Sync Issue with Vidiot Composite Output

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I was helping a friend figure out how to record from his Vidiot to a computer and ran into what I’m assuming is a weird sync issue.

I have a system built around a Visual Cortex and use the Blackmagic Analog to Digital Converter + Blackmagic UpDownCross HD. I can take a composite signal straight out of my Visual Cortex and record no problem. I thought it would be really easy to do the same with his Vidiot, but I couldn’t get any signal. If I ran the composite out to a CRT is showed up just fine, but not through the Blackmagic converters. The Vidiot was definitely switched to NTSC (I tried PAL also) and I tried both the sync loop through settings.

Finally, I went and got my V4 and tried running it through that. It worked perfectly through the V4, but still no signal going directly from the Vidiot. My friend doesn’t own any sort of video mixer or DA and would like to get started with just the Vidiot. Any thoughts on what the issue could be?

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If you are able to get a clear Vidiot signal with your V4 and CRT, then it must be the settings on the Blackmagic device(s) that are causing the problem. If it were a sync issue, you would be seeing an unsynced (scrolling) signal, rather than no signal at all. Some people have had issues setting up various Blackmagic devices; there might be some good advice in other threads here on the forum.

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My Vidiot has a lot of trouble generating its own sync and this causes issues when I try to capture its direct composite output with a BM Intensity Shuttle. Similarly to your scenario, running it through a mixer fixes this.

Without a mixer, I’m also able to resolve the capture issue by externally syncing Vidiot with a video source plugged into the composite input. I’m just using a camera but any composite video source with stable sync seems to do the trick.

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