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Timecode off when Editing to Tape from Final Cut to SONY DVCAM DSR-2000
Hello,
First off, this forum is great–many thanks for the answers I’ve already gotten from it!My question concerns Editing to Tape in Final Cut Pro v.6.0.5 to a Sony DVCAM DSR-2000 via Firewire/Ilink/IEEE-1394. It seems that every time I try to start a program at a specific time code (most commonly 01:00:00:00), the time code is always off, and always by a random amount. For example, say I *want* to start at 01:00:00:00, but the video will instead print starting at 00:59:10:09, so I’ll have to “offset” my Sequence TC to start 50 seconds and 21 frames later in order to compensate for the difference. Then the next project I Edit to Tape will be off by 12 frames, or 3 seconds, or [insert random number here]. On very few occasions it *has* started dead-on, but of course I can’t replicate that for ensuing projects.
FYI, most of our programs are drop-frame and both the deck and FCP are set up for this; I have checked and double-checked that my Sequence and In Point match; checked that I have no stray Mastering Settings that are adding extra time to my sequence; refreshed A/V devices; etc.
I can’t for the life of me figure out what the problem is, but as you can imagine, it’s a huge time-waster to do this “offsetting” (sometimes more than once) every time I have to Edit to Tape. My boss has proposed it has something do to with DVCAM “lead-in time,” but I’m under the impression that Edit to Tape is supposed to eliminate this altogether, plus I would think if that were the problem, it would be a static value and not one that keeps changing every time.
Many thanks for any advice. I’m stumped!
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2 Replies
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Hi Lela
What are you using for device control? I fear you’ll never be frame accurate if you’re using Firewire as its simply not an accurate device control protocol. Admittedly it should only ever be a few frames out, not 50 odd seconds, so you’ve almost certainly got something screwy elsewhere too (most likely in your deck settings) … but either way, if you need to perform frame accurate editing to tape then you need to avoid FW deck control.
Ask your boss to get you an I/O device that offers integrated audio/video output with RS422 control … an Intensity Pro or a Matrox MXO Mini are very affordable solutions.
Hope it helps
Andy -
Thanks a lot for the advice, Andy. I think it’s hardware that’s our problem and we will have to address it–just wasn’t sure if it was a known problem going to DVCAM or not!
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