Hello & welcome to the community forum @mgualt 
I can’t answer you first question about Sync Clip but surely to your second question, the best answer I can give is the Visual Cortex.
Here’s some possibly relevant info from the Visual Cortex’s Technical Manual pdf as found here:
SYNC GENERATOR
The Sync Generator section is a broadcast specification video sync generator which can operate in NTSC/480i or PAL/576i timing formats. It can provide the master timing reference for an entire video synthesizer system, and its timing may be synchronized to an external video source.
Frontpanel:
A. Sync Format LED Indicators. Indicates NTSC or PAL mode.
B. Sync Lock Status LED Indicator. Green when locked to external sync, red when external sync is detected but no lock can be achieved.
C. Horizontal sync output jack. A pulse at the beginning of each video scanline.
D. Vertical sync output jack. A pulse at the beginning of each video field.
E. Frame rate clock output jack. A gate is turned on at the beginning of each odd field (the start of a new frame), and off at the beginning of each even field.
F. Dither pattern output. A dithered pixel texture for shading video objects. The spatial geometry of the texture is influenced by the selected Ramp Generator modes.