HDCAM Capture – Timecode Breaks Detected

[Jeremy Garchow]

Kona card?

Try the bottom message about “Serial device control and “Tape trouble” messages ” if so:

https://support.apple.com/kb/HT1942

Jeremy

[Chad Brewer]

Eh, FCP says that from time to time when the tape’s timecode is fine.
This is assuming you’ve clip captured with I/O’s.

If you have I/O clip captured the tape and your resulting Quicktime shows continuous TC in accordance with the tape, then I wouldn’t worry about that warning message after capture. You should be fine. My theory (unproven) is that there can be brief hiccups in the bi-directional RS422 signal that makes FCP believe there was a break in the stream.

Again, if your captured file’s TC is fine, I wouldn’t worry.

Chad Brewer
Senior Broadcast Videotape Operator
TeleVersions, LLC

[Andrew Saliga]

Jeremy– I’m using a Kona 3. All Kona and FCP settings should be correct as I’ve been capturing without any issues. I’ll try creating that text file in the morning. I’ve never even heard of a fix like that.

Chad– The clips are being captured from a batch list. Timecode format is matches that of the tape. I can’t get FCP to continue capturing though, it will randomly stop and seek timecode. I’m with you on thinking along the lines of the RS-422. I tried a different cable, but am still not 100% convinced. Tomorrow I’m going to try to capture from the DigiBeta deck in an attempt to rule out the cable.

Andrew Saliga
I/O Specialist/Assistant Editor
Steelehouse Productions
http://www.steelehouse.com

[Joey Burnham]

I know this is going to sound retarded but have you changed the user options to “warn after capture” and also rebooted your computer?
Joey

[Jeremy Garchow]

[Andrew Saliga] “Jeremy- I’m using a Kona 3. All Kona and FCP settings should be correct as I’ve been capturing without any issues. I’ll try creating that text file in the morning. I’ve never even heard of a fix like that.”

It changes the way FCP polls the deck via rs422. It’s not a big deal and only happens on certain decks. Sony HDCam decks seems to have the most problems with it.

Jeremy

[Chad Brewer]

[Joey Burnham] “”warn after capture””

That’s what I was getting at earlier. Then, ignore the warning after capture because the TC is probably fine and the error was created by a transient polling issue which really didn’t affect the TC that was captured. I see this all the time.

Chad Brewer
Senior Broadcast Videotape Operator
TeleVersions, LLC

[Sam Cole]

We have this problem often and we worked it out to be and FCP error as there were never any timecode breaks.
It happens more often capturing as ProRes HQ, as the CPU workload is much higher and I guess it just misses a timecode frame from the RS422 serial data.
There has to be a setting for FCP to allow ‘how many continuous frames of timecode irregularity’ before the error is reported – but there is not.

What we do after each capture is select all the captured media and select ‘tools’ >>> ‘long frames’ >>> ‘mark’ and then check there are no dropped frames.
Then, if timecode is crucial, we find a ‘known frame’ near the end of the tape (eg a cut) and compare the captured clips timecode with the tape to ensure they are the same.

Sam Cole
On line Mastering Facility
FCP, Avid, Adobe
Sydney, Australia

[John Heagy]

Make sure the tape is 29.97 and not 23.98. Playing a 23.98 tape in a deck set to 29.97 will cause FCP to abort on dropped frames. visa versa is true as well.

John Heagy

[Andrew Saliga]

Thanks for the input everyone. I’ve just been able to take another look at the deck this afternoon.

I went through all the deck settings again and also made sure “Warn after capture” was selected. So far so good. However, I realized I am capturing a different tape than I did on Thursday. If I encounter any issues, I’ll start looking into the RS422 polling issues.

Very useful info everyone. I appreciate you helping out an HDCAM newbie.

Andrew Saliga
I/O Specialist/Assistant Editor
Steelehouse Productions
http://www.steelehouse.com

[Rafael Amador]

Hi Andrew,
Before the next capture make sure the heads are clean.
Rafael

http://www.nagavideo.com