Cadet & Castle module builders list and build requests

How does the VU003 acquire sync?

from any sync generator, for example the Cadet 1

My understanding is that VU003 itself runs un-synced.

So you either have to sync your system to the incoming signal (hence Aladan’s routing diagram above) or sync the input externally to the system (like genlocking a camera).

no, look at Bastiens demo video:

and from the manual:
The basic setup requires a sync extractor/generator (LZX Cadet I) and a RGB encoder
(LZX Cadet II).
Y is sent to the sync generator first, then sent to VU003, so the system is synced to the
external video.

I think you’re both right, but just a little misunderstanding. I’ll try describing this in the most non-technical way I can, maybe that will help.

VU003 converts component video into LZX RGB signals. It doesn’t care about sync, it just converts the signal colour brightnesses that are happening at any given point in time on the screen.

To generate a composite output there needs to be a sync (which tells the screen when to start drawing at the top and at the start of each line). For the component video input via VU003 to line up correctly when it’s converted into a composite output, it needs to have the same sync (start of screen/line) as the composite output encoder is using. The easy way to do this is to have the encoder use a sync signal that has been extracted from the Y component input.

That’s why my diagram takes the Y component input (which has the sync signal on it as well as the brightness of the picture) into the Cadet 1 (sync extractor) first, before taking a copy of the same thing into the VU003 converter.

Sean’s other suggestion (genlock the component input to whatever sync clock the encoder is using) will work just fine too. I’ve done this before, many times, using external Extron/Kramer/etc video scalers.

I hope this helps!

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