Tell 'em to just go real HD like everyone else! :-) I've seen a market where 3 stations are HD and one is "16:9 widescreen" and I can spot the WAY lesser quality a mile away. They're not folling anyone (except the little old ladies who coplain about the black bars on the top and bottom of their TVs).... Cheers, RE

Thanks Rick - thats clear as a bell. Side flags aren't supported in SD. Rats... back to the drawing board. Didn't wanna mess with those crummy sideflags anyway! (frowns, kicks a rock...)

Hi... I can't make out in your message if you're attempting to do SD 16;9. If that's the case, the MVS can do it, but side flags are not supported - only in HD. Also, setting the switcher to 16:9 only changes the aspect ratio of the wipes and changes the arithmetic of the DME's processor. It will not do any form of asect ratio conversion. Everything will appear stretched becuase the monitor will be set to 16:9. You would have to run everything through extenal format converters to make them look correct before reaching the switcher. Wish I had better news.... RE

[quote="jbs"]I've changed my monitor to 16x9 and of course it just stretches it out. When I change the switcher to 16x9 aspect I then see the safe title right-size itself back to 4x3 and add my safe title box 2 as 16x9 - good. My DME parameters change as well as evident from an x-axis rotation I had up - good, all as I expected. However, I see no difference changing a source between 4x3 and 16x9... I still see stretched video no matter what. I expected to change a source to 4x3 and it right-size itself just as the safe-title did, but that didn't happen. I'm wondering if I'm missing something else to define an incoming source as 4x3 or 16x9 - I'm still at 480i here. Is there an optional card that I'm missing or some kind of software key I wonder, or maybe a save and reboot to get it to work? Thanks![/quote] When you define a source as 4x3 or 16x9, you won't see the aspect ratio change ... the definition of this information on each source has more to do with other switcher options, like if you are adding side flags (it'll automatically add them if you've set-up side flags to do that) for example. Another thought on that same topic ... you won't see the side flags just pop-in on the sides of a source that you've just added them to. Instead, you'll need to punch away from it and then reselect the desired crosspoint to see the side flags. I use an 8000G, and we have internal aspect ratio converters on the first 16 inputs, and 2 outputs of the switcher (you can select each of those inputs or outputs to either "squeeze" to 16x9, of to "edge crop" to 4x3) ... this would be an option that you'd have to add, as it doesn't just come with the switcher (as far as I know). Hope that helps if even just a little...

I've changed my monitor to 16x9 and of course it just stretches it out. When I change the switcher to 16x9 aspect I then see the safe title right-size itself back to 4x3 and add my safe title box 2 as 16x9 - good. My DME parameters change as well as evident from an x-axis rotation I had up - good, all as I expected. However, I see no difference changing a source between 4x3 and 16x9... I still see stretched video no matter what. I expected to change a source to 4x3 and it right-size itself just as the safe-title did, but that didn't happen. I'm wondering if I'm missing something else to define an incoming source as 4x3 or 16x9 - I'm still at 480i here. Is there an optional card that I'm missing or some kind of software key I wonder, or maybe a save and reboot to get it to work? Thanks!

[quote="jbs"]Bob... wondering if I'm doing something wrong. I set the switcher's format to 16x9 in engineering menu, then selected a source to be 4x3 in menu 7331.7 expecting to see side pillars but everything remained the same. Could this be a "G" only menu with its converters? Or am I missing a step here or thinking this through wrong? I'm way behind on this issue...[/quote] Without seeing your setup, I couldn't say off-hand if anything else was wrong or not. I'm trying it just as I described right now on my switcher, putting a source to 4x3 with Auto Side Flags ON & Auto Crop ON - it's working just as it should when I take the source on the A or B bus...it won't ever work on the keyer buses - which is as-designed.

[quote="jbs"]Bob... wondering if I'm doing something wrong. I set the switcher's format to 16x9 in engineering menu, then selected a source to be 4x3 in menu 7331.7 expecting to see side pillars but everything remained the same. Could this be a "G" only menu with its converters? Or am I missing a step here or thinking this through wrong? I'm way behind on this issue...[/quote] Dumb question, but is your monitoring set to 16:9? Changing the switcher's format to 16:9, and defining your sources to 4:3 or 16:9 are important steps, but you won't see the switcher change aspect ratio -- making these changes only helps the switcher deal with the different types of inputs you might have. One thing you could do to make sure you're seeing the switcher change between formats would be to generate a circle wipe, and switch between formats. Also, make sure to select something to feed your "side flags" using Utility 1. Matt

Bob... wondering if I'm doing something wrong. I set the switcher's format to 16x9 in engineering menu, then selected a source to be 4x3 in menu 7331.7 expecting to see side pillars but everything remained the same. Could this be a "G" only menu with its converters? Or am I missing a step here or thinking this through wrong? I'm way behind on this issue...

In menu 7331.7 (under SIDE FLAGS), you set up each input as either 4x3 or 16x9. If a source is set to 4x3, the side flags can be set to know to automatically turn on for that source. It is in this menu that you can adjust the width & cropping of the source. If you set the source to 16x9, it will be stretched out. If you set it to 4x3, you can adjust the width to maintain it's aspect ratio.

So if the switcher was in 16x9 mode and I chose one source to show up as 4x3 in menu 7331.7, would that source be "squeezed" or would it simply be cropped on either side to allow for sideflags? Or neither?

I believe that menu page 7313 will let you assign each M/E & each channel of DME to reference to 4x3 or 16x9. Remember that the switcher (except for the FM's) does NOT create 16x9...as far as it's concerned, a 4x3 source is the same as 16x9. You will need to run your acquisition devices (cameras, CG's VT's, etc.) in 16x9. You will also need to run your monitors in 16x9. But the only thing that putting an M/E in 16x9 does is to re-aspect the wipes to match the elongated pixels. Putting a DME into 16x9 changes its grid (X,Y) coordinates. If your input sources remain 4x3, then you may want to put side flags on them (menu page 7331).

The switcher will handle 16x9 with no problem. In one of the menus is a 16x9/4x3 setting. That is for wipe values, crops and DME parameters. (Some effects may need to be rebuilt once you flick the internal switch. Assuming that the box was set for 4x3 when installed.) You would not see any difference if the 8000A was set "wrong' when installed. What cameras do you have? Sony BVP 900's and Iki 377's can do 16x9 480i. Switch on the base station or MCP I believe. BVW-75's and I assume Digibetas can handle 16x9 480i. (Source being fed into them has to be 16x9.)