Countless Time Code Breaks- What’s the Best Way to Capture?

[Bouncing Account needs new email address]

No, but a FireWire copy IS standard procedure to correct this problem.

You do NOT need to dub to a “striped” tape.

Just hook two camcorders (or decks) together via FW and just make a full new copy of the “broken TC” tape to a new DV tape.
Then, only capture and edit from the copy.

99% of all camcorders and decks will NOT re-dub the original TC, but simply generate new continuous TC on the new tape when in the record mode.

If your friend gave you edit marks based on the original tape’s bad TC, you can have him/her give you new instructions based on the new copy.

[Eddie Torre]

If you want, you could use the original tape and set this preference…

Final Cut Pro>User Preferences>On timecode break: Make New Clip

[Bouncing Account needs new email address]

[Eddie Torre] “Final Cut Pro>User Preferences>On timecode break: Make New Clip”

This is not a method I’d recommend, given the tape that was described.

This procedure has been generally more unreliable and you “lose” quite a bit of footage at every “break” (not good if a non-pro has shot the footage and wants the beginning of almost every shot.)

Plus, if you want to Batch Capture, FCP will not be able to comply, as there are numerous sections with identical TC.

[Dean Goldsworthy]

Why not just set device control to “non-controllable” in the capture window, that way you generate new TC on capture.

[Sean Oneil]

It’s very important not to lose the ability to batch capture later on. Like Matte said, make a new copy of the tape with new, continuous timecode. Do a deck to deck Firewire transfer. Or, if you only have one deck, change the FCP settings to “Ignore Timecode Breaks.” Then capture an entire time and then create new tapes from the captured files using new TC. And then capture from the new tapes and edit those.