Timing (Genlock) Adjustments in HDTV: The Setup

VOLUME 3
NUMBER 3
TIMING (GENLOCK) ADJUSTMENTS IN HDTV

Timing or genlock adjustments in the 1080i/59.94
environment poses some new problems in comparison with familiar NTSC techniques.There is no burst
reference and signal delays can be in lines rather
than microseconds due to processing delays.Whats
needed is a timing reference that spots an address
on a particular line, is there all the time and is not
influenced by picture content. The procedure
described in this issue makes use of a pulse that
appears on line 9 of field 1 if embedded audio is in
use in the sources to be timed.The pulse is formed
by the 000,3FF,3FF preamble to the audio control
packets that are in the Y channel. (See SMPTE 299M,
page 15.)
The Setup
Select EXT REF. The LED shows when external reference is selected.
Touch CH2 and CH3 to turn off the LEDs and confirm that CH1 is active. We will be looking at the
audio control pulse in the Y (CH1) channel.
In the DISPLAY group select OVERLAY.
Activate the SYSTEM menu, go to the DIGITAL
menu and select EAV/SAV PASS. (We will be looking at a signal in blanking.)
Touch LINESEL and select Field 1. Set the WINDOW to 2 and set the line number to 8. (The reason for selecting line 8 will be shown shortly.)
Select the SWEEP menu and select 2H.
The display should appear as shown in Fig. 1. Turn
INTEN fully CW as we are looking at 2 lines out of
1125.
Two sources, generators such as the LT 440D, are

needed as well as the waveform monitor LV
5152DA. Connect the serial output of the generator
designated as the master to the A serial input of the
LV 5152DA, and connect the serial output of the generator to be genlocked to the B serial input. Connect
the tri-level sync output of the master generator to
the GENLOCK input of the slave and loop through
to the EXT REF inputs of the LV 5152DA and terminate. When the setup is powered, the INT LED will
light in the GENLOCK group on the master but the
1125 LED will light on the slave showing that it is
locked to external 1125 sync. Set both generators for
100% color bars.
At the LV 5152DA select SERIAL A for observation
and set controls for a normal parade display to confirm proper operation for the waveform monitor.
Next, reset the WFM monitor as follows:
Fig. 1 Lines 8 and 9 of Field 1 shows the audio control pulse at

mid screen.
Teleproduction Test is produced by Leader Instruments Corporation, a manufacturer of video, audio and industrial test instruments. Permission is granted to reprint part or all of the contents provided a credit line is included listing the following:
Leader Instruments Corporation

6484 Commerce Drive
Cypress, CA 90630
1 800 645-5104 www.leaderusa.com e-mail: [email protected]
Fig. 2 The audio control pulse magnified with MAG 2.
Fig. 4 Late pulse from the slaved generator.
What the display shows is lines 8 and 9 from left to

right. Starting at far left is EAV followed by SAV for
line 8 with EAV for line 9 followed by the audio control pulse at mid screen.This is followed by SAV for
line 9. Now to set up adjustment, set H POS to place
the control pulse on the center major time tick of
the graticule.
slave LT 440D and touching the outer

key until
the leading edge of the control pulse comes to rest
on the center reference graticule mark. See Fig. 11
on the back page for locations of timing controls.
Figure 2 shows the pulse expanded in the MAG2

mode.This is actually very dim at this magnification.
The photo was taken using a time exposure.
The control pulse can also be found in the data
dump for line 9. Touch DIGITAL, dial up line 9 and
the data appears as shown in Fig. 3. The preamble
appears at addresses 1928-1930.
To set genlock on the slave generator, switch the LV
5152DA to observe SER B. Fig. 4 shows an example
of a delay in this generators signal as its control
pulse shows up to the right of the center graticule
mark that had been set up earlier as the timing reference. (Almost a full line late.)
Timing correction is made by holding SET on the
Fig. 3 The audio control pulse at addresses 1928-1930 on line 9.
Fine Adjustment
The adjustments outlined above should be adequate
for most cases as digital equipment should lock with
an error of less than 0.5H. But to make more precise
adjustments, repeat the procedure with MAG 1
selected from the SWEEP mode. Fig. 5 shows the reference setting after MAG 1 has been selected. Here
again the master generator is selected and H POS is
set to put the leading edge of the control pulse on
the center graticule mark.Then SER B is called up to
view the pulse from the slaved generator. This is
shown in Fig. 6 after the coarse adjustment had been
completed. Note that the pulse is still late, but by a
very small time. The cursors had been activated to
show a 277 nanosecond delay. But this delay can be
corrected with the fine adjustment of the inner
arrow keys on the LT 440D.
Fig. 5 Control pulse from the master generator set to the reference mark in MAG 1.
Fig. 6 Small timing error easily corrected with the fine keys.
Cursors activated to show the initial error.
Fig. 8 Slave generator (SERB) with a delay of five lines.
Error Greater Than 1H
SER B display of Fig. 8 to that of Fig. 7.
The procedure thus far works for errors of less

