DeckLink Studio 2, 2009, Issues with Analogue playback.

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CPJPrince

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DeckLink Studio 2, 2009, Issues with Analogue playback.

PostTue May 17, 2022 6:51 pm

Hi,

At my work there's we have an Mac Pro + DeckLink Studio 2 that was previously used to digitise the company's collection of historic video tapes. I've dusted off this old machine and been looking to get it up and running again to digitise a few of these videos.
The rig has been setup with Media Express and I managed to get the card recognised and for capture to be possible, but I'm coming across some issues with analogue signal, which as I'm mainly dealing with Umatic and VHS, is a bit of an issue, (the SDI from Betacam works without issue).

The issue is the Audio / Video signals cut in and out intermittently, or play for periods of time before cutting out. In some cases this occurs more frequently than in others, in some cases, the video only occasionally makes a signal. On cutting the video goes to black, while the audio makes a distinct 'popping' sound. This occurs on both S-Video and Composite signals.

Playing back the same tapes via a TV, and there isn't any noticeable distortion from the tapes, even playback on a cheap USB capture card from the same period produced better results (though this had issues of it's own).

To try and fix this I've attempted to update the software to Version 11.4, previously on 10.X and upgrade the Mac to High Sierra, with no success. I've also attempted to reseat the card in the PCIe slot, change the PCIe slot, and reseat the dongle, again with no luck.

It might be that the card is just too out-of-date at this point, but I thought I'd try and fix it. Any help would be greatly appreciated.
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Asgeir Hustad

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Re: DeckLink Studio 2, 2009, Issues with Analogue playback.

PostThu May 19, 2022 11:31 am

Search this forum for TBC, Timebase Corrector, and you'll find some help
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CPJPrince

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Re: DeckLink Studio 2, 2009, Issues with Analogue playback.

PostSat May 21, 2022 8:44 am

Would a TBC help in this case. If the issue was due to the VCR player, wouldn't I be having issues with the other capture card instead of getting a normal output?
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CPJPrince

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  • Real Name: Chris Prince

Re: DeckLink Studio 2, 2009, Issues with Analogue playback.

PostSat May 28, 2022 4:32 pm

So after much wrangling, I think I figured it out. It looks like I have a ground leak on on some but not all of the pin outs. I'll look into buying a new card, but I'll keep this on hand and have the occasional probe with a mult-imeter to see if I can find the cause.

Thanks for your help.

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