ATEM Television Studio Setup

Hello. I am a novice trying to learn. When purchasing the equipment I chose, I thought I did enough research and asked all the questions I could think of. Everything looked good on paper, but I still expected roadblocks. I've encountered one early in the game and hoping someone can help.

My setup includes an ATEM Television Studio. I have two sources, a Panasonic HMC150 and a PC. I followed the manual's setup instructions but am receiving no signal from either source. In the very least, I expected the camera to show up. According to its manual, HDMI outputs 1080i60. So that should immediately show up on the Studio, right? I have the settings tab to be the default 1080i5994. I've read a couple other forums where owners of this camera are using it with the Studio so it must work somehow. I do have control of the software via ethernet cable; just don't see my camera.

Second source: PC. I figured I'd have issues with this one. I bought a VGA to HDMI converter. Probably not the way to go, in hindsight. I will not be able to change my monitor's resolution (that is going to the switcher) to 1920x1080. Because I'm also outputting to a projector, I have to leave it at 1024x768. So if I understand correctly, the Studio cannot accept that signal via HDMI. Correct? Would some kind of analog to SDI converter do the trick? If so, what specific product recommendation?

I appreciate anyone's help with my two issues.

BMD has indicated numerous customer support calls regarding the issues with frame rate. Loosening the
the input range is expected in a new firmware. Firmware older than 3.2 such as 3.1.1 might get you working for now.
http://blackmagicdesign.com/media/4474634/Blackmagic_ATEM_Switchers_Windows_3.1.1.zip

As far as the projector, you will need a scaler.
Perhaps: Kramer VP-473
http://www.kramerelectronics.com/products/model.asp?pid=2167&sf=233

Second source: PC. I figured I'd have issues with this one. I bought a VGA to HDMI converter. Probably not the way to go, in hindsight. I will not be able to change my monitor's resolution (that is going to the switcher) to 1920x1080. Because I'm also outputting to a projector, I have to leave it at 1024x768. So if I understand correctly, the Studio cannot accept that signal via HDMI. Correct? Would some kind of analog to SDI converter do the trick? If so, what specific product recommendation?

Well... my TVS doesn't exhibit the 60hz issue rcourtney references with the 3.2 and above firmware. My scalers and such still work with my TVS and the new firmware (they no longer work with my 1ME though). I use an Atlona AT-HD500. That scales from pretty much any VGA resolution / rate to whatever I need and converts to HDMI. I usually run my ATEM in 720p5994. You would more than likely want the Atlona ATHD510VGA as that has local VGA pass-thru (so you can also send the laptop output to your projector). http://www.atlona.com/Atlona-PC-Compone ... utput.html

I would recommend trying your Panasonic camera in 720p60 mode. At least see if that works in that mode (of course change your ATEM as well).

One other things... are you sure your camera is in fact outputting via the HDMI? Have you tried connecting it to a monitor just to check?

Interesting development. We got our hands on an HDMI monitor and successfully get an image from our camera through the Studio. But still not in the control software...

We got our hands on an HDMI monitor and successfully get an image from our camera through the Studio.

"Through the Studio" - do you mean your TVS does now see the camera video?

But still not in the control software...

What do you mean by this? You don't see any video "IN" the control software - it's just used for switching. I think I must be misunderstanding what you are saying here. Sorry. Could you clarify please. Thanks.

Sorry about my cryptic post. I mean that we see the camera on the preview monitor output that comes out of the Studio. But we do not see the camera in the control software on the PC we are running the software on. Does that make sense?

Nope. Still not getting it I think. You can see it on the preview montior of the TVS (ATEM Television Studio)? Then all is perfect - that sounds very much like you are now seeing your camera output connected to the TVS,

What is this "control software" you are referring to? Do you mean the ATEM Software Control? How would you expect to be able to "see" it using that? All that does is allow you to control which camera is "active". Are you having trouble using that to switch the camera to the Program out?

It's Monday I guess.

Okay well I guess I thought I was supposed to see the actual video on the settings tab of the control software. DUH! I'm sorry. Okay, glad to know all is well. On to the computer scaling next. Thanks!

