Paul got ahold of a few bvh1100 vtrs for me to goof around with, so far there hasnt been much goofing, they weigh 250 pounds!! anyway, at first it wouldnt play back, but after I gave it a source signal, all the servos locked and away it went. It has two problems. 1. it won't record. I've tried switching all of the switches and everything and it still wont record. 2. on occasion the control logic will freeze up, and I have to "reboot" it to get it to do anything. anyone out there familiar with these machines to give me a hand?
Josh
Another endevor into the world of rust
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"Film is made of silver, video is made of rust"
'nuf said
as far as the blackburst generator, can they be built? or can something else be used for that instead?
where is that record inhibit switch? there is also one of the front panel that I made sure was turned off.
anything else I missed?
Josh
For a cheap blackburst solution you might try this: Since you are already using a DVD player as your source, try pausing a DVD at a point where it is in black. I think that should give you a good enough ref signal. You might also look on ebay for one of those low-end Leader or Beckman video test signal generators. Those can be fairly cheap and they can supply a black signal with (or without) burst.
Paul
Gimpy Staff Projectionist, Vidiot
Crown Neonopolis 14
"Otaku wa tsurai yo" <-- Yeah I know, bad pun. Sue me.
It's tough being a fan!
now where is that record inhibit switch?
Josh
If you think a BVH-1100 is heavy, wait 'til you see the Ampex 2000 that will surely find its way to your door. Or an IVC-9000. (Both use 2" tape, one being quad and the other helical scan. Both are behemoths about the size of a big side-by-side refrigerator and probably weigh around 700 lbs each.) I can probably dig those up if you're interested, but you'd have to pay the shipping... 
Actually on the BVH 1100 there is only one record inhibit which you seem to have found. . .sorry, I had a brain fart and flashed on the BVH 2000 for a moment, the switch on that machine is located on the bottom with the TBC behind a drop down panel.
As far as black burst, I'm not clear how you were able to derive a reference from an M2 deck, without that deck itself being fed the signal. Are you sure that you didn't take the loop-thru output (which would be either underneath or just to the side of the reference input)? I've never played with an M2 but I also have never heard of a tape machine producing it's own black reference, and taking the loop output would do you no good unless said machine was being fed it's own signal.
If you have access to a video camera that has a composite video output, it would produce the signal you need by virtue of it's NTSC encoder. You could take the camera's video output to the BVH's reference input and try things that way.
Josh
Paul Meyer - Mark might want those. He was looking for a 2-inch Ampex. With all that stuff I hauled to Josh, it looks like he basically ran out of room!