DIY Vision mixer

[BigbertII]

Out of interest, has anyone tries making a Vision Mixer for themselves?

if so how successful were they? and how did they go about it?

Bert

[sempei13]

The physics of video switching would make it difficult. You'd need to sync all sources with either frame syncs or somehow genlock them as a start.

Probably the closest I can think of is some of the switcher software that's available for computers (BoinxTV for the Mac is one example).

Let me know if you find something. They clearly did this years before computers, so it's probably simpler than I think it is, but I still don't know if there's a cheap, fast and easy way to do it.

Paul

[waynehoskins]

Some of the earliest switchers were pretty much DIY, pretty simple. Relatively simple circuitry, but they required all the sources be in sync. Even some of the pre-1990 video boards are pretty simple, even with microprocessors to help; they're still fundamentally analog -- but again, they required everything to be in time.

These days, I'd say it's good as an exercise. You'd need to use broadcast sources to be in sync, and overall it's better and easier to use commercial hardware when possible. However, what you learn in the process, that'd be priceless.