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Dealing with Reality Show timecode breaks…
Just started to capture a Reality Show project off of Beta SP. We shot entirely with time-of-day timecode on Beta SP (19 tapes), as the events were time of day critical, so we started capturing using “create new clip” when encountering broken timecode. It works, BUT it is taking over 2 minutes per clip for the Beta deck to search for the timecode break so it can resume its capture. Is there a way to speed up this cueing process, or do I need to just capture the whole tape and create subclips?
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35 Replies
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If you capture the entire tape, you will lose all your timecode as FCP will simply generate TC from the moment the tape starts. So you’ll just have one long continuous TC which defeats the whole purpose of Time of Day TC.
Yep, this is a painful digitizing process and your best bet is to let the machine go. What machine / capture card are you using and what version of FCP?
Walter Biscardi, Jr.
https://www.biscardicreative.com
HD Editorial & Animation for Food Network’s “Good Eats”
HD Editorial for “Assignment Earth”Read my blog! https://blogs.creativecow.net/WalterBiscardi
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If you can be bothered, you can abort capture every time it starts looking for new timecode, and pick it up after the break. OK as long as you don’t need the first couple of seconds after the break.
It’s more hands on, but quicker.
Not really the solution you were looking for I suspect…
Ben
Editec Broadcast Editing Ltd
EVS & FCP specialists for live broadcast.
OB Server 1 HD – Mobile FCP editing done right.
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Does FCP have a ‘digitize across timecode breaks’ option?
When I have a tape in Avid w/too many TC breaks I just set this option. Dig the whole tape and log the clips afterwards. Avid digitizes. Finds a break. backs up 3 seconds (or less) and moves forward.
If apple can’t do this it should. Saves a lot of time.
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[red ochre] ”
Does FCP have a ‘digitize across timecode breaks’ option?”Yes, but it continues the TC from the start of the tape, so you lose all the original TC when you use what FCP calls “Ignore Timecode Break”
Walter Biscardi, Jr.
https://www.biscardicreative.com
HD Editorial & Animation for Food Network’s “Good Eats”
HD Editorial for “Assignment Earth”Read my blog! https://blogs.creativecow.net/WalterBiscardi
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FCP has exactly the same.
difference is (and that is why it takes longer in FCP then it does in Avid) that FCP finds exactly the first usable TC after the break. Avid just stops after a break which will be with a delay after the tc break., sets a new in from where it stoped plus preroll time. So Avid normally looses quite a few seconds of usable footage because it doesn’t readjust after the tc break.
FCP does exactly this. after it stoped, it actually goes back and analyzes the tc break and finds the first possible in point considering your preroll time. And that just takes time. No way around it at the moment if you check the option. -
Thanks for the heads up. For the record Decklink SP to X-Serve Raid and FCP 5.1.4 on a G5.
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Robby,
You’ve just discovered a dirty little secret!
You’re absolutely correct. The searching for timecode across a break can take up to two minutes to “negotiate” the break. (I’ve timed it). The better your deck, the faster it goes. For example, a Sony J30 might take 2:00 minutes, but a much more expensive MSWm-2000 can do it in around a minute. Both of these times are WAY TOO long in my opinion, and yes, the Avid seemed to do this faster. What this means is that you’re essentially taking 1.5 to 2.0 times real time to ingest your material. That does suck, especially when you have hours and hours of tapes to digitize. We get around this problem with brute force…. we throw ten to twenty decks/systems into the digitizing pool at night to bring the material in. Until we migrate to a file based system (like Sony’s xd-cam file access mode) or Panasonic’s P-2, this “broken code” problem will be an issue.
Your suggestion to ‘capture the whole tape’ and make subclips means you don’t understand the process. I suggest that you find someone there who know’s what they’re doing and listen carefully. Screwing up the digitize process will ruin everyone’s day. In our shop, it’s a ticket out the door.
Good luck.
Mark
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If he is using a big array and have enough space to digitize the 19 hours at UC resolution
I would completely forget about timecode and edit at online res. For example, at our
facility we have enough terrabytes to edit at uncompressed res.Unless, the client is completely fixed on having the tape’s timecode and you have all the time
in the world, I would just skipt it and capture through timecode breaks or capture now the
whole tape.Ask yourself and your client if keeping timecode is a must at any cost. Sometimes, it is not
extremely necessary.if you decide to capture through the breaks or capture now, you can always set your own
timecode in FCP to reference the tape’s and day’s order.I know this is not the “most” professional advice, but sometimes -in these kind of situations-
we have to break the rules.Stuart Ferreyra
Timecode Multimedia
President
Santa Monica, CA 90025
https://www.timecodemultimedia.com -
[Timecode Multimedia] “I know this is not the “most” professional advice, but sometimes -in these kind of situations-
we have to break the rules.”Unless of course you ever have to re-digitize the footage at any point. you’d have to re-digitize the entire tape to make the timecodes match.
Walter Biscardi, Jr.
https://www.biscardicreative.com
HD Editorial & Animation for Food Network’s “Good Eats”
HD Editorial for “Assignment Earth”Read my blog! https://blogs.creativecow.net/WalterBiscardi
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Re-read the original post. He said that events were time-of-day critical. To me that means that they need the time of day code unchanged. They either need to sync shots or judge a contestant’s performance against the clock or whatever.
If they could accept continuous code they could restripe TC on the tapes. Then they could keep the ability to redig.
FCP needs a decent, Avid-like “Digize Across TC breaks” function. There’s no work around for these guys.
– Larry Asbell
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