Configuring VFC Card Ports

Individual ports on each VFC slot can be further configured. To access this menu for any port, simply right-click the VFC port’s displayed name or the coloured box containing the port.

For more information on configuring VFC slots, please visit this link.

For an overview on VFC cards, please visit this link

General Options

Head Name

Allows the user to give each port a friendly name as seen in the feed view.

Display Mode

Allows the user to select the desired output modes (resolution, interlaced/progressive scan, bit rate, colour format) from a list of available modes at the current project refresh rate. The list of modes will vary between different VFC card models.

Custom Resolution

Allows the user to override the Display Mode resolution. For Mirror/Quad modes, the total resolution tiled across all the ports should fit within DCI 4K (4096x2160) resolution. For Quad 4K, the resolution should fit within DCI 4K resolution.

Note

The Quad SDI VFC and IP VFC cards do not support setting custom resolutions.

Timing Mode

Allows the user to force timing mode of the output signal, e.g. SMPTE, CVT. Setting it as AUTO works out the best timing in the following order:

1. DMT
2. CEA
3. CVT
4. CVT-RB
5. CVT-RBv2

Matrix Input

Allows the user to directly route inputs when connected to a video matrix. On machine failover, Designer sends a command to the matrix to route the understudy’s outputs to the matrix’s outputs. For more details on setting up matrix routing, please see this page.

Output Properties

Note

The Output Properties fields do not apply to Quad DVI and SDI cards.

Port Status

View the current status of the port. The status will indicate if a configuration field is different from the card’s current settings, e.g. ‘Refresh rate does not match project refresh rate’, or if there is an error, e.g. ‘Incompatible VFC’.

Temperature

View the current temperature of the port in degrees Celsius.

House Sync

View the current status of the Genlock signal.

Current Output

View the current output format (resolution interlaced/progressive scan, bit rate, colour format etc.) of the port. If this differs from the selected Display Mode, the Port Status field will tell the user what is different. Apply feed settings to resolve the difference.

EDID Emulation

Allows the user to select how Designer manages EDID emulation of this port. For more details please see this page.

Feed Properties

Background colour

Allows the user to set a background colour on the port. This can be used for identifying individual output ports and slots. It can also be used to validate that there is output from Designer.

Lineup Background

Allows the user to select a background texture to help with lining up feed rectangles.

Matrix Outputs

Allows the user to directly route outputs when connected to a video matrix. For more details on setting up matrix routing, please see this page.

Live Dot

Allows the user to set the xy coordinates of a flashing pixel that gives confidence that outputs are working correctly.

Latency

Allows the user to delay the output of the port by a number of frames. Negative values delays all other heads.

Output Options

Export Output Frame

Exports the port’s current output as an image. The image format can be changed under Project Settings. For more details please see this link

Histogram

Opens a live histogram, displaying the distribution of colour and luma, of the current output.

Waveform

Opens a live waveform diagram, displaying intensity of colour and luma, across the current output.

Vectorscope

Opens a live vectorscope, displaying the UV chroma channels on an x-y plot, of the current output.

Options Specific to Quad SDI Card

Swap Field

For interlaced output, this button allows the user to swap between aligning the odd or even fields with the incoming genlock signal.

Colour Conversion Matrix

Allows the user to define a colour conversion matrix (e.g. Rec.709, Rec.2020). This field is included in the SMPTE-425 video Payload Identifier. For outputting HDR video, Rec.2020 is required, combined with Transfer Characteristics field described below.

Transfer Characteristics

Allows the user to define the transfer characteristics (e.g. SDR, HLG, PQ). This field is included in the SMPTE-425 video Payload Identifier. For outputting HDR video, HLG or PQ is required, combined with the Rec.2020 Colour Conversion Matrix described above.

Note

Please note: For HLG and PQ transfer characteristics with Rec.2020 colour space, the SDI VFC card utilises the full video data range, including ‘super white’ and ‘super black’. See the bottom of Table 5 of the BT.2020 standard for more details.

Options Specific to HDMI Card

Reset HDMI Card

This button power cycles the HDMI card. This could help resolve issues such as an intermittent loss of card detection by Windows.

Options Specific to IP VFC Card

There are a number of options specific to the IP VFC card. For more details please see this page.