Problems with 1080p60 and SDI Level A/B

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Joshua Szanto

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Problems with 1080p60 and SDI Level A/B

PostTue Dec 07, 2021 1:29 am

TLDR; we want to convert to 1080p59.94/60 but encountered problems that have something to do with SDI Level A vs Level B. Review the diagram, objective, and summary and let me know how we can convert our system to run 1080p59.94/60 correctly without issue and not lose talkback/tally/camera control.

Here is our current hookup diagram:
Booth Diagram_20211122-1612.png
Booth Diagram_20211122-1612.png (236.76 KiB) Viewed 1056 times


Some of the equipment being used:
  • ATEM Television Studio HD
  • Studio Camera (Camera 1 and 2 in diagram), appears to be discontinued model on Blackmagic Design website, this is the model that can do 1080p60 at best
  • AJA U-TAP
  • HyperDeck Studio HD Pro

Current configuration and uses:
  • ATEM is running at 1080p29.97 programming
  • We are live streaming at 1080p29.97 via AJA U-TAP
  • We are utilizing talkback, tally, remote program view, and camera control for the Studio Cameras (Cameras 1 and 2 in diagram)

In the current configuration, everything in the system is working precisely as one would expect without any problems.

Objective:
We would like to run the system at 1080p59.94 programming. What do we need to do to make this possible?

We tried 1080p59.94 and this is what we got (summary):
  • Everything worked fine on SDI Level A except for
    • Talkback, tally, program preview, camera control
  • AJA U-TAP input (but the TVs and projectors are showing the program feed without issue!)

We tried 1080p59.94 and this is what we got (detailed):
  • If we use SDI Level A
    • AJA U-TAP taps out. The webcam image has color bars on lower half and the ATEM PGM image is squished into the upper half.
      PXL_20211205_204857900.jpg
      AJA_UTAP_ScalingIssue
      PXL_20211205_204857900.jpg (197.45 KiB) Viewed 1056 times
    • Talkback, tally, program view, and camera control do not work unless we change to SDI Level B.
    • If I remember correctly, the HyperDeck USB C webcam outputs without any issues, although I swear the live stream audio is actually out of sync with the video (the event being recorded is in a different language than what I understand)
  • If we use SDI Level B
    • AJA U-TAP still has issues. The webcam image appears correctly this time, but the problem we observe is that there is very noticeable heavy and random frame dropping. Unsuitable for use in live stream.
    • HyperDeck USB C webcam looks good with correct framerate but we experienced problems of
      • (1) audio and video not being synchronized on the iMac (but no problems observable when looking at the HyperDeck's video preview LCD screen and hitting the audio monitor button -- all in sync and live), and
      • (2) once in a while the USB C webcam seems to freeze looping over a small handful of frames (to fix this the only solution we've found is to power cycle the HyperDeck), and
      • (3) unlike with SDI Level A (iMac showing a smooth and full 60fps USB C HyperDeck webcam input, it is obvious that the input video is not 60fps -- it almost looks like it's in slow motion except somehow keeping up with real-time
    • Front projector shows a negative-looking image with only half the color spectrum (i.e. cyan and magenta shades only) unless we change to SDI Level A. If we put a Decimator MD-LX on this projector, problem solved.
    • TVs in building show negative-looking image just like front projector but have noticeable seizure-potential flickering and strange vertical interlacing of video data on the lower half/left side of image. Does not happen if we change to SDI Level A. If we put a Decimator MD-LX on the program feed that hits the SDI distributors, problem solved.
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Roman Pytkin Pekarek

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Re: Problems with 1080p60 and SDI Level A/B

PostTue Dec 07, 2021 11:37 pm

U can use BMD bidirectional converter for change LEVEL A<->B ..

I have similar problems in studio with 3G Levels .. AJA , BMD .. etc ..
http://tally.pytkin.sk
http://chucktv.eu
http://www.stonepp.tv
http://www.media-planet.sk

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