130 vs 1200a

[Steve Mahrer]

Dale:

The AJ-HD130 is a nice deck, but records in the older 18um DVCPRO HD format. It records / plays 1080i 59.94 and 720p 59.94 and can downconvert either to SD with SDI / NTSC OPs. It can’t play any of the other DV / DVCPRO formats… nor can it cross convert 1080i to 720p… The 130 also cannot play the newer 9um tapes from the 1200 / 1700 decks.

The newer AJ-HD1200A uses the EX format (9um) thus doubling time on tape for REC. It records HD only, but has 1080i 50i in addition to 720p 59.94 / 60.00, and 1080i 59.94/60.00. It can play ANY DV, DVCAM, DVCPRO, DVCPRO HD tapes, and can also convert from SD to HD, HD to SD and HD to HD. It can also play both 18um and 9um DVCPRO HD tapes.

Please don’t forget that neither deck can edit, just hard REC/PB.

The choice is now up to you…

Good luck

Steve Mahrer (Panasonic Broadcast)

[Walter Biscardi]

[Steve Mahrer] ”
Please don’t forget that neither deck can edit, just hard REC/PB.”

With Final Cut Pro you can do an Assemble edit on 1200A with Firewire control. It’s not completely frame accurate, but it does work.

Walter Biscardi, Jr.
Creative Genius, Biscardi Creative Media
https://www.biscardicreative.com

Now in Production, “The Rough Cut,” https://www.theroughcutmovie.com

“I reject your reality and substitute my own!” – Adam Savage, Mythbusters

[Steve Mahrer]

Walter:

As I have posted many times before, please understand that the 1200A cannot edit. You are performing a CRASH hard record onto the tape. There is no flying erase on the 1200A to remove the old data and also no guarantee of tape format integrity, thus each time you “edit” you may generate an area on tape with very high error rates. You may see no errors on playback, that cannot however be guaranteeed for other decks. You may be tricking the VTR into recording close to the corrrect time required, but it’s not really editing.

Rant over, Steve Mahrer (Panasonic Broadcast)

[Walter Biscardi]

[Steve Mahrer] “You may be tricking the VTR into recording close to the corrrect time required, but it’s not really editing.”

Ok, I guess it’s not editing then. It’s some sort of really close frame accurate crash-record from Final Cut Pro which displays this crash record as an Assemble Edit. I guess Apple needs to add another option to their Edit to Tape menu called 1200A Crash Record.

Walter Biscardi, Jr.
Creative Genius, Biscardi Creative Media
https://www.biscardicreative.com

Now in Production, “The Rough Cut,” https://www.theroughcutmovie.com

“I reject your reality and substitute my own!” – Adam Savage, Mythbusters

[Steve Mahrer]

Walter:

Joking aside, please understand that the process for actualy recording on tape is very different between true editing and the this quaisi-Crash Assemble process, the record light may light up, the tape may play okay, yet it’s not a 100% safe edit. I just wanted to reitterate the difference….

Steve Mahrer (Panasonic Bradcast)

[Dale West]

Steve,
This is how we lay off a project to the 1200a or the 130: Our editor presets the timecode then starts the recorder then runs back into the suite and on the fly starts the playback of the timeline in hopes of getting it close to 01:00:00:00. This works fairly well unless a problem occures, then we have to start from scratch. Since we normally don’t output an HD final yet we don’t have too many issues with that. While it is not the best solution it keeps us from having to have a 1700 or more. It is however a little disappointing to have to improvise on a 27-28 thousand dollar machine. Walter, is this the “editing” you are talking about or do you do something else. Our editor has not be able to fool the 1200a into thinking it can edit. I would love to hear how you do it. At least a crash edit in the black section would be tolorable.

Guys thanks for the thoughtful and the thought provoking posts here on the VariCow. I check in a couple of times a day and always find some nugget there.

Best
dw

Dale West
Dale West Video
12225 NE 13th Court
North Miam, FL 33161
305-892-1201

[John Sharaf]

Perhaps I’m missing something, but I’ve had similar problems trying to do “digital cut” from my Avid to a BVW50 which like the 1200A is “not an editing machine” so it will not do it. As a workaround, I just “layoff” the finished timeline with the TC slaved on the deck from the timeline; voila, a finished product with the timecode in the right place to que up the program at 01:00:00:00. Can’t you do this with the 1200A? This presumes of course that you can extract the TC through some spigot; I’m not familiar with FCP, is there such an accomodation?

JS

[Dale West]

John,
I’m not an editor myself but my staff guy tells me that at one time FCP could do that throught the fire wire but it doesn’t do it any longer.
Beets the stuffings outa me. I shoot it and Brandon cleans it. Keeps the economy rolling.

Regards

dw

Dale West
Dale West Video
12225 NE 13th Court
North Miam, FL 33161
305-892-1201

[Steve Mahrer]

Dale:

What your doing is okay as you’re laying off the entire show as one piece, that’s like a hard record function. My worries are that folks are trying to assemble their masters in pieces, they’ll layoff a minutes of so, return and add another clip after that, and so on. The overlaps where the old and new material meets is where the problem of high error rates occur, that’s where flying erase heads etc are required to ensure a clean edit.

Cheers, Steve Mahrer (Panasonic Broadcast)

[Walter Biscardi]

[Dale West] “Walter, is this the “editing” you are talking about or do you do something else. Our editor has not be able to fool the 1200a into thinking it can edit. I would love to hear how you do it. At least a crash edit in the black section would be tolorable.”

Nope. I preset the timecode to 00:58:30:00. Black the first 45 seconds of the tape.

In Final Cut Pro, I set the In Point in my Timeline to 00:59:00:00. In the Edit To Tape function of Final Cut Pro I set the In Point of the 1200A to 00:59:00:00. I then perform an Assemble Edit. Works perfectly everytime using Firewire control.

Walter Biscardi, Jr.
Creative Genius, Biscardi Creative Media
https://www.biscardicreative.com

Now in Production, “The Rough Cut,” https://www.theroughcutmovie.com

“I reject your reality and substitute my own!” – Adam Savage, Mythbusters