Hello, it's me again!

I have been trying to use my AJA ColorBox as a TPG, but every time I try to upload a unity bypass from the "select LUT" dropdown menu and click upload the connection bar goes up to 10% and then turns red giving a not better specified error. I've tried several times on all my 8 units and even tried to factory reset them thinking it was a configuration issue. However this behaviour keeps happening no matter what. To be fair, the TPG works anyway. I've measured the stimuli of a few patches via a colour picker on my monitors and the signal seems to be matching the triplets in ColourSpace, so this is just a post to make Steve aware of the issue.

Anyone has experienced the same?

Are you using 'Unity Bypass' Upload, or The 'Default Unity' actual LUT Upload?
The correct workflow is 'Unity Bypass' Upload.
When loading a real LUT - Default Unity, or other - you will need to select the upload slot, etc.

Steve

Steve
I don't have ColourSpace in front of me of me at the moment and won't be until Wednesday at earliest. However the setting that I'm trying to use is the only one in the dropdown menu I've highlighted in red in this screenshot .
Maybe the wording is a bit different from this screenshot as I believe the AJA integration guide, from which I've taken this, uses an older version of ColourSpace.
Anyway I believe it says Unity Bypass. I'll take a video of the issue next time I'm at the office.

The LUTs in that dropdown are 'Real' LUTs, unless you leave it at the Default which is 'Unity Bypass'.
And Unity Bypass doesn't upload a LUT - it resets the box's internal parameters.

From the User Guide:
"Potentially, when Unity Bypass data is Uploaded all ColorBox settings will be nullified. Should it be desired that different LUTs and other settings remain as defined, upload the Default Unity LUT, which uploads just the LUT, and does not reset any additional settings. Set necessary settings, such as Brightness/Contrast/Black-Level, before any LUT Upload."

And you will need the correct other 'settings' in the AJA box fore a LUT upload, including the AJA Color mode.

Steve

Steve
I don't think I ever had multiple options in the dropdown — the only one I've seen (and tried) was the "default," which I believe corresponds to Unity Bypass. I always run my ColorBoxes in AJA Color mode, since that's the only mode that works with Pomfort Livegrade. It's also the default after a factory reset, so I don't think the mode is the issue.
As soon as I press Upload, ColourSpace begins the process and I can see a progress percentage (orange?) climb to about 10% in the area where the green Connected indicator is in the screenshot. It then turns red and throws an error. Once that happens, it doesn't seem like any settings on the ColorBox have changed — everything remains as originally configured.

Regarding this part of the guide:

Does this mean Unity Bypass essentially resets the ColorBox to factory defaults and bypasses all colour nodes in the AJA pipeline?

One last question: should the Bypass dropdown directly under Pipeline Mode be set to Off or Active? I assume it doesn't make much difference if all seven nodes in the pipeline are bypassed anyway, but I want to make sure I'm not missing something.

Thanks a lot for taking the time to help!

Unfortunately all I can answer is the question on the Light Illusion user guide text.
And that mean that any 'colour' related settings within the selected signal path are set to off/default, including any previously uploaded LUTs.

As for specific ColorBox settings, you would need to ask AJA about them.
And that goes for the upload 'error', as that suggests there is a setting not configured incorrectly, or that AJA have made changes in their firmware that have broken something.
Have you checked the firmware version you are using?

Steve

Steve
Thanks again for taking the time to reply.

Understood, I'll ask AJA and bring up this issue with them as well. I believe you are right. They must have broken the integration somehow with the new firmware. I'm using the latest one (v3.0.0.24) which was released on the 10/10/2024. Not exactly very recent, but if you guys wrote the implementation with firmware 2 which was released at least a year before that, something might have changed.
That was also the reason why I was asking on the forum. I was hoping somebody who is using ColorBoxes as a TPG like me would have experienced this too and hopefully had an answer. Apparently there aren't many AJA ColorBox users here, if this hasn't come up in more than a year

I'll report back what AJA says as soon as they reply.

Cheers

Have you actually loaded real LUTs into the boxes?

Steve

Steve
Not really, I'm trying to use the ColourBox as a TPG as the calibration LUTs will go straight into the monitor (SmallHD Quantum). However I will definitely test a random LUT just to see if it gives me the same issues once I'm back at the office tomorrow.

I use the AJA ColorBox with Colourspace all the time and it works wonderfully.
Remember when you're using it as a TPG you don't need any LUT loaded into it.
If you login via a browser to the ColorBox you should see the attached page.
The "Framestore" box should be orange, showing that Colourspace is connected and controlling it.
For normal TPG use it should be in "Bypass".
I don't think I've done it yet, but you should be able to load a calibration LUT into the ColorBox and apply it to FrameStore test frames, to see that your LUT is working correctly on the monitor (still running in Native mode).
I used to do this on my BoxIO TPG. It was very handy.

This is the AJA Network GUI

Steve
AJA have replied and they have admitted they've changed something between v2 and v3 that is breaking the Unity Bypass. I'm forwarding you their email as it is quite an extensive explanation and gives you all the details regarding the new APIs required to fix this on your end if you're willing to do so. I know probably there won't be many ColourSpace users who use ColorBox out there but I figured, if the integration is there already, it might as well be fixed and work properly with half a day of wok on the code if your team has got the time. After all, the higher license customers have paid for such an integration and I'm sure they'll appreciate that. I surely will!

Thanks a lot!

AJA will need to provide us the updated API, as well as a box for the required integration testing.

Steve