Ok, hopefully someone can help me out with this…
I have an md-hx decimator and a blackmagic sdi to analog converter. I’m trying to get my andor1 to send full color to the visual cortex. I’m running hdmi out of the andor1 into the decimator, decimator sdi out to sdi in of the blackmagic converter, and three cables from the blackmagic sdi/analog converter to the three inputs of the visual cortex. I’ve tried setting the scaler in the md-hx to a few different modes but am not getting anything on my screen. The NTSC light is on on the VC, but the lock light is not lit. Do any of you know which mode to set on the md-hx to get everything to play nice?
I know about the Ambery box and may just pick one up to made life easier, but I’d like to get everything running with what I’ve got for now. Thank you for all your help 
True, I don’t need the Ambery box with that setup (I ordered it anyway), but I’m just not getting anything to show up. The andor1 works with hdmi into an hdmi tv input, and the composite out works just fine with the visual cortex (using the microsoft zune cable), but only greyscale of course. I’d like to get full color out of the andor1 into the VC, and that’s where the decimator comes in. I’ll use the ambery when it gets here just to cut down on clutter, but I’d like to figure out the decimator. The sdi to analog converter has all the dipswitches in the off position as well. I know the TBC2 is going to be great, but I’d still like to figure out the decimator setup because it will allow me to get hdmi into the TBC2 down the road. Thanks for your suggestions though!
I know this is old but if it’s still a problem here are some tips. The Visual Cortex needs a 480i signal at 59.94 field rate. I don’t know if the Andor1 puts this out over HDMI. If not, you need to use the scaler in either Blackmagic or the Decimator. The Blackmagic DIP switch needs to be set for Component video, rather than Composite or S-video. If you are going to downscale with the the Blackmagic, set DIP switch 1 to ON. Then the Decimator just needs to be set so that the SDI output source is HDMI input. Make sure output 1 is not set to loop the SDI input, or use output 2. If you are instead going to downscale with the Decimator, you can set the Blackmagic switch 1 to OFF. In the Decimator, you will need to set the Scaler to output 480i59.94. The SDI output source should be Scaler, and the “DUC” (scaler) source should be HDMI (not sure why the terminology is inconsistent). If you set the DUC reference to Free Run (or maybe it’s called Internal, I can’t remember), you can set the Decimator to output a solid color when it does not see an input signal, which can help you troubleshoot. Scaling with the Decimator requires more settings, but it also gives you more information about what’s going on.
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