Well... my TVS doesn't exhibit the 60hz issue rcourtney references with the 3.2 and above firmware. My scalers and such still work with my TVS and the new firmware (they no longer work with my 1ME though). I use an Atlona AT-HD500. That scales from pretty much any VGA resolution / rate to whatever I need and converts to HDMI. I usually run my ATEM in 720p5994. You would more than likely want the Atlona ATHD510VGA as that has local VGA pass-thru (so you can also send the laptop output to your projector). http://www.atlona.com/Atlona-PC-Compone ... utput.html

Would this work? This is what I initially purchased: http://www.monoprice.com/products/produ ... 1&format=2

Would this work? This is what I initially purchased: http://www.monoprice.com/products/produ ... 1&format=2

No idea. Is that a scaler or just a format converter? e.g can it upscale (or downscale) any input signal to a specified output format?

Oh yah, I think it is just a converter, not a scaler.

As far as the projector, you will need a scaler.
Perhaps: Kramer VP-473
http://www.kramerelectronics.com/products/model.asp?pid=2167&sf=233

I think I need the other way around. I need VGA in and two SDI out.

I think rcourtney just linked you to the wrong product. Kramer has a lot of different products. They are a little pricey... but no doubt great for the money.

But... didn't you want to connect to a projector too? Does your projector support SDI?

Liam, you have been so helpful and I thank you so much! I made major progress tonight and have got the feed going fully except for the PC. I've been researching scalers. I just don't find VGA to SDI. Closest Kramer has is DVI to SDI. So I decided to look for HDMI. I looked at the Atlona you suggested. Have not heard of them before. But if you say it works, well, it's half as much as the Kramer version I found. No problems with it?

One question. I did change the camera resolution and software control settings to 720. Just to see if it'd work, I temporarily changed the resolution of the monitor from the PC to 1280x720 but did not get a signal. I was using a VGA to HDMI converter. And I happened to have an old VGA to SDI converter (not scaler). Neither worked. Just curious: if the issue is matching the resolution to be 720, why didn't that work?

To answer your question about our projector, we have a VGA cable coming out of the video card in the PC to a powered VGA splitter. One goes to the projector, the other is the VGA cable I'm using for our video stream that I need to to convert/upscale for the TVS.

The Atlona I have (actually a slightly different model - the one without the VGA passthru) works flawlessly with the TVS. However it's no longer compatible with the 1ME switcher as that firmware no longer supports 60Hz devices (only 59.94Hz). Black Magic have stated they will put the 60Hz format support back in... but no specific date when that will happen. Anyway... that should not impact you as you have the TVS.

One thing to try on your PC anyway right now is to go into the advanced settings on the video card and manually select the screen refresh rate of 59Hz and 1080 for the VGA port. For me - my laptop and scaler works with the TVS at 60Hz. Your video card may not be quite the same compatibility.

If you can force it to the 59Hz standard it may just work with your existing VGA to HDMI converter. A scaler is always going to be best... but that may help you in the short term.

No option to change the monitor to 59 Hz. We're researching the Atlona 510 and the Kramer 434 this morning. Huge price difference, but sometimes you get what you pay for.

Okay I spent some more time experimenting today. I took projection completely out of the equation just to test. Obviously I can't leave it that way. I ran a dvi-to-HDMI cable from the video card to the TVS. I set monitor 2's resolution to 1280x720. Voila! I got a signal. So....now I need to work backwards and figure out how to get projection back into play. We can switch the projector to be 1280x720. Our screen is square so it'll look letter boxed, but we decided that's okay for now. However, when I put all cabling back the way it was, I get no signal with the TVS. So the TVS is not liking how we split the signal somehow.

The scheme is: out the video card via a dvi-to-vga adapter to a vga splitter. One vga cable goes to the projector, the other to the TVS via a VGA-to-HDMI converter. I know, that's a lot of adapting and converting. No surprise I can't get a signal. But what do you think is our best option? And cheapest? Snce it does seem i can get a PC signal without a multi-hundred dollar scaler. Go ahead and stick with the Atlona scaler we ordered? (It's not here yet.). Or is there another way?

Just wanted to hop back on here real quick and say thank you, again. We had our first live event today and it went just fine! I appreciate your help!

Glad to hear it went well. Did you use the atlona scaler?

Actually, I thought of a cheaper solution. I bought a 2nd video card and duplicated the screens that are the projector and the TVS. We're projecting in 1280x720 now but that's okay.

Has there been any more word on Blackmagic updating the software to allow 60Hz refresh rate again so I can plug a Mac right into the switcher as a playback engine without buying an external unit?