[Tom Matthies]

It was shot with a Panasonic DVX100 by the client. All the other tapes captured just fine. The tape in question plays in my deck with the correct code. When I was logging it, I guess I didn’t even notice that the hours were different. I needed all the footage captured, so I just broke it into chunks that followed the scenes the client shot. I really didn’t even notice the discrepency until I was well into the edit and got to that footage and my timecode numbers didn’t jive with the notes the client had taken. The time code was off by exactly 10 hours and tracked throughout the entire tape. It isn’t a problem at all since the offset was constant and the minutes/seconds/frames are consistant with the notes.
Not a big problem just a weird thing that I hadn’t seen before today. I get uncomfortable when something like this pops up since these things have a way of coming back to bite you in the fanny at the worst times.
Thanks all,
Tom

[Tom Matthies]

Do a Google for “Avid Meridien Codec”. I can’t remember just what web site (Avid’s?) if found them on a year ago, but they are out there.
I have the Meridien Uncompressed and the Meridien Compressed codecs installed on my machine, and they work fine although a bit pokey.
These are newer codecs. I’m not sure about the AVR(n) codecs or their availability.
Tom

[Tom Matthies]

Yea.
I know that I’ll be champing at the bit to fire up the new machine anyhow.
I was mainly wondering about the ramfications of running FCP4.5 on my old G4 and then installing the same software (with the same ID number) on the new machine and serializing it in order to unstall the upgrade. Always trying to do things by the book, you know.
I want to make sure that the new system is running OK before decommissioning the old G4. Both machines will be networked together for a while. I can imagine some problems are possible.
It will be interesting running a newly designed machine with a just-realeased operating system and then installing a brand new version of Final Cut. Talk about just asking for trouble. Cross your collective fingers, OK?
Tom

[Tom Matthies]

Double check the Panny deck carefully. We have a couple of older AjD-750 decks with SDI cards. When capturing from them thru SDI, the signal comes into FCP without setup. Now, “this is normal” you say. Not quite. Even when playing out thru the IO (or back to a Digibeta for that matter), the video still continues to be without setup. Since these decks are around 8 years old, with the original firmware, this problem might have (probably has) been addressed in the newer decks. I can’t say for sure since we don’t use the decks a lot and I’ve never brought up the issue with Panasonic. Check the Panasonic deck and it’s menus carefully to see if the setup issue has been addressed.
My 2

[Tom Matthies]

While I don’t have a recording of the great sound that the head wheel on a 2-inch Quad recorder made, I do actually have three of the machines themselves.
An RCA TR-50, an RCA-TR600B and an Ampex ACR-25 cart recorder.
All worked last time I tried them, but that was a couple of years ago. Maybe if I can find a 208 volt, two phase circuit box again, I’ll give them a try.
It was a sound that the younger generation will never know…
>Sigh< Tom

[Tom Matthies]

Do you have dupe detection turned off?
Check the pop up menu along the bottom of the time to see.
I don’t have FCP open right now, but I believe it’s the little triangle at the bottom left of the timeline window.
Sometimes it seems to turn itself off for whatever reason.
Tom

[Tom Matthies]

Yes, but the renders take much less time for a given effect than they used to.
I guess i’ll just to add more stuff and filters to each clip to make up the difference.
Tom

[Tom Matthies]

Yea, I just ordered a new G5 that will be much faster than my trusty old dual 1Ghz G4. I guess that will result in shorter lunch breaks as well. Could stand to loose a few pounds anyway. 🙂
Oh well, I just hope it’s as stable as my current machine. It’s a rock.
Crossing my fingers!
Tom

[Tom Matthies]

Yes, you can use an adapter to go from the RCA type connector on the deck to a BNC type connector in the IO. You can find them at places like Radio Shack for just a few bucks or at an electronics supply store for even less.
FWIW, “coax” cable can be either RF or baseband video. It just refers to the type of cable used; coaxial. It has a single conductor in the middle of the cable surrounded by a wire mesh forming the second conductor.
Tom

[Tom Matthies]

As a matter of fact, yes I have done all of the above. We work with Digibeta most of the time, but have a need to capture DV25 material as well. I have two way to do it. Through a Panasonic AJ-750 with an installed SDI card or through a small Firewire Deck. The Panny will “upconvert” to 4:2:2 color space. We tried each method, via the Panasonic deck and via the Firewire deck. No descernable difference in either case. Both were virtually the same. Actually, the Firewire transfer actually looked a little better for some reason. One less cycle or conversion to/from another format?
There is only so much information available in a DV25 signal. It’s compressed 5:1 at the source and recorded that way. Playing back in either case uses the exact same information to begin with and does not “add” any additional information to the signal. It simply increases the sampling/data rate used to describe the information that already exists.
A good analogy would be to take an MP3 audio file, a highly compressed format, and drag it into iTunes or Quicktime Pro and then export it as an .aif file. The result is a file much larger than the original MP3. Has quality been gained or “synthesized” in the process. Nope, the “higher quality” .aif will sound virtually identical to the original MP3. Nothing was gained. Your are simply using more data to discribe the original MP3 file. It simply is not going to sound better just because of the bigger file size.
The same applies to converting a DV25 data stream into a higher quality datastream. You are just using more “bits” to describe the original data. No new information is being synthesized in the process. Now upconverting is another story where new information is “made” by interpolating points between existing data points. It isn’t really adding real extra “real” quality, but it does appear that way to the eye and results in both a larger file and usually a larger screen size or resolution..

Anyhow, this is one of those topics that has been discussed endlessly in various forums here. All things being equal, there isn’t going to be much difference in either method. Now I won’t argue that all codecs are the same. There can be noticable differences there. The Apple DV codec is much improved over it’s earlier versions, but there’s always room for improvement. If there’s any difference , that’s where it might occure.
BTW, Apple writes all the drivers for the AJA Io. They all come out of the same place.
All I’ll add is if it works for you and fits your workflow, do it. This is simply one of those topics that everyone will never be able to agree on.
Tom