Final Cut Pro – Edit to tape accuracy – does it exist?

[Sean Oneil]

If you’re getting different results each time and you have not altered the offset, then something is wrong. But it sounds more like you just need to take it one step at a time.

This isn’t a known issue that I’m aware of. Unfortunately, because these cards work in a lot of different machines, timing varies much more than a Media 100 system which are calibrated to use the Keyspan thing and only works on a narrow range of Macs.

So yes, setting offsets is totally normal. Hopefully knowing that will give you some clarity on the situation so you don’t have that “something’s must be broken” feeling in the back of your head. TC burn-in windows are your friend here. Do PB offset first. Don’t worry about capture offset until you know PB is set correctly.

Sean

[Nick Price]

Hi
I use AJA IO to edit to tape, and apart from a few teething problems concerning frame inaccuracies to start with, it is now frame accurate every time, insert and assemble. I play to tape 3 or 4 times a month.

Make sure you have the latest aja drivers. The new ones have been 100% for me. The playback offset in device control should be 5 with the latest drivers. Then treat the system like a child when you ETT. Dont have overlapping windows. Try not to have more than one sequence open. Keep the memory usage down to little as possible so FCP is concentrating entirely on the ETT. This might be just superstition, but it works for me…..

by the way this is for FCP4.5, not sure about FCP5.

feel free to let me know if you want more details.
best wishes

NIck
nick@evanswoolfe.com

[Andy Mees]

I don’t use the same equipment but feel incline dto chime in anyway (!)

FCP4.5/5 with Blackmagic Extreme to a Digibeta deck. ETT 100+ times a week … have never known it to miss the mark.

[Michael Alberts]

We’ve been using the Aurora Pipe Pro and Pipe Studio in all our edit rooms and ETT has been 100% accurate for us also. We output to Digibeta a dozen shows a week, but also output four to five programs to BetaSP every week. All ETT’s are spot on. Insert works perfectly too.
I’d try reinstalling the latest AJA drivers and checking your offsets. Do a test capture of some vis timecoded material and calibrate your deck settings.

Michael Alberts
Ambidextrous Productions, Inc.

[Bill]

I have found that make sure your tape is ion the deck and it is in local before launching ETT. We recently updated from a dp1.25 to a dp2.5 and simply configured the system off site brought it in removed the old box slid the new one in and it worked flawlessly. Frame accurate every time. We produce promos that rarely ever run past: 30 so I cannot say if it hold true for any long format layoff but for 20-30 layoffs a day she purrs. And as previously mentioned treat it like a child. A very temperamental child.

[John]

I have never had frame accuracy problems (we master to PVW-2800 with RS422 connection), but……. until yesterday, I had never done an INSERT EDIT on my (6 month old) Final Cut system. Assemble edits have always worked just fine, and have been frame accurate. However, when I went to INSERT 30 seconds into an already mastered tape, ONLY THE VIDEO GOT RE-INSERTED. I tried over and over again, and tried many different settings and configurations, but nothing allowed for the audio to get inserted. I ended up doing my ASSEMBLE edits all over again.

Does anyone have any thoughts?

John

[Michael Alberts]

I just had the same issue pop up yesterday while mastering a show for broadcast this morning. I tried to do an insert edit of some fixed audio but no matter how much I tried the audio would not lay down. This is DEFINITELY a BUG! This used to work just fine under FCP 4.5. I’ve tried doing inserts to our PVW-2800 and BVW-75 with no luck. I’ve also tried to get Insert editing with audio to work on our Digibeta, but no love there either. What really sucks is if the section you need to insert over is in the first few minutes of a one hour program. As Bill mentioned, the only option is to re-Assemble the entire program. No client of mine will pay for a second layoff, so I have to eat the time. Just another “Pro” feature FCP is lacking.

Michael Alberts
Ambidextrous Productions, Inc.

[John]

Thanks, Michael. At least now we know what we’re dealing with.

John