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Converting video-assist to HD


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Hi everyone,

I have already been schooled on this subject by the community that speaks for my monitor company so yes, I already know my stupidity.

I bought the PIX-E5 to use with my schools cameras, a mixture of Sonys, one Alexa, and one RED Dragon, and of course out film cameras. Now it turns out two things that I should have looked up.

My monitor/recorder only supports HD resolutions, and it has to be a digital one. So my monitor is pretty useless. But I started to think if there is a solution to this. I had people telling me that the Decimator MD-HX might a solution to make this work. Problem is, I was planning using this in the field so I need a battery solution.

So to make it simple.

A, does the Decimator MD-HX have the capability to make a NTSC composite signal through BNC, to a 720 BNC?

Link:
http://www.amazon.com/DECIMATOR-Miniature-Converter-Scaling-Conversion/dp/B00QPRGGCS

B, Is there a way to run this on an external battery (but not a D-tap since the Arri SR-3 does not have that)?

/C

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Hi!

I've just been researching for a similar solution. From what I understand the Decimator product you'd need is: http://decimator.com/Products/OBSOLETE/SDADC/SDADC.html but it's out of production.

 

I got a Aja V2Digital: https://www.aja.com/en/products/mini-converters/v2digital

 

For me it's works to convert the analog signal from a Arri 416 to a Sound Devices Pix240 monitor/recorder. Blackmagic makes a analog-digital converter also. It's cheaper but my rental house recommended me to avoid it and I generally don't trust Blackmagics products so I choose the Aja.

 

I can power the converter with d-tap but I'm waiting for a custom cable to let me power it from the 416 "mini-monitor" port (12v). If you don't have the option of getting power from the camera (it should be possible) I think it would not be hard to make a adapter to power it from small "dv-cam batteries". The power connector on the converter is some strange type so you'd need to get that from Aja I think.

 

I choose to get the adapter since I want to record the video tap with the cameras timecode burnt in so I can sync sound from the sound recorder manually when not using a slate. If you just want a monitor it would be much cheaper to get a used SD monitor to use with film cameras with analog video taps. I got a old Transvideo monitor for around 80€ and it also does the job.

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Just did some more thinking and maybe you'd still have a problem is the Pix-e5 only works with 720p signals… The Pix 240 seems to have much more options for input signals, including PAL and NTSC.

I can try with a SmallHD 502 to see if it works with the converter, but I'll not have access to the camera until next week.

 

Good luck!

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Just did some more thinking and maybe you'd still have a problem is the Pix-e5 only works with 720p signals… The Pix 240 seems to have much more options for input signals, including PAL and NTSC.

I can try with a SmallHD 502 to see if it works with the converter, but I'll not have access to the camera until next week.

 

Good luck!

 

I would love for you to check on this to get an actual real answer.

 

That said I read the manual for the decimator (here http://decimator.com/specs/MD-HX_HARDWARE_MANUAL_FV1.3.pdf ). And it seems it does accept 480/576 in (so NTSC/PAL), and it DOES upscale to whatever resolution I need (HD)

 

Hence I do think't it would work.

 

C

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Hi,

I hope someone with more technical knowledge can give a better answer but to me it looks like the decimator will work. Only thing I'm not sure about is if it converts a analog signal to a digital signal. Maybe it upscales a digital SD signal but not a analog? If it does convert a analog signal I think my reseller gave me the wrong info and I sure will regret not getting the decimator since it would be handy to also have a SDI-HDMI converter...

 

I'll get back to you if I have some useful information, please let me know what you find out. Maybe a email to Decimator could give an answer.

 

Take care!

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Hi,

I hope someone with more technical knowledge can give a better answer but to me it looks like the decimator will work. Only thing I'm not sure about is if it converts a analog signal to a digital signal. Maybe it upscales a digital SD signal but not a analog? If it does convert a analog signal I think my reseller gave me the wrong info and I sure will regret not getting the decimator since it would be handy to also have a SDI-HDMI converter...

 

I'll get back to you if I have some useful information, please let me know what you find out. Maybe a email to Decimator could give an answer.

 

Take care!

 

Back to square one.

 

Hi Carl,

 

The MD-HX is a digital only device and so can only convert SDI/HDMI to SDI/HDMI, to do the function you require you would need an analogue to SDI/HDMI converter which we currently do not offer.”

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Hi!

I've just been researching for a similar solution. From what I understand the Decimator product you'd need is: http://decimator.com/Products/OBSOLETE/SDADC/SDADC.html but it's out of production.

 

I got a Aja V2Digital: https://www.aja.com/en/products/mini-converters/v2digital

 

For me it's works to convert the analog signal from a Arri 416 to a Sound Devices Pix240 monitor/recorder. Blackmagic makes a analog-digital converter also. It's cheaper but my rental house recommended me to avoid it and I generally don't trust Blackmagics products so I choose the Aja.

 

I can power the converter with d-tap but I'm waiting for a custom cable to let me power it from the 416 "mini-monitor" port (12v). If you don't have the option of getting power from the camera (it should be possible) I think it would not be hard to make a adapter to power it from small "dv-cam batteries". The power connector on the converter is some strange type so you'd need to get that from Aja I think.

 

I choose to get the adapter since I want to record the video tap with the cameras timecode burnt in so I can sync sound from the sound recorder manually when not using a slate. If you just want a monitor it would be much cheaper to get a used SD monitor to use with film cameras with analog video taps. I got a old Transvideo monitor for around 80€ and it also does the job.

 

This seems to be what I am looking for.

 

https://www.aja.com/en/products/mini-converters/hd10a-plus#support

 

C

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