jvc 8 channel mixer

Hi Adewale.

 

oh oh - you might have bought an expensive door stop! The JVC is a capable mixer (is it the component or composite version?) but needs genlocked cameras as it doesn't have frame synchronisers on the inputs, so you cannot connect two cameras and mix between them - each camera needs to be genlocked to a stable sync source. if your cameras have component out you can get them into the mixer in SD, but wipes won't work, and cuts will give you a visual frame jump as you switch sources. These folder mixers are pretty useless. You often see Grass Valley mixers on ebay and they're brilliant mixers if you have a genlocked system. As far as I know - you do have component out from the Z7 but there's no genlock in?

hi paulears,

pls since the z7 is not genlocked, what do you advice me to do

there's pretty much nothing affordable that you can do.

 

You'd do better to forget the JVC and buy a mixer with a built in TBC like the products from Datvideo.

 

The only way that you could use the JVC would be to buy several TBCs or synch strippers and use a load of hardware to sync the cameras but it's just not viable

Sadly - that does about sum it up. The mixer was a nice capable device, but it needed to be integrated into a studio system to work - I've seen people buy mixers on ebay that are almost an identical spec. The datavideos, panasonics and some For-As have the synchronisation done internally by stripping out the sync and replacing it attached to the picture elements that have been stored in memory and aligned properly. Quite a few cameras have a gunlock input socket, which many people never, ever use - but this is one of those occasions where it's critical. I think I'd probably sell the mixer on ebay and look at something else - new or second hand that will have frame stores built in. The other thing is that your camera only has composite and component outputs in SD quality - so if you want to mix and effect HD, it's a different product yet again - and more expensive. Sorry to be the bearers of bad news. The snag really is that the full spec is available - the problem is a feature missing - but really it's one that wasn't needed for the type of installs the mixer was used on.

Hello Asareelmedia

Bad news on both counts I think. The Km-3000 does not work with HD cameras. It is an SD mixer that only accepts YUV component inputs. It's a solid mixer but has unfortunately been retired by HD technology. You can spend a lot of time and money trying to down convert HD to SD in an attempt to use HD cameras with this mixer. But in all honesty its better to get yourself a good HD mixer. Paul is right about the Genlock too. This caused me no end of trouble in my studio a few years ago. 

You can make the control cable very easily if you have the pin diagram. Do you have the manuals? There are two. One is a user manual the other is an engineering manual? I have them still somewhere if you need a copy.

Good luck. I loved this mixer. It may be worth while getting it to work but remember if something fails on it then their are no parts and you'll be hard pushed finding an engineer that can fix it. Have you seen it's younger brother the KM-5000. Now that was a good mixer too and had SDI SD inputs.

 

But again you're going to be spending lots on Time Base Correctors etc

All the best

Tilski

Tilski, please can you kindly send the manuals of the jvc mixer to me. Thanks