We are trying to hook up the G1 to test if for the arrival of our SD switcher next week. To test it I am hooking it up to an SD tape deck through the SDI port to the video in on the back of the deck, but we are not getting a signal. I messed around with settings with a canon tech and didn't get anywhere. The camera is set to SD, downconvert is on, the SDI port is on, and we tried both Auto and SD Lock as settings and neither worked. To confirm the deck was working I connected the A/V cable to the miniphone on the camera and attached in (with a BNC adapter) to the same port on the deck and we got a signal right away.

Any thoughts on this to get the SDI signal into an SD device ? We need to use SDI because we are going to use multiple cameras into the switcher.

Thanks !

Based on what you've described it sounds like the input on your deck is analog. If you get a signal when feeding it from the analog out of the camera using the A/V cable; but not when feeding it from the SDI port; then this indicates the deck has an analog input. You can not feed SDI (serial digital) into an analog in and expect to see a signal.

What type of switcher are you getting, and are you sure it takes SDI signals?

Agree-- the G1s output is HD-SDI, not just SDI. Possibly you need in I/O card to convert the signal from digital to analogue- we run from the HD DSI to an AJA Io HD, then via component to an analogue monitor, no problems.

That's a relief to hear !
The board is a panasonic AG-MX70 with an SDI board.
I appreciate the advice and patience. This is new ground for us !
We should have the mixer next week--any other tips on that, or should it pretty much be plug and play as far as getting the cameras hooked up?
Thanks again.