generator lock (Genlock)

Generally, when processing video signals and displaying them on a monitor, synchronization problems occur when two independent synchronous pulses are involved. The reason is that there are always minimal time differences between two synchronization signals.

These synchronization problems show up in the fact that one of the two video images is stably synchronized, while the other one shifts horizontally or is unstable in itself. Only when both video signals use the same sync signal, they are displayed stably. This is ensured by the Genlock (Generator Locking), an external synchronization signal.

The genlock signal is a central synchronization signal and takes over the synchronization functions for all connected video devices. It ensures that all video units are firmly coupled to the Genlock signal. This means that the connected video devices such as video cameras, editing and mixing stations, fade-in and fade-out devices, video recorders, digitizers, computer graphics cards and also monitors have no time offset between each other.