TC Breaks during HDCAM Capture

[Chris Borjis]

I’ve heard of this before and I think its a setting in the deck that fixes this. Sorry I can’t recall what it was.

[David Roth weiss]

I experienced the same thing with my Kona LH using the Sony J3 HDCAM player, only there were no actual timecode breaks upon closer scrutiny. Making matters worse, because there was no actual break in the timecode the deck was unable to seek a new in point, so I had to search thje captured clip myself and manually set the new inpoint every time. Never found a solution. BTW, I was capturing via SDI…

David Roth Weiss
Director/Editor
David Weiss Productions, Inc.
Los Angeles

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[Gary Morris mcbeath]

When the HDCAM tape doesn’t have a few of timecode on each end of the clip to be captured (“handles”), in which to spool-up or down, it will demonstrate the problem discussed here. A break in the TC, or a blank spot on the tape will do this.

My solution has been to enter the clip name, cue-up to a spot a few seconds before the clip start, hit play, and use “Capture Now” to capture the clip or footage you want. You will have to type in any logging information you want after you’ve captured the clip.

Pain in the rear, but it works when the shooter didn’t keep good continous time code by using the return button after reviewing a shot, or shutting off and then repowering the camera. Also, shooter should always pre-roll and post-roll about 10 seconds; especially important at the beginning or end of the tape.

Gary
SaltAire Cinema Productions