Flashing STOP button in Sony VTRs

If (on a DigiBeta DVW-A500 or similair) you enable menu item 105 - Ref Alarm - the stop lamp will flash under several conditions;

• The reference signal is solid and the input video is locked but there is more than 43 video lines offset between them - the a longer period than the VTR's pre-read system will tolerate,


• The reference signal is solid and the input video is unlocked.


• The reference signal is solid and there is no input video and the deck is locked to video rather than ref


• There is no reference

Most folks assume it's down to a loss of reference - that's only the case in a minority of situations. I've been back and forth to one particular facility where they fail to understand this it's getting tedious!