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RS-422 Control of 1200A
Can someone at Panasonic explain to me why the 1200A cannot be controlled via RS-422 when Recording to the deck? For $32,000 I can’t understand why this deck has to be controlled via Firewire during recording.
Thank you.
Walter Biscardi, Jr.
https://www.biscardicreative.comNow editing “Good Eats” in HD for the Food Network
“I reject your reality and substitute my own!” – Adam Savage, Mythbusters
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17 Replies
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Hi Walter:
The 1200A does respond to “hard” record commands on the RS-422A control.
What are you trying to get the deck to do?Steve Mahrer (Panasonic Broadcast)
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[Steve Mahrer] “The 1200A does respond to “hard” record commands on the RS-422A control.
What are you trying to get the deck to do?”I am trying to an Edit to Tape using Assemble Edit via RS-422 control on Final Cut Pro 5.0. FCP does not see the deck as a valid device when attempting this.
Walter Biscardi, Jr.
https://www.biscardicreative.comNow editing “Good Eats” in HD for the Food Network
“I reject your reality and substitute my own!” – Adam Savage, Mythbusters
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Hi Walter,
I think we went through this issue recently with someone else on the Cow…. To reca, the AJ-HD1200A is not an “editing deck”, it is designed to hard record and play only. Any attempt to “edit” i.e. assemble a program tape by joining together numerous elements will result in nasty tape data errors at the edit points.
Sorry for the bad news, maybe search back in time on the Cow’s archives to see the older postings for this issue)
Cheers!
Steve Mahrer (Panasonic Broadcast US)
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[Steve Mahrer] “I think we went through this issue recently with someone else on the Cow…. To reca, the AJ-HD1200A is not an “editing deck”, it is designed to hard record and play only. Any attempt to “edit” i.e. assemble a program tape by joining together numerous elements will result in nasty tape data errors at the edit points.”
Yes, you and I went through this a while back, but all I’m doing is a hard edit at 00:59:00:02 to master the episode. There is no “editing” involved, all I need is for the deck to accurately start at 00:59:00:02, but with Firewire control, I find I have to compensate for the edit point by slipping my entire timline forward or back multiple frames.
I don’t care to use the deck for “editing,” I just RS-422 Control to accurately get the deck to do one Assemble to the tape at 00:59:00:02.
Walter Biscardi, Jr.
https://www.biscardicreative.comNow editing “Good Eats” in HD for the Food Network
“I reject your reality and substitute my own!” – Adam Savage, Mythbusters
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[Steve Mahrer] “To reca, the AJ-HD1200A is not an “editing deck”, it is designed to hard record and play only.”
Just to make another point about RS-422. I own a Sony UVW-1800 which I would not consider an “editing deck” either. You would never make an Insert Edit or Assemble a show using this machine. BUT I can make frame accurate Masters by doing Assemble edits at 00:59:00:02 all day long since it has RS-422 control.
So for $6,800 I get RS-422 control during Record on the UVW-1800. Again, why can’t the 1200A accept RS-422 control during record?
Walter Biscardi, Jr.
https://www.biscardicreative.comNow editing “Good Eats” in HD for the Food Network
“I reject your reality and substitute my own!” – Adam Savage, Mythbusters
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Walter –
Nobody at Panasonic gets this. It’s obvious they don’t have anyone who’s actually used FCP in a professional environment working with them. I’ve gone thru this numerous times with them at NAB and elsewhere and they JUST DON’T GET IT !!(that’s me screaming in frustration)
Most of them don’t know how FCP “edit to tape” works, and they don’t even realize that you can (plus or minus a bunch of frames) get firewire to initialize an assemble edit. Given that they don’t know what their own equipment CAN already do, nor why FCP users want RS 422 to do the same, they are ill equiped to fix a problem they don’t understand.
As for having to slip the timelines, what I’ve done is created a specific Device Control with an off-set that I’ve determined thru T&E. It’s within 2 frames +/- and what with opening and closing fade-ins & fade-outs, I can get my tapes accepted by PBS.
Not good enough but then what can you expect for $32,000. Of course you could buy the more expensive DVCProHD deck for about 50K and get “real” RS-422 editing control – but wait – that deck doesn’t have firewire in or out – so to actually work with DVCpro and FCP in a professional way I guess Panasonic wants you to buy both decks.
And by the way, with a UVW-1800 I’ve frame accurately cut into and out of tape masters dozens of times.
Herb Sevush
Zebra Productions -
[Herb Sevush] ”
Nobody at Panasonic gets this. It’s obvious they don’t have anyone who’s actually used FCP in a professional environment working with them. I’ve gone thru this numerous times with them at NAB and elsewhere and they JUST DON’T GET IT !!(that’s me screaming in frustration)”Glad to know I’m not the only one screaming in frustration here. This is such a stupid thing that it ranks right up there with FCP 5’s HD-SDI issues with 720p. (don’t even get me started on that one)
[Herb Sevush] “And by the way, with a UVW-1800 I’ve frame accurately cut into and out of tape masters dozens of times.”
Yeah, $6,800 for an 1800 gets you perfect RS-422 control to master. $32,000 for a 1200A gets you prettier lights but no RS-422 to master.
Walter Biscardi, Jr.
https://www.biscardicreative.comNow editing “Good Eats” in HD for the Food Network
“I reject your reality and substitute my own!” – Adam Savage, Mythbusters
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[Herb Sevush] “Most of them don’t know how FCP “edit to tape” works, and they don’t even realize that you can (plus or minus a bunch of frames) get firewire to initialize an assemble edit. Given that they don’t know what their own equipment CAN already do, nor why FCP users want RS 422 to do the same, they are ill equiped to fix a problem they don’t understand.”
whoops, hit “submit” too quick on that last one.
On this point, what nobody has ever explained to me clearly is the issue that the 1200A “Only has on set of electronics” so that’s why RS-422 cannot work in Edit to Tape mode. I’ve asked so many people, including engineers, what this means and nobody understands what the heck Panasonic is talking about. As one engineer said to me “Of course there’s one set of electronics, there’s only one RS-422 port.” He just felt there was something that Panasonic has disabled within the deck to not allow it to see RS-422 in Edit to Tape mode.
So what exactly does this mean that there’s only one set of electronics in there and thus RS-422 cannot work with mastering?
Walter Biscardi, Jr.
https://www.biscardicreative.comNow editing “Good Eats” in HD for the Food Network
“I reject your reality and substitute my own!” – Adam Savage, Mythbusters
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Walter,
I believe the real answer lies with Panasonic marketing which will answer the solution is to buy the 170 studio editing deck.
Maybe Sony realized early on that even a low cost UVW-1800 would require the capability of doing a simple assemble record. Why Panasonic cannot is a mystery.
Tony Salgado
Tony Salgado
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This is just the kind of thing that gets people to revert toSONY products. Panasonic has some great products, but their idea’s for workflow are sometimes a bit ou to lunch.
It’s the same story with P2. When HD XD CAM is release with 45 dollar blue laser media and variable frame rates at NAB next year, Panny will again be relegated to scratching their heads and selling to students.
The pro market needs pro solutions. This kind of thing that Walter is talking about is typical of panny.
David
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