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Capturing Timecode live on set
Hello, I am preparing a live studio shoot with the Panasonic Varicam which I hope to capture live to a “decklinked” Final Cut Pro suite. It is important for me to capture the timecode from the camera so I was hoping someone could shed some light on how I can accomplish this using a decklink and FCP. I haven’t purchased a decklink HD product yet, but I have the extreme which I plan to upgrade from. I have been very happy with the extreme I just need HD capture now.
So is it possible to go from the T/C out of the camera to the Sync of the card? Will this actually give me a useable timecode, or is there a method to bring T/C in over the HD-SDI signal. In a perfect world I would like to run the HD-SDI signal to the input of the decklink, and the T/C output to the T/C input of the decklink? Does this work, or any insight into getting timecode into a decklink product would be great.
Many Thanks
Matt
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3 Replies
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Hi Matt,
Unlike Firewire where you can capture video, audio and timecode, SDI only captures video and audio and timecode must be captured via another mechanism such as a RS-422 serial connection. Your Varicam camera won’t have a RS-422 output so that is not going to be possible. Obviously you could use a VariCam deck but that’s not going to help you with a live set.
You would be using one of the Blackmagic HDTV 720p easy setups and they have the device control set to Panasonic RS-422. One option which you could test with your camera, is to switch the device control to Firewire. There are a couple of different Firewire options so try both. It is possible that this will enable you to both control the captures from your camera and capture timecode.
If all you want to do is to have a timecode on the captured video, then you could use a timecode generator for that purpose. That can be particularly helpful if you have multiple cameras and you want the same timecode used with all cameras. The time code generator can distribute timecode to the capture stations via some video routers including Workgroup Videohub.
Regards,
Luke Maslen
Blackmagic Design -
If the Varicam has LTC Time Code out you can just use a timecode reader that will work with the Decklink RS-422.
https://www.timecode.com/easyreader15.html
You might have to use a clockit if the Varicam can’t output LTC timecode. -
Thanks Pete that link, I am hoping that might be the trick. So am I correct to say that there is no way that I can bring t/c in over the sync input of the Decklink, only via the RS-422. Now I just need to find out how the Varicam outputs timecode…
Cheers
Matt
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