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Capture aborts – Decklink, FCP5, Panasonic AJ-D850 DVCPro – very odd
Ok guys- here’s a tricky one for you. It’s killing us so I hope someone can help.
We are seeing this problem on two separate (but similar) edit stations. Both systems are Decklink Extreme, G5 Dual 2.0, FCP5 OSX 10.4 with Panasonic AJ-D850 decks (SDI i/o). One system has all the latest FCP 5.03, OSX 10.4.3 and BM driver updates. The other system is using non-updated FCP 5.0, 10.4.0 and BM 5.0. They are independent systems with their own AJ-D850 decks connected to the Decklink RS422 control ports. They are both experiencing the same problem.
What we are getting is a random abort during capture that happens sometimes two or three minutes into the capture with a message that says:
“Tape trouble. Check VTR. Do not attempt to eject tape or use transport without checking the VTR first.”
The capture aborts in FCP but the deck just keeps on playing along without incident. We have checked both decks and they are always fine. For some reason, either FCP or the Decklink machine control seems to be getting (or causing) some strange communication I think. I say this because when I go back to using a Keyspan serial machine control on one of the machines – the problem goes away. Also- “Capture Now” mode works fine as long as it’s set to “Non-Controllable Device”, but we can’t work this way- we NEED accurate TC captures.
Sometimes the captures work- sometimes they don’t. No real rhyme or reason to it. I believe we have all the correct settings in the capture prefs for these decks. We’ve been using them just fine since FCP version 3 with a keyspan serial controller, and this issue has just cropped up since our upgrade to FCP5 with DecklinkExtreme’s.
We have done the regular routines- trashed prefs, repaired permissions etc. and even a full fresh re-install on one system.
Here are the settings we have for Device Control:
Protocol: Panasonic RS-422 (and no, changing to Sony RS-422 for kicks does not work either)
Audio Mapping: 2 Channels
Time Source: LTC + VITC (setting to LTC only does not help either)
Port: RS422 Deck Control (this is the Decklink port)
Frame Rate: 29.97
Use deck search mechanism: Checked On (checked off seems to have noi effect)
Capture offset: 0
Playback Offset: +00:00:04
Pre-Roll: 6 sec (deck has always been happier with 6 sec vs. 3)
Post-roll: 3 sec
Auto record and PTV after: uncheckedTHe DVCPro AJ -D850 decks menu settings for relevant machine control are such:
Baud Rate: 9600
DataLength: 8
Stop Bit: 1
Parity: Non
return ACK” OnAgain, these decks have always been fine capturing material in FCP from version 3 to 4.5 (and all the updates in between with a keyspan/Kona SD setup) up to this point. It really seems to me like an issue with the Decklink RS422 port and the deck – though I’m not ruling out an FCP cause.
Any takers? Yes we can use the keyspan solution on one machine, but even that has it’s own (different) issues from time to time and we would really like to have the promised functionality of the Decklink RS422 control.
If anyone can see an issue with the above settings or has any ideas, we would live to hear them.
Thanks!
Jon -
1 Reply
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Ok- I just found this on another COW thread:
“There is a FCP plug in that’s available that will reduce the polling interval of the RS422 signal from FCP to the deck, which was increased in FCP 5, but causes problems with primarily Panasonic decks.
We have a copy of the file, which was passed to us from AJA, please email me for it.
oh@techsuperpowers.com.
Thanks to Will @ AJA Tech Support for this resolution. ”I can’t seem to reach this fellow. If anyone has this plugin, could they please email it to me at: jon@cpd2.usu.edu
Thanks All!
Jon
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