HMS Video Guide

General Rules

Do not adjust any settings on the machines unless you know EXACTLY what you are doing. The information in this document is dependent on certain fundamental settings.
Along the same lines as number 1, do not adjust any cableing in the back of the rack without notifying the current video person.
Try to conserve Umatic tapes. Believe it or not Umatic tapes cost more than $11 each. Since most demos must be presented on VHS anyway, keep all of your stuff on one master tape rather than asking for a new tape for each demo you have.

Formatting a UMatic Tape

Make sure the Abekas (Lyon Lamb) is set to internal video, internal sync, chroma on, bars on

Select Abekas on the source switcher

Place the UMatic tape in the 9850 recorder and make sure it is rewound all the way

Set the time code on the 9850:

Change the the time code switch to preset mode - This switch is underneath the main panel - (push in the silver tabs and pull the panel up). Close the panel when finished
Set the switch near the counter to "dial menu"
Push in the knob once and the time code preset screen comes up
Set it to what you need. 99% of the time this is left at zero. If you don't know what you are doing leave it at zero.
Very important-hit the "set" button near the counter switch
Set the switch near the dial menu to "TC"

Make sure the Mode Select switch (top middle) is set to edit

Press the assemble button (left side)..a light will come on By the way - Only put the assemble button on during formatting!!

Press "Play" and "Record" at the same time

After about ten seconds- turn "bars" off on the Abekas

After the tape is formatted:

Turn the time code switch (under the main panel) back to slave lock
Make sure assemble is off
Switch the Abekas back to Video external, leave sync internal

Enjoy a freshly formatted tape..

Vdisk Controls

These are important to know in order -to do Vdisk to 3/4 copies and other Vdisk tasks...

Open the Vdisk panel - pull the top of the panel until it opens. You will see the vdisk keyboard.
Switch the source to Vdisk

When the Vdisk source is selected

To bring up the menu - hit 'd' - You can hit 'shift d' to toggle between the full menu and control screen.
Hit 'n' for normal mode- You should see "norm" in the bottom left
To set a frame #, type a number between 0-8999 and hit 'g'. This will jump to that frame
To set the playback speed, type a number for velocity and hit 'v'. The number 1.0 is the normal playback speed. You do not normally need to set this.
To play forwards from the current frame, hit "."
To play backwards from the current frame, hit ","
To stop play, hit the spacebar
To advance and decrement frame number, use the left and right arrow keys.

These controls assume that the vdisk is in its normal mode. If a user changes one or more settings without changing them back, these controls may not work..

Recording to Vdisk

There are several ways to do this

Write individual frames to the Vdisk
Write a sequence of images directly to the vdisk
Record to the vdisk directly from the 9800 player

The record settings on the vdisk must be changed depending on the method desired. The settings are slightly complicated and I'd like users to ask me or one of the more experienced persons in the lab for help before recording to the vdisk.

Dumping Vdisk to Umatic tapes (3/4'')

There are two main modes for playing things back from the vdisk. One is normal mode and the other is segment mode. In normal mode, play starts at the current frame and proceeds to the end of the vdisk or until someone hits the spacebar to stop. In segment mode the vdisk will play a desired frame range.
I recommend recording using segment mode unless you have a very quick space bar button finger.
To create a segment to play frames 400-500:

Bring up the menu selection screen using 'd' and shift 'd' if need be.
Hit 'F5' for segment menu
Delete all other segments using 'F7'
Type '400' and hit 'F1'
Type '501' and hit 'F2' -it stops 1 frame early
Hit 'F6' to add the segment.
Use 'F4' and 'F5' to make sure you are on YOUR starting segment
Use 'F10' to make sure SegID is selected

Hit enter to get out of segment menu.
Hit 's' for segment play mode
Goto your starting frame
Hit 'd' to get rid of the menu Note: the segment frame number and normal frame number ARE different. So while in segment mode, frame 100 will be frame 500 in normal mode
Hit '.' to play
When you are done, put the machine by in normal mode by hitting 'n'.

Dumping a vdisk frame to an image file

t=Type "wsdvcp vdisk" at the prompt
Use the transfer option

Dumping screen to 3/4" tape

Select RGB as the source on the switcher
Place a formatted tape into the 9850
Jog to the starting point. If starting from the beginning of the tape jog to 6 seconds in. This is done for preroll purposes. Don't worry if you don't know what this means.
Make sure you are in "edit" mode. (switch near top center)
Hit "video" insert command (left side of 9850)
Press Play-Edit-Pause at the same time
When machine stops clicking, press preroll. This backs the tape up 5 secs.
When ready to record hit pause...note that recording starts after the prerolled seconds are up. The preroll is used to get rid of the jumpy lines when recording. Note that the "rec" button on the 9850 is NOT used. In general when recording to Umatic always try to use the edit feature with inserting of video and audio. This preserves the time code and a few other things from our format.

Copying a 3/4" Umatic tape to VHS

Place the Umatic tape in the 9800 player. You cannot record a VHS tape from the 9850.
Select the 9800 player as the source.
Make sure the SVHS/VHS switch is set to VHS (bottom middle) on the SVHS machine
Insert a VHS tape and jog it to the proper location for recording.
Hit "play" on the 9800 and "play-record" on the SVHS machine.