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Blacking tapes for 24PA
Wondering if anyone out there has been blacking tapes for the DVX100A to help reduce timecode breaks. Here’s my situation: we’re shooting in 24p Advanced, using the DVX as a 2nd camera (to the Varicam) and in many cases it’s being operated by crew who are not necessarily camera ops. I’m trying to act as damage control, since on return most of the tapes have broken and inconsistent timecode. We have tight turnarounds, so I don’t currently have the DVX in my possession to run some tests. I’m curious whether or not I’ll be wasting my time blacking tapes (at 29.97). In other words, how does the DVX100A write timecode to the tape? Will it write over the timecode previously on the tape or will it pick up the timecode on a blacked tape? In many situations, the camera is shut off and turned back on again. I’m guessing that a break will occur in this situation no matter what…
Any insight?
Thanks,
Luke -
4 Replies
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Timecode is always at 29.97 so blacking for timecode break protection in 24pA via 29.97 is fine. The best way to avoid breaks is to shoot extra at the end of every take and if you turn the camera off- rewind a second or two into that extra so TC overlaps.
Noah
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Thanks Noah. There’s not much I can do about the crew not rewinding after shutting off the camera to overlap TC (we’ve had that discussion before), but I’m glad to know that blacking the tapes will protect against the seemingly random breaks that we get as well.
-Luke -
Have you check you TC settings??? Rec Run/Free Run, should be on Rec Run
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Just a note on blacking tapes in the DV format:
Keep in mind that DV does not use a “longitudinal” time code track like VHS and other formats did. It is controlled by the timing crystal in the camera. Blacking out a tape will help reduce timecode breaks, but don
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