patching 3/4″ tape to Avid for capture

[Pieter Viljoen]

This is a V0 9850

I can get picture to the monitor, now I have to figure out if this has a tbc and if the mojo still works. Any guidance?

Thank you

[Shane Ross]

Which MOJO? That’s a BIG question.

Shane
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[Pieter Viljoen]

Avid mojo 7020-20000-xx

[Shane Ross]

Perfect! That has composite inputs, and deck control. But you need to use an early version of Avid…5.5 or earlier.

Shane
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[Pieter Viljoen]

Thank you so much Shane. Now I need to figure out how to use this thing.

[Pat Horridge]

Some things to consider:
The VO9850 is a commercial deck not a broadcast deck so has less tape protection. So if the deck isn’t in good nick it could easily shred or damage the tapes.

What condition are the tapes? Age and mould are big problems and can bugger the video heads as well as destroy the remaining tape content.

I don’t think the 9850 has a TBC so you may have issues with horizontal jitter and unstable captures (with composite captures in Avid you can select a more tolerant input flywheel.

The 9850 has proper Y/C out which can go into the analogue Mojo and that will look slightly better.

9 pin control should work but the Timecode card is an option on the 9850 machine (and the tapes may or may not have TC anyway.

Make sure the tracking control is adjusted for optimum playback for each tape. Have the deck top panel open and the PCB board lifted away do you can monitor for tape damage and issues.

Good luck

Pat Horridge
Technical Director, Trainer, Avid Certified Instructor
VET
Production Editing Digital Media Design DVD
T +44 (0)20 7505 4701 | F +44 (0)20 7505 4800 | E pat@vet.co.uk |
http://www.vet.co.uk | Lux Building 2-4 Hoxton Square London N1 6US

[John Pale]

Is this an offline/online workflow?

If you edit at low resolution and will need to recapture at high resolution you will have issues…these tapes may not have timecode and may be too fragile for repeated cueing. Not even getting into how inaccurate Umatic is even if it has timecode.

If you want to offline, I’d strongly suggest dubbing to a more robust format…Digibeta for SD or HDCAM, if you desire upconverting. Capture your dubs. You basically have no chance of a successful Upres later, if you don’t do this.

[Pat Horridge]

We consider 3/4 to be a vulnerable format now (as are a few others) so VET handles it a certain way.
Tapes are inspected physically.
Only played once and captured at the highest quality possible.
We always assume only one hit at playback will be possible.
VTRs are cleaned and serviced before each job and monitored by an engineer as the job progresses.
VTRs are adjusted on the fly to optimise playback for that tape. This often includes internal guide and tape path tweaks.

We don’t consider 3/4 inch to be a suitable format for offline then conform.

Pat Horridge
Technical Director, Trainer, Avid Certified Instructor
VET
Production Editing Digital Media Design DVD
T +44 (0)20 7505 4701 | F +44 (0)20 7505 4800 | E pat@vet.co.uk |
http://www.vet.co.uk | Lux Building 2-4 Hoxton Square London N1 6US

[Pieter Viljoen]

This is strictly to digitize. Whatever we had in Digibeta or D2 or 1 Inch, we obviously have digitized it for archive.

This is for a national editorial company (spots and music videos) which at one time at 7 offices, so there’s a lot of material and the flashier, award winning stuff they want to keep for posterity. Unfortunately the only record in existence for a lot of this stuff is on 3/4. We’re talking in the 1000s of spots/music videos. I’m wondering if having this done by a third party might be a better, cheaper solution. Does our deck not have the TBC?

Sorry to lack this knowledge, I just have no tape experience. All I’ve ever done was find it, ship it to another facility, then overcut from the digital source.

[Pat Horridge]

There may have been an option for a TBC card on the VO9850 but I seem to remember them having external TBC’s

It really depends on what condition the playback deck and tapes are in. And you want to get the best setup for quality if you are doing that much work.

No point doing it all and it looks poor.

Pat Horridge
Technical Director, Trainer, Avid Certified Instructor
VET
Production Editing Digital Media Design DVD
T +44 (0)20 7505 4701 | F +44 (0)20 7505 4800 | E pat@vet.co.uk |
http://www.vet.co.uk | Lux Building 2-4 Hoxton Square London N1 6US