[Jim Froom]

Rodney, thanks for the heads up on the Zoom H4. I bought one and watched a 6-7 minute video on youtube then downloaded and skimmed the manual. Had it up and running pretty fast. Menu’s are similar to the Camcorder menu’s. The only thing that gives me a little trouble is the size of the type on the lcd.

Any way, the h4 is just what I needed and will be fine for what I need. I will probably buy a 2nd one.

Thanks again.

[Jim Froom]

Hypothetical.

Record 30 minute talking head video on camcorder with no external sync.
Record 30 minutes of audio on audio recorder with no external sync.

Drop audio and video into a Vegas Video Pro timeline.

Questions.
If the audio drifts 2 frames after 5 minutes,does this mean that when I get to the 30 minute mark in the time line, the audio will show approximately 12 frames (30/5 * 2) longer at the end, in other words, the audio track will show 12/30’s of a second longer?

If this is true, I should be able to adjust the audio by ctrl selecting the end of the audio track and aligning it under the end of the video track (others claim this works in Vegas Video).

Back to the portable recorders.

The Sound Device recorders look a little expensive for my budget.
The Marantz PDM660, is about my price range if it can do the trick. I just haven’t found alot of reviews on it.

The Zoom H4 looks like it has a large following and seems to be very price competitive. I also like the size. I’ll check into that a little more I found a fair amount of reviews at one supplier, but there seems to be some disagreement as to the sync issues being controllable or not. That being said, it looks like it’s being used by many audio professionals and semi professionals and they are getting decent results. I’m not doing feature films or master recordings for CD duplications, so I think the quality of the Zoom H4 would work.

Now it’s just a question if the sync drift is consistent so I can adjust it every so often. Also, can I set it up so there aren’t alot of “gotch ya’s setting up. Sounds like there are lots of settings, or maybe a few extra steps to get to some of the functions.

As I have been writing this and checking some reviews, I think I may have talked myself into trying a Zoom H4. Worse case is I don’t like it and sell it on Ebay for a slight loss. I’ll think about it the rest of the weekend and may give it a try.

Thanks again for suggestions and opinions.

[Jim Froom]

Most of those look like studio equipment. I’m looking for a small portable unit to connect on or near a camera.

My issue just came up with the delivery of a Canon 5d Mark ii. I currently have 2 camcorders. 1 with xlr inputs and one with 1/8″.

On the 1/8″ I have been using a Beachtek DXA-6. However on the new camera d5 mkii there is are no settings that gives appropriate audio.

On the Canon, I’m not sure I’m even going to use the camera audio via 1/8″ jack. However, I need to experiment. I did get reasonable sound off a Rode NT3 using a 9 volt battery for phantom power. Also, wire lav mics worked.

My Sen 416, needs phantom power. Crap with the beachtek on this camera.

The beachtek didn’t work with anything. Canon gives no control or settings on the audio input. The best sound I got was from a Zune playing music with the output about 1/2 way up.

I got to thinking that if I could use a portable recorder with 0 latency, I could take the output from the headphone jack (I know not the best) but it might give me something, then I’d also have the portable audio that would be easy to line up with the video/audio from the Canon in post and use that if I have problems with what the camera audio (which I’m assuming may be frequently.

My other alternative is to buy a power adapter around $50 to supply the Sen 416 with phantom power or drop $350 or more on a entry level boom mic.

I’m mainly looking for something to have on the camera for quick work. When I have time to set up, this camera will be the B cam and I can more often than not use the audio from the first camera, but I’m still going to want some kind of audio for this camera as backup and walk around shooting. Heck, I might even try the Rode Videomic.

[Jim Froom]

Walter, is your raid a sata raid or sas. ie 7200 rpm sata or 10k or 15k sas drives?

[Jim Froom]

Problem solved. AJA sent me a plug in for FCP for reducing polling and it worked. It was called DiableAltETTPolling.txt

[Jim Froom]

Problem solved. AJA sent me a plug in for FCP for reducing polling and it worked. It was called DiableAltETTPolling.txt

Thanks for help

[Jim Froom]

Maybe it’s time to go to apple. Sounds like a motherboard problem or related. It’s obvious that the hardware (scsi card, cables, and drives work) and you did a clean install with different versions of the software.

What’s left is the computer. Have it checked out at by Apple.