NI VMS Color Bar Waveform doesn't show the different levels of luminance

[DanielID]

I currently have a PXI-2172 with a PXIe-6545 and I'm analysing an SMPTE color bar pattern.  When I acquire the signal, using the latest version of Videomaster, I can't see the different levels of brightness for each color on the waveform display.  Instead I see what is below.  I was hoping to see a lot more details, such as the horizontal blanking, active region, sync tip, etc.  I'm sure there is something obvious that I'm missing, I'm a newb when it come to video testing...

I'm starting to think what I'm trying to look at is not possible with this hardware. 

[Tarek]

Hello Daniel,

Can you post your acquisition here so I can look at it?

Also, what do you have selected in the Picture tab? You can try to change the cursor location and click the View Line button on the top right to see if the Waveform tab changes.

It could also be a good idea to open one of the image files that ship with NI VMS and play around with it to learn the software. They should be at the location the file browser defaults to when you go to File>Open (C:\Users\Public\Documents\National Instruments\NI VMS\Waveforms).

[DanielID]

I have found out what my problem was.  The waveform that I was looking for was for a composite color bar signal, and what I'm actually looking at is a color bar signal riding on HDMI.  HDMI's video signal is actually a digital serial stream whereas a composite signal is an analog signal of a 2 wire interface so it needs a significant amount of modulation to send the color information.  So, to make a long story short I was looking for a composite signal waveform on an HDMI inteface which doesn't make sense.   I'm new to all of this video testing stuff.