Mastering Error (unable to lock servo on deck)

[Jeremy Garchow]

[Travis Marshall] “Could it be the deck?”

Could be, sure.

[Travis Marshall] “We’re getting our 1200A back from service in a few days, so I could try that once it’s here.”

But that won’t allow rs422 editing. That’s why the 1400 is so much mo’ betta, well, when it works.

Has it ever worked for you? Are you sure that you have the panasonic deck control chosen in the ETT device control tab?

[Chris Lundy]

I recently had this happen after a Kona driver update. Turned out the Device Control preset in FCP called “…VTR B” had the wrong framerate. It had 59.94 when it should be 29.97. (Timecode on the deck is still counted at 29.97, there is no SMPTE standard with 59.94 timecode).

I tried manually changing it and still had problems. Instead I built a fresh one or duplicated the “VTR A” of a Sony preset and made my changes. Make sure you have Panasonic in your new preset.

Chris Lundy
PostWorks, New York

[Gary Adcock]

[Chris Lundy] “there is no SMPTE standard with 59.94 timecode”

careful.

both 720p59.94 and 1080p60 (which runs at 59.94) use 60 as a timebase.

gary adcock
Studio37

Post and Production Workflow Consultant
Production and Post Stereographer
Chicago, IL

https://blogs.creativecow.net/24640

[Chris Lundy]

I would call that true-ish. The timecode on the decks in those formats still only count in 30.

Chris Lundy
PostWorks, New York

[Jeremy Garchow]

[Chris Lundy] “The timecode on the decks in those formats still only count in 30.”

The count in 30, but they do use 60 as a timebase. There’s usually an * to indicate the second frame of the frame count number in UB. So Frame 30, then Frame 30*. in 720p, the deck definitely counts to 60. But since 60p tc isn’t complaint with anything else (for tc lock etc), they kinda have to use 30 over LTC.

Jeremy

[Chris Lundy]

Exactly right. So the Deck Control Preset in FCP always needs to be 29.97. If your preset has 59.94 it will not work.

Chris Lundy
PostWorks, New York

[Jeremy Garchow]

You are going to want to use the Panasonic deck control @ 59.94, which doesn’t have an A or a B. And if you’re capturing VFR material, you are going to want to use the VFR deck control.

Trust me.

Jeremy

[Travis Marshall]

Hi Everyone,

Thanks for all your feedback on this. The thread kind of got away from me for a while, and I got into edit mode for the last six months. It’s now time to master 13 shows and I’m remembering this problem. Nothing much has changed, but I will recap the situation:

I have a show shot originally on Varicam at 720P 30. Half the show was digitized via firewire by an assistant, and the other half was digitized by myself using the Kona LHe and a custom Final Cut capture setup created on advise from AJA technical support. The custom setup removed the VFR frames coming in through the Kona to give me 29.97 media (this was done to match the FW-digitized media, as well as to keep from doubling file sizes with 59.94 clips for no reason).

I need to master the shows via Edit to Tape back to DVCPro HD 720p 30 using the Panasonic AJ HD 1400. I’m going SDI out from the Kona to the deck, and am using an AJA Gen10 for reference, set to the standard configuration (720p 59.94 — although I have tried changing the dip switches to the 29.97 setting). Deck control is set to AJA Kona LH 59.94 Panasonic VTR. Output is set to AJA KonaLH 720p59.94 8 Bit (1280 x 720).

I can black tapes without any problem, and the deck is seeing video and audio through the SDI in. However, when I move to Edit To Tape, set my in points and Assemble the deck cues up, the edit light goes on, but after a few seconds stops down. Final Cut gives me the error: “Unable to lock servo on deck. Please adjust device pre-roll settings and try again.”

I have changed pre-roll any number of times to varying lengths with no change in the error. I’m in touch with AJA support, but they haven’t figured out the problem yet.

I’m completely confused as to what is causing the problem here — though it’s clearly with device control. The RS-422 cable works fine cuing up the tape and for digitizing, so I don’t think that’s the culprit.

I’m hoping to refresh this thread and see if the collective wisdom of the Cow can help me out. Thanks, everyone!

Mac Pro 2x3Ghz Quad Core Xeon, OSX 10.6.4, FCP 7.0.2
Kona LHe, Panasonic AJ-HD1400 VTR