Product – ADC v11 and v12
Topic: Sony Protocol VTRs (Extended Timecode)
VTRs supporting Standard Sony VTR protocol.
Release Date: 9-December-2014
Revision History
Revision
Protocol
1.1
Date
Author
04/07/10
JHighet
Modified XDCAM information,
added known issues section.
Added protocol version.
Seth
Olitzky
Original File
1.0
Company
Description
Version Used
Firmware:
Operator’s Manual:
Protocol:
PROTOCOL OF REMOTE (9-pin) CONNECTOR
2nd Edition (Revised 11)
Requirements
The ADC can support all Sony VTRs and other vendor’s VTRs that support the standard 9 Pin
RS422 Sony VTR Protocol. Each specific model of VTR may differ in capabilities and thus vary its
functionality within ADC. This is true of play only VTRs that cannot be used to record.
When the VTR is going to be used by the ADC Media Client ingest application the VTR must
have an Internal Timecode Generator/Reader.
© 2014 Imagine Communications Corp.
Proprietary and Confidential 9-December-2014| Page 1 of 9
Cable Requirements
Sony XDCAM deck communicates via a standard RS-422 serial interface using a standard cable.
This cable is a DB9 (Male) to a DB9 (Male). All connections are pin-to-pin.
DB9 (male) ADC
DB9 (male) SONY VTR
TX- 8
8 RX-
TX+ 3
3 RX+
RX- 2
2 TX-
RX+ 7
7 TX+
Connections
The standard 9 pin RS-422 cable should be attached to the Remote1- IN(9P) connector on the
Sony VTR The other end of the cable should be plugged into the selected port of the device
server. Do not connect the serial communications cable to the Remote2- (36P).
The VTR must be put in Remote when used with ADC. On some VTRs, the remote is a toggle
switch between Remote1 (9P), Local, and Remote2 (36P). Always use the Remote1. On newer
Digital VTRs the remote/local is part of the setup menu.
Device Hardware Setting
The physical settings of the Sony VTR decks vary on each model of decks.
In normal configurations the deck’s time code generator board should be set as follow:
Linear Time Code (LTC)
Internal Time Code Generator (Machine Generator)
Preset
Regen
Free Run
VITC should be turned on
ID Preset (Preset Userbit) needs to be turned off
In NTSC environments the capstan lock should be set to two fields.
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Proprietary and Confidential 9-December-2014| Page 2 of 9
Communications Parameters
Add content about Comms.
The communications parameters for this device are:
Baud Rate: 38,400
Data Bits:
8
Stop Bits:
1
Parity:
ODD
Device Server Set-Up
To configure a “SonyVTR_Ext_TC” deck using Config Tool and following these steps:
IMPORTANT Configuration Note: When you have finished making changes on a configuration
screen, press Apply and all changes made upon the current configuration window will be applied
to the driver. Press OK, and any configuration changes made upon the various tabs will be
applied, however, the configuration window will close. Press Cancel and none of the
configuration changes will be applied to the driver and the configuration window will close.
Driver Configurations:
1. In Config Tool, right click on the target server icon, choose “Configured Devices” from the
right click menu.
2. Drag and drop “Sony VTR Ext TC” from “Available” window to an available channel in
“Configured” window.
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3. Double click the dropped driver icon to open the driver configuration window.
4. Driver Configurations: User can safely use the default parameters, except the serial port
on the Serial tab. The following are details of driver configuration window.
5. Select the General tab: (Figure 3)
Configure the following parameters as required
•
Device Name is configurable and supports a maximum of 16 alpha numeric
characters.
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Proprietary and Confidential 9-December-2014| Page 4 of 9
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Eject on Initialization is disable. This option allow user to eject or not eject
Cassette during driver’s initialization.
Select Keep Media In VTR allows user to configure so that the Casette can be held
or not in the deck while the deck is not in used. When Keep Media In VTR is enabled,
a disc that is injected into a deck will not eject even if it is not needed. The operator
must eject the disc manually. Also, when the disc is finished playing or recording the
disc will not eject. Operator must eject the disc. When Keep Media In VTR is
disabled, the deck will eject any disc that it is no longer using or when an injected
disc is not needed by any list.
The Edit On and Edit Off compensations are a frame latency values for how long
the deck takes to respond to either enabling or disabling the edit. These values
should be left at 2 and adjusted if the decks are used as compiler record decks.
Sync Adjust is set to 0. This option allow user to adjust the SOM of the clip to
record and play out.
Tape Speed Override (TSO)
When enabled, the system changes the speed of the VTR machine to hit the time of
playing the SOM frame at the time a record command is sent to video disk server
record port.
