I'll order it asap. On behalf of me and all my students: Thanks to you all for your advice and help. Happy Holidays! :-)

Yes, that's the box I was referring to. It would not take the place of your GVG sync gen; it acts more as a distribution amp. -JeffD [quote="Zante"]I used to have to make timing adjustments when I still worked in broadcast. But never had to start from scratch. Here is a link to a used "Times Six" sync you referenced. Is this the one? Also, would this replace my current GVG sync gen? I'll also poke around the links you listed... thanks very much.[/quote]

I used to have to make timing adjustments when I still worked in broadcast. But never had to start from scratch. Here is a link to a used "Times Six" sync you referenced. Is this the one? Also, would this replace my current GVG sync gen? I'll also poke around the links you listed... thanks very much.

You would have thought we killed all the analog brain cells! Your 90ire issue could be termination but could also be that the two signals are way out of time; you'll see that as a horizontal as well as vertical shift of the signal. The Tektronix website has tons of very useful timing information. Without actually seeing the scope it's hard to tell you what's going on. Download the 1MB file at the top of this page: It will better explain what everyone's trying to tell you. You might also poke around the "Application Notes and Technical Documents" section as well for more useful engineering tips. And depending on how many sources you have, look for a used VideoTek Times Six. They were a 'sync generator' that had six adjustable outputs. I had one in an analog truck once and it made timing things very simple. Timing things....yeah, I think I remember how to do that!! Good luck.....

The school is closed until Monday, I'll have to tackle it then. Thanks again, and hope you have a wonderful Thanksgiving.

Sounds almost like a termination issue. On the scope input, for each input is there a LOOP OUT BNC? Is the measurement of the sync generator's level directly off the sync gen or off a DA? If off a DA, is the LOOP OUT of the DA terminated? (same 75ohm) Since Google doesn't show an electronic version of that sync generator's manual, I don't know if there are any setup adjustments that may need adjusting.

Good morning all. Well, nothing can ever be easy right? Now I'm stumped with the following problem: the H-Sync level (sync tip?) of everything from the frame syncs is at about -40 IRE. But when I take the test signal from the sync gen, the whole signal display shifts UP approx 20 IRE, and also seems to be magnified as well. This magnified view shows sync at about -90 IRE. I suspect there is a pretty obvious reason... just not to me! Thanks again for any help you can offer.

Thanks to all for the insights and advice... I'll get back to you after I've given this a whirl. "Stand back...I'm going in!" :-P

[quote="Zante"]I'm still not clear on one thing still - Do I run a sync signal out of the DA into the scopes ext. ref and also use the switcher output in the scope ch.1 and the AR-31 output into ch. 2? Not sure how else I could check the timing between the units. I can't tell you how much I appreciate your patience in helping me with this. Sorry I need such step-by-step guidance in configuring this. Thankfully I just need to time one switcher frame for now.[/quote] I agree I think your frame syncs are fine. You should be able to just run pgm output to scope. Then setup a wipe in the switcher between bars (from the GVG 3256-A Digital Sync Gen), and your frame sync. I am sure you could do the wipe with black and your frame sync as well. Again no engineering background but this is what I remember doing in college. We just did wipes between switcher bars (from generator) and cams and TBC's (cams were a mix of genlocked and CCU's). Adjusted H-phase and SC phase. Then we were all set. Well after we registered the cams since they were tubes :)

Mike is right on but just for clarification, on the 200 the PROC is called blanking, I believe the menu is more, person, enables, more then blanking on/off. Dial everything in and then turn blanking back on and it should work fine.

Reference into the DA, to the frame syncs and scope and switcher. You check timing of the frame syncs by looking at the output of the switcher (on ch1 of the scopes.) You need either a vectorscope and waveform monitor or a combo unit. Some people time using preview out, others program. On the 200 you have to turn the PROC off before trying to time it, otherwise you don't see any error. 1600 should not have any internal proc, just make sure you don't have one on the output. Proc= processing amp.

I'm still not clear on one thing still - Do I run a sync signal out of the DA into the scopes ext. ref and also use the switcher output in the scope ch.1 and the AR-31 output into ch. 2? Not sure how else I could check the timing between the units. I can't tell you how much I appreciate your patience in helping me with this. Sorry I need such step-by-step guidance in configuring this. Thankfully I just need to time one switcher frame for now.

When you are adjusting phase, are the scopes you are looking at fed external reference and set to EXT? If not, you will not see anything change. The AR-31's should work. They may not be the greatest in terms of processing but since you are doing high school video and not news they will be fine. Bill is right, sync gen out to an analog DA, DA to frame syncs, scopes and Grass frames. In an ideal world the cable lengths should be the same. You then should be able to take output of frame syncs to each switcher frame. Again keeping cable length the same. Take a test signal generator and feed a test signal (untimed) into each frame sync and time it to the switcher. Now the tricky part, timing everything to BOTH switchers. Timing to one frame should be easy but you may have to cheat to get the frame syncs timed to both switchers at the same time. You may end up needing a second sync generator or using an analog frame sync to adjust the black burst going to one frame.

I do have a GVG 3256-A Digital Sync Gen. I think my biggest problem is that that my frame syncs are the Hotronic AR-31. These allow for adjustment for SC-Phase and H-Phase, but these two adjustments seem to have little effect. Do I need frame syncs that also allow adjustments for horizontal and vertical blanking? Perhaps something like a Hotronic AP-41? Hope it's ok to post a link to it. thanks again.

First if you don't have a sync generator start there. If all the sources are analog composite video I imagine that 8 TBC's would be ideal. I believe you could DA sync/blackburst, etc. and run to each TBC. Then output of the TBC's into the switcher. Also send sync to the switcher as well as anything else you have that does except external sync if any. Seems that this would work, although been a while since I did all of this myself (college). 200 and 1600 for high school. Nice.