'll test all these solutions once we get up and running.

[quote="Rick Edwards"][quote="jbs"]Alright... I can snapshot (??) the position but not the live mode. Can live mode be turned on with a macro and then attached? The answer is probably in the manual, but I'm lazy right now. Anyway, I might have prematurely committed to generating an animated "live" using frame memory animation, but since our FM capacity was downgraded to the minimum (200ish SD) I was hoping to multiply the live bug on pages and I believe that would use that one repositioning buffer. They swapped the upgraded FM option out for 2 more DME channels - and no I'm not going to burn a DME channel... heh! Actually we're loaded with DDR channels right now - we have another one combined for 2ch key + fill that we roll opens, transitions and other things from (even though its slow). But I guess there's never enough. We've been running a generic studio monitor fill loop from an industrial DVD player for years, and there is pressure to get rid of it. I need to keep two channels of playlist-able DDR for fullscreen backgrounds and monitor animations back-to-back, and unfortunately the DDR channels don't do transitions within a channel. Thanks for the help... I'm going to have tons of questions.[/quote] Nope... a macro cannot enable the freeze mode. It can only be done manually. Kind of a bummer but maybe someday...... I am a little confused about you saying you're only getting 200 SD stills on an MVS-8000A, and what you mean by downgraded. The 8000A, at this level of software, has 444 stills. I am told that when V6 is released in November it will go up to like 1033 HD stills. I haven't got an answer on how many SD stills, though. RE[/quote] The 8K cannot not macro menu's? Is that a future possibility? It is a nice feature to have. Bill

rick, you seem to really know a lot about the MVS...what shows are you doing on the 8000a? jonas

[quote="jbs"]Alright... I can snapshot (??) the position but not the live mode. Can live mode be turned on with a macro and then attached? The answer is probably in the manual, but I'm lazy right now. Anyway, I might have prematurely committed to generating an animated "live" using frame memory animation, but since our FM capacity was downgraded to the minimum (200ish SD) I was hoping to multiply the live bug on pages and I believe that would use that one repositioning buffer. They swapped the upgraded FM option out for 2 more DME channels - and no I'm not going to burn a DME channel... heh! Actually we're loaded with DDR channels right now - we have another one combined for 2ch key + fill that we roll opens, transitions and other things from (even though its slow). But I guess there's never enough. We've been running a generic studio monitor fill loop from an industrial DVD player for years, and there is pressure to get rid of it. I need to keep two channels of playlist-able DDR for fullscreen backgrounds and monitor animations back-to-back, and unfortunately the DDR channels don't do transitions within a channel. Thanks for the help... I'm going to have tons of questions.[/quote] Nope... a macro cannot enable the freeze mode. It can only be done manually. Kind of a bummer but maybe someday...... I am a little confused about you saying you're only getting 200 SD stills on an MVS-8000A, and what you mean by downgraded. The 8000A, at this level of software, has 444 stills. I am told that when V6 is released in November it will go up to like 1033 HD stills. I haven't got an answer on how many SD stills, though. RE

Alright... I can snapshot (??) the position but not the live mode. Can live mode be turned on with a macro and then attached? The answer is probably in the manual, but I'm lazy right now. Anyway, I might have prematurely committed to generating an animated "live" using frame memory animation, but since our FM capacity was downgraded to the minimum (200ish SD) I was hoping to multiply the live bug on pages and I believe that would use that one repositioning buffer. They swapped the upgraded FM option out for 2 more DME channels - and no I'm not going to burn a DME channel... heh! Actually we're loaded with DDR channels right now - we have another one combined for 2ch key + fill that we roll opens, transitions and other things from (even though its slow). But I guess there's never enough. We've been running a generic studio monitor fill loop from an industrial DVD player for years, and there is pressure to get rid of it. I need to keep two channels of playlist-able DDR for fullscreen backgrounds and monitor animations back-to-back, and unfortunately the DDR channels don't do transitions within a channel. Thanks for the help... I'm going to have tons of questions.

Why not chroma key the OTS? Depending on what DDR and how you control it, you will need to do some "maintenance" on your clips or timelines but it should work. Put background generator on the program buss, select a color, say green, roll keyed OTS over that, matte and fill, record composite. As long as your OTS's don't have green in them or change often it should work. On playback you only need one channel. Hey Rick, can you use a macro to enable the freeze? Not near an 8000 right now.

[quote="jbs"]We have a new 8000a sitting in the shop waiting for installation. Thinking about how to translate some things we're doing on a Grass 3k right now. I've looked in the manual but I'm not clear on this: Can you use the FRAME MEMORY to reposition LIVE video? Does it have to be frozen before it can be manipulated? On our 3k the video can be live. We have a 4 channel DDR, and I would like to use only one channel to produce video + key for an OTS animation loop. We have screen right OTS-es, and I'd like to play back a split screen with the OTS fill on the right and key on the left. Then route that channel into frame memory, reposition it to the right so that the key fits to the fill, then do a split key with DDR straight as fill source and frame memory output as key source. Right now we're burning two channels married together for key and fill, and I'm wanting to free up one for other things. We were going that way with the 3k until Santa Clause showed up. Thanks![/quote] jbs, The 8000 series can, indeed, manipulate video live in the Frame Memory. There are a couple of limitations: 1) Unfortunately, passing live video is something that cannot be stored in memory. In other words, you must manually turn the frame memory to live mode (which is basically getting it ready to freeze a frame). The position CAN be stored, just not the live mode. 2) Only one pair of Frame Memories can be repositioned at one time. There seems to be only one reposition buffer. If you reposition FM 1& 2 then try to do the same to 3&4, 1&2 will center themselves again. According to my contact at Sony, at least #2 is on "the list" to get addressed in the future. I will continue to bug him about #1. So, it looks like you'll be able to do what you want. But, if they just spent half a million dollars on a new switcher, one would think they would have bought a couple of channels of DDR, too :-) They're pretty cheap now-a-days. Regards, RE