NOTE: This entry appears on all VTR setup tabs. This option need only be set once.
Since the option is in a separate box, though it shares the same tab page as other
setup options, when a different tab is selected, the option and its setting remains.
Sampling Tape Time Code (NO TSO) When this parameter is enabled, instead of
controlling VTR speed, the system controls the time to send the record command by
sampling time code on thetape. When the sampling value shows that the VTR speed
is constant, the system calculates the time of sending out the record command.
Frame Calibration To Record Device This parameter allows adjusting the timing in
the VTR driver to get frame accurate recording. Selecting OK saves this parameter
setting to the INI file for future use.
Example Use:
Set the parameter “Frames To Send Record Early” on the disk (destination
device) configuration.
Select one VTR as the source device and perform Autocopy.
Check the first recorded frame (this should be the SOM frame), and adjust the
VTR parameter “Frame Calibration To Record Device”.
Select another VTR as the source device and perform autocopy.
Check the first recorded frame (this should be the SOM frame), and adjust the
second VTR parameter. Supports a settings range between -100 frames and
+100 frames.
6. Serial tab: Choose serial port number from Device Server that was used to connect the
Serial cable to the Sony VTR.
7. VTR Offset tab: This tab is used to specify the offset parameter for DVC Pro. Choose 1
for 25 MBPS with the DVC Pro deck.
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8. VTR type tab: This tab displays information about the VTR, including the model number,
protocol ID, cassette size, analog/digital, and if extended errors are reported.
9. Timecode tab: Select the timecode format to use when retrieving timecode data from
the video tape. Options are LTC or VITC. Select either LTC or VITC timecode
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10. Apply the Configuration Changes: When changes are made to a device’s
configuration, the Apply button on the configuration GUI becomes active. Click the Apply
button to immediately apply that configuration change to the system configuration held in
random access memory by the Device Server.
NOTE: Apply does not write the configuration change to the Device Server’s configuration
files. This can only be done by using the Save Devices option on the Configured Devices
window’s File menu.
11. 1.5. Save the Configuration: From the Configured Devices window select File> Save
Devices. The current configuration is written to the Device Server’s configuration files in
the “C:\Server” folder on the Device Server.
Attempting to close the Configured Devices window without first saving any configuration
changes, results in the Configuration Manager prompting to save the changes on the
Device Server. Accepting this prompt writes the configuration changes to the Device
Server’s configuration files as well.
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List onfigurations:
1. In Config Tool, right click on the target server icon; choose “Lists Configurations” from the
right click menu.
2. For each list on the system, select Audio/Video and fill in the appropriate Video Out and
Video In cross-points.
3. When you are satisfied with the input/ouput selections, click File/Save Properties from
List Configurations window and the set-up will be saved for the next time when re-launch
the system.
Operation Notes
In ADC100 Sony VTR deck can be used to either play material, record material.
Decks are either assigned to a playout/compile list or unassigned. When unassigned they act as
a floater deck.
When a Tape is injected into a deck that is assigned to a list, the media will be associated with
the events on the list that have the same id as the media. If there are no such events on the list
then the material will be ejected if Keep Material In VTR is disabled. If enabled the tape will
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remain in the deck until a list is loaded which has events for the media or until the operator ejects
the Tape.
When material is loaded into a floater deck the VTR is moved to the first list that needs the
material. If the material loaded is not needed, the deck will eject the Tape if the Keep Media In
VTR option is disabled. If enabled the Tape will remain in the deck until either a list is loaded that
has events for the media or until the operator ejects the Tape.
Test Procedures
1. Insure that the serial RS-422 cable is attached to both the server and Sony VTR. Turn on
power on Sony deck. Eject any Tape in the deck and put the deck into REMOTE mode.
2. When the Sony deck has been configured, open the Device Status Window from Config
Tool to see the device status. The status should be UNTHREADED if there is no disc in
the deck. If it is NO DEV then the device and server are not communicating. If there is
no communication then verify that signals are being sent and received through the RS422 cable. To do this, a VOM may be attached to the transmit line and receive line. See
that the voltage is changing on these lines. A RS-422 analyzer may be put in-line to verify
the communications. If data is being sent to the Sony deck and not being returned then
the cable to the deck may not be correct.
3. When the deck is communicating, switch the deck between LOCAL and REMOTE. You
should see the deck status change from LOCAL back to UNTHREADED (no Tape).
4. Inject a Tape into the deck and the deck should play the Tape while it tries to read
Userbits. The disc should eject if no userbits are found and Keep Media In VTR is
disabled.
Internal Document #
xxxxx
File
xxxxx
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