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Deck control problem-no response in FCP
I’m running final cut pro with DeckLink extreme. I have a panasonic aj-d250 deck with a firewire/rs 422 card installed. In final cut, I change my device control to “Blackmagic NTSC 29.97 Hz” setting, which should allow me to use the Blackmagic deck control, right? Wrong! No response, no communication. When I switch to firewire control, no problem.
Is my deck not supported? How do I find which decks are? Even through firewire i have to majorly babysit my batch captures, about every other clip stops and it says it’s having probs finding the TC. What’s up with that?tVs
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4 Replies
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I’m not familiar with your deck and hopefully others will be able to provide some suggestions. I found a copy of the brochure for your deck online.
It appears to have composite and S-video in/out and you’ve also added the optional Firewire module.
I’m not sure why you are using a DeckLink card with this deck as I suspect you will get best results by performing your capture and playback via Firewire and also using Firewire for device control.
You could use a DeckLink SP or DeckLink Extreme to capture and play back via composite analog video. This will allow you to work with uncompressed video if you are applying lots of effects and text but you will be moving between the lossy DVCPRO format and also introducing some analog noise and so a pure DVCPRO workflow via Firewire might be the best option.
In regards to device control, I noted the following comment in the brochure: When using RS-422 control, AJ-D250 serves only as source machine. In other words you won’t be able to edit back to tape using RS-422. So even if you do use a DeckLink card for capture and playback via composite analog video, I would be inclined to change the device control from Sony RS-422 to Apple Firewire. However if you do want to use RS-422 device control, consider switching the preset from Sony RS-422 to Panasonic RS-422 as this should work better.
Regards,
Luke Maslen
Blackmagic Design -
Wow, thanks for the help Luke. After I did some of my own online research, I found that Blackmagic does not support the rs-232 protocol, which is what the card is. I had been capturing using firewire, I just thought that using the Blackmagic’s deck control would respond quicker than firewire. I also solved the problem (failing to lock onto the appropriate timecode) by switching from “Apple firewire” to “Apple firewire basic”. Smooth sailing now.
tVs
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Hi Todd,
As you have discovered, DeckLink cards include RS-422 support but your deck uses the older RS-232 protocol. If you want to use RS-232 device control, you can use a Keyspan High Speed USB Serial Adapter. You will need to configure the RS-232 protocol by going to the Audio/Video Settings, in Final Cut Pro, and then click on Device Control Presets. Edit each preset for which you want to use RS-232. This solution works fine if you want to use RS-232.
Out of curiosity, are you using your DeckLink card to capture video via composite analog or were you only using it for device control?
Thank you for posting the device control configuration which you found to be successful. That is very helpful information 🙂
Regards,
Luke Maslen
Blackmagic Design -
I have not been using it at all with my deck, other than monitoring purposes. I find firewire to be a simple solution for me with the current equipment I have. The card and the deck were purchased before I was hired. I would have purchased a different deck (digital in/out). But we plan on going HD or HDV within the year and the card will should have more functionality for me, since Decklink Extreme is geared more towards digital decks. Thanks again.
tVs
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