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Black and Code not working correctly?
Hi all,
This is a follow up to a question I asked before about new tapes and editing to tape. Our facility does NOT black tapes with timecode when they are passed to me. They have no timecode at all.
From what I have gathered, it seems I can just use the ‘black and code’ button to add perhaps 2 mins of black continous timecode for my footage to simple assemble onto. Subsequently, by adding 10 secs of trailer black, I can append footage to the new tape and still keep the TC continuous.However, when I try inserting a new tape and hitting the black and code button, it writes some timecode which is different from the settings given in the black and code dialog. ie. I tell it to start @ 00:58 mins.. and it does not.. it starts some strange number. What could be wrong? I am using a SONY PVW-2800P. I read that the device needs to be set to accept external timecode etc. I am not to sure about the hardware side of things.
Can anyone shed some light on what I might be doing wrong?
Thanks.
Steve. -
1 Reply
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Steve –
What you must first understand is that Final Cut does not ever output timecode. Not with the “black and code” setting, not with “edit-to-tape”, not with nothing.
The Final Cut work-around for this very serious limitation, is to use the timecode generator of the record deck to set the timecode. This is what “edit-to-tape” does. Once you have a tape with some initial time code it allows you to set an in-point on the record machine and then, IF your tape deck is set to “record run” time code, the deck’s own internal time code generator will lay down continuous time code on the tape. (As an aside this means that it’s totally irrelevant what time code your timeline is set to start at – the only thing that matters is the in-point on the deck.)
AS far as the “black and code” setting – you need to set the deck to use it’s internal time code generator and set the starting code from the deck’s menu. All Final Cut is doing is supplying the black. Many decks actually can supply their own black, allowing you to bypass Final Cut entirely for pre-blacking the tape. I don’t know the PVW2800 but you should check the menu for this option.
All in all this is a totally non proffessional way to do things, but at the moment it’s all that Final Cut allows.
Herb Sevush
Zebra Productions
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