Very happy to have snapped up one of the last Vidiots recently, and have loved playing around with it.
Sadly, I haven’t been able to get the video input to work successfully. I’m using an old Sony Handycam Vision Video 8 XR (CCD-TRV27E - PAL).
With the composite in/out cables already connected, I instantly lose the main video output from the Vidiot as soon as the Sony is powered on. With the camera still on, main video out from the Vidiot returns as soon as I take out the video input cable. This happens whether I’m outputting to a TV, or to a Blackmagic interface.
I’ve tried swapping out composite cables and changing the NTSC/PAL & loop switch positions to no avail. Am I missing something?
Sorry you are having trouble with Vidiot.
If you are using a PAL camera, you will want to switch Vidiot to PAL mode and turn off the sync loop through switch. Then power cycle Vidiot. Are you also using a PAL monitor (or PAL setting on your Blackmagic interface)?
What happens when you plug the camera directly into your monitor or interface?
If you aren’t playing prerecorded video from your camera, you will want to open the lens cover (it is closed in the photo).
Definitely set the Vidiot to PAL as the pic appears to show it set to NTSC. It should still display something though.
Does the video output fail regardless of which mode the Vidiot is in or only in the eye/camera modes? If it’s the later, have you tried messing with the with the left-most controls to see if it’s simply set to light or dark?
Also do you have any other analog video sources to try? Old dvd player, game consoles?
thank you!