That would be cool. I heard that about the producer/director team. thanks for the offer, I've sent an email to a crewer about possible work down there, maybe we will run into each other again.

Greg, sorry I wasn't more pleasant. Things were interesting in my truck on Friday, replacement director AND producer who had NEVER worked together before and the format was new to them, and things were interesting. If you make it down to the Yard again things will be more "normal" and we can chat.

Mike, I know this is a bit off topic but I happened to be in the comcast truck when you checked this out on Friday, (I just happened to be hanging around) Val said I should come over to your truck to check things out. I had all intentions to do this but I got a little wrapped up in seeing how the 8000 worked. (I'M just starting to learn it) I just wanted to let you know that I wasn't blowing you off. greg

[quote="phil moss"]Mike wrote Bill, never saw it the 8000.... of course, the 8000A might have it Sony have always had it since the DME 5000 and in fact the co-ordinates change according to the format you are in which is usful In fact the Quantel DPE 5000 had it shame GVG dont Phil[/quote] Phil, you know I totally missed that function for three plus years. And yes, there have been a few times that using it would have made things easier.

I can tell you with much confidence that a DVE cursor is not on the radar for Kalypso. Not much more is being done before the final release of its software (version 14). One semi-solution that I use is to use the DEBUG menu, running on my PC - this allows you to turn on the grids for the secondary outputs of each M/E...Feed an M/E's (Pri or sec) preview (with the source video selected so that you get a grid superimposed on the video) as a temporary source for the keyer, & you can get a grid that represents the source space for the transformed keyer. Using AXIS LOC + Source space, you can find the correct position for your axis. Then re-select the actual source (not the PVW output) & you've got it. To make your PC access the debig menu, create another shortcut to the Kalypso menu application & go to the target for the shortcut. It should say somethin like "program files/GVG/Kalypso". Just add "-debug" to this & now you have a choice of running the real menu application or the debug where you can access some of the other features that aren't yet in the release software. But beware - running in debug slows the PC menu WAY down & it sometimes gets a little unstable. But it's a neat way to access the safe title grid system for the secondary sides of a split M/E.

Mike wrote Bill, never saw it the 8000.... of course, the 8000A might have it Sony have always had it since the DME 5000 and in fact the co-ordinates change according to the format you are in which is usful In fact the Quantel DPE 5000 had it shame GVG dont Phil

[quote="Bob Ennis"]... the TE's have no preview output... hardware is NOT capable of this ... never designed in ...[/quote] This is where some lateral thinking is required. 1) The Kalypso has hardware that can create safe title areas, under software control. These appear on a preview output. These can change under software control, such as when you change the value of User Lines, or move the Chromakey Colour Select box. Therefore the preview output is capable of generating an X or other form of crosshair or cursor to mark a spot somewhere on the screen. 2) The transform engines are controlled by numbers; presumably these numbers can be read out of memory somewhere and be made available to software. The software needs to know the X,Y and Z coordinates of the final TE image, as well as the relative position of the Centre of Rotation. 3) Write some software that reads the TE numbers, decides where on the 2d screen (target) the centre of rotation would need to be "projected", and generates a wireframe cross-hair on the preview output using the safe title hardware circuitry. 4) The TE's don't need their own preview outputs in hardware: * Is the (proposed) "preview TE cursor" option selected? If yes, * Is there a TE involved in a keyer on this M/E? If yes, * Find the dot on the screen represented by the Centre of Rotation. * Extend this dot by (say) 20 pixels up, down, left and right to produce a graphical "cross" using the preview cursor hardware. * The M/E's preview output ALREADY combines the cursor and the M/E (currently "look-ahead") output. End result has been achieved. It may be that the safe title hardware is more powerful than the basics that I'm suggesting here. If so, it may be possible to generate an ID text to go with the cross-hair, indicating which TE or keyer a cross represents, or to display a Front/Back ID, or the three X,Y,Z vectors showing orientation, etc. But a simple intersection is so easy that I refuse to believe "it (the Kalypso) can't do it". More likely the "we (the engineers/developers) don't want to do it." I understand the costs associated with developing a "new" feature, especially where you've already sold the equipment (and so can't expect a monetary return for the investment). But many people have purchased Kalypsos knowing it was "still in development", and in good faith expected development to keep the Kalypso "state of the art" (or in some cases to at least live up to the sales and marketting brochures - don't get me started on THAT!). The DVEous can generate a cursor ... is there an earlier device that did the same thing? How many years behind is the Kalypso in this area? Perhaps we can shame Thomson Grass Valley with information like this ... but if they don't know we want it, they certainly won't even bother trying. brad

A big problem with doing a cursor for the TE's is that the TE's have no preview output...they are in-line with the keyer output. Putting a cursor on this output (no the hardware is NOT capable of this - a cursor on the DVE path was never designed in) could potentially put it on air. The engineers at the time of Kalypso's development decided that this feature would not be implemented.

[quote="Bill D"]I just figured it was on some top secret preveiew output. ... So I guess we will never see GVG give us a cursor. Wonder if Sony has one .. Bill[/quote] Bill The "safe title" and "grid" cursors appear on the regular preview output. Early software versions had greyed-out buttons indicating "4:3 safe title" etc. It seems to me, then, that the hardware is capable of adding white lines as determined by software. If you looked more closely at the graphic on the page, I had a mock-up of this menu selector, adding a button labelled "Transform Cursor". I'm certain it can be done in software. BUT you need to let Thomson know it's needed, and do it while the product is still in development. If they don't hear from real-world users, they'll assume a feature is unnecessary. brad

Bill, never saw it the 8000.... of course, the 8000A might have it since Sony changed hardware and the older systems aren't able to be upgraded to be equal to the newer specs. Oh, and it's not just DME's, it is also the SS and now their version of Double Take and 4x3 wings...

[quote="brad fisher"]I have 2 methods listed for doing this: First is useful for finding the axis after you've already moved it somewhere, but it's a bit complex. Second is great if you are starting from a full-frame un-transformed image, and is simple. brad[/quote] Brad, both scenarios don't sound terrible bad. But really, they copuldn't have come up with a cursor? I mean the DVEous has had it since it's early days. I just figured it was on some top secret preveiew output. I like using the DVEous cursor rotate on left side axis in target and then use locate source to fly it off screen, great for fullscreens. So I guess we will never see GVG give us a cursor. Wonder if Sony has one .. Bill

I have 2 methods listed for doing this: First is useful for finding the axis after you've already moved it somewhere, but it's a bit complex. Second is great if you are starting from a full-frame un-transformed image, and is simple. brad