than 1H. For larger errors, the LV 5152DA is set to
the 2V sweep mode with MAG ON. See Fig. 7. Here
the master generators signal is observed with a 2V
sweep but we are still in line select. Here the display is changed in that the lines selected (8 and 9)
are highlighted. That accounts for the bright dash
seen on the base of the V blanking pulse and that
audio control pulse is sitting on that two line dash.
Timing errors of more than several lines would

require that the V blanking signals be viewed without the MAG function. Fig. 9 shows a delay of 75
lines at the slaved generator. Sweep has been set to
2V and sweep mag has been switched off.
Fig. 8 shows the signal from the slaved LT 440D

after a five line delay had been inserted at that generator. This delay or advance of up to 100 lines is
available from the LT 440D menus. Note that the V
blanking interval for the slave generator has moved
to the right as compared to the leading edge of
blanking for the reference setting of Fig. 7. The
audio control pulse also no longer sits on the highlighted dash for lines 8 and 9. In this case, removal
of the delay introduced by the SER B generator
(advance/delay set to zero lines) would return the
Fig. 7 Master generator pulse in line select (8) and sweep set to
2V.
Very large timing errors can also be observed with

the LV 5152DA set to the PICture mode. Fig. 10
shows an example. Here the slave generator has the
same 75-line delay shown in the waveform of Fig.
9. The picture is still synced from external reference, and the V blanking bar is shown to have
dropped from the top.
Line-Select Window
Some comment about the LINE-SELECT window
notation on the LV 5152DA is in order. Look back at
Fig. 1 for a moment.The notice at the top-left of the
screen is: LINE = 1 : 8 [2].This reads that we are looking at field 1, line 8 and the window (in parenthesis)
is two lines. Under normal conditions, where the
Fig. 9 Large delay in the slaved signal viewed at 2V without MAG.
Fig. 10 An example of a 75-line delay for the slave generator

viewed in the PICture mode.
window is selected from the Line-Select menu, the

lines within the window are overlayed and the sweep
is 1H. But, because the sweep had been set for 2H at
the outset the window is shown to be two lines, and
the traces for lines 8 and 9 appear side by side in time
sequence from left to right. This points up another
example of control flexibility in the LV 5152DA.
Dont Overlook the Presets
Control setup to view the audio control pulse and to
make timing adjustments involves a number of con-
trol settings given on page 1, and omission of any

one of them will hide the pulse to be used as the reference. To avoid repeating this somewhat involved
number of settings the solution is to assign the
setup, once completed, to one or two of the ten
available presets available in the LV 5152DA. (One
could be used for errors of less than 1H, another for
larger error. The procedure to assign presets is as follows. Touch PRESET. This will bring you the list of
available presets, labelled P1 to P10 on the unit as it
comes from the factory. Pick one of these with the
rotary F .D control. The presets will recall all settings
including centering and the selection of external
sync. One thing that is not recalled in the preset
mode is the setting of the INTEN (brightness) control.You can leave it as is, P3 for example, or call up
the <PRESET> mode (F-2) and then the <RENAME>
mode. Now you can rename the setup with either
todays date hit the <RENAME-DATE>) or compose
your own label for the preset, such as GENLOCK.
Here the LOCATION keys move the cursors to the
position of each character location and the rotary
<SELECT> knob (F .D) allows you to select the characters. When ready, touch the STORE key from the
PRESET menu.
Fig. 11 LT 440D generator.Timing controls are in the GENLOCK group.

LDR 185
LEADER INSTRUMENTS CORPORATION

6484 Commerce Drive
Cypress, CA 90630

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VOLUME 3

TIMING (GENLOCK) ADJUSTMENTS IN HDTV

Two sources, generators such as the LT 440D, are

Fig. 1 Lines 8 and 9 of Field 1 shows the audio control pulse at

Leader Instruments Corporation

1 800 645-5104 www.leaderusa.com e-mail: [email protected]

Fig. 2 The audio control pulse magnified with MAG 2.

Fig. 4 Late pulse from the slaved generator.

What the display shows is lines 8 and 9 from left to

slave LT 440D and touching the outer

Figure 2 shows the pulse expanded in the MAG2

Fig. 3 The audio control pulse at addresses 1928-1930 on line 9.

Fig. 8 Slave generator (SERB) with a delay of five lines.

Error Greater Than 1H

SER B display of Fig. 8 to that of Fig. 7.

The procedure thus far works for errors of less

Timing errors of more than several lines would

Fig. 8 shows the signal from the slaved LT 440D

Very large timing errors can also be observed with

Fig. 9 Large delay in the slaved signal viewed at 2V without MAG.

Fig. 10 An example of a 75-line delay for the slave generator

window is selected from the Line-Select menu, the

trol settings given on page 1, and omission of any

Fig. 11 LT 440D generator.Timing controls are in the GENLOCK group.

LEADER INSTRUMENTS CORPORATION

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