At Red Arrow we have two Nitris DX machines that are dedicated to capturing footage and onlining shows. Ever so often something will come up and we will need the use of a third machine for capturing. It doesn’t happen so frequently that buying another Nitris is worth the cost, however. So, when Avid announced support in Media Composer 5.5 for the IO Express by AJA, we decided to give it a whirl.

 

The installation and setup of the device was no big deal, but we had issues when trying capture from it. We had major video tearing and loss of signal, so much so that the Media Composer software could not capture anything.

This error message was displayed (click to enlarge):

 

Our configuration was this: SDI out of deck into the IO Express, IO Express SDI out back to deck, and the component out of the AJA device going to an external monitor. Pretty simple, right?

 

So, what the heck could the problem be? Here is a clue: when we would disconnect either the SDI input or output from the deck, the problem cleared up. It was only there when the deck was both accepting signal from the IO Express and sending signal to it.

 

I spent a couple of hours on the phone with Avid who then conferenced in someone from AJA. They were pretty bamboozled, too. After all, this was only Day 4 of MC 5.5’s release. The Avid support guy said I was his first call about the IO Express configuration. (It’s equal parts fun and stressful to be early adopters!)

 

Finally, the guy from AJA realized the answer to the problem. The issue was not in the hardware or software configuration. The issue was in the IO Express communicating with our deck, a Sony HDCAM HDW-1800. This deck has two options in how it handles servo/av reference. It can be set on automatic or manually set to “external.” Left on auto, this deck gets along perfectly well with a Nitris. However, when connected to the IO Express, the deck needs a little more explicit directions. Switching this deck setting to “external” has solved this issue.

 

Thanks to the tech support folks at Avid and AJA, our IO Express is up and running with Media Composer 5.5. It won’t get the level of workout that our Nitris systems get, but it’s nice to know it is there and ready when the need arises.

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