[Tom Matthies]

Yea, It’s been a long day here. I’m used to hitting the Log button on my shuttle Pro and entering the name that way. I didn’t have the Shuttle Pro hooked up on this machine and just went stupid for a moment when it came time to Log the clips.
Time to quit for the day and take a break.
Thanks,
Tom

[Tom Matthies]

Close your current project BEFORE quitting Final Cut. When you next launch it, it will start up with a new project ready to go.
Tom

[Tom Matthies]

Looking it up in my manual:

Error 3 -Reel Trouble Three
“The slack or breaking of the tape is detected in playback mode, or either of the lock of the supply or take-up reel is detected, and then tape protection is done.”

Don’t you just love Japanese translated into English?

In other words, one of the reel motors wasn’t working as it should, either the FG frequency is missing or the motor isn’t detecting enough tension on the reel table, so the machine went into the tape protection mode to keep the tape from being damaged.

Could be caused my lots of things. Damaged tape cassette, reel table at an incorrect height or setting, dirt in the motor, bent shaft, or just bad voodoo.

Tom

[Tom Matthies]

Better late than never for an answer.
I’d say for your use that any deck with under 500 hours should give you many more hours of use. I bought a used Betacam deck a few years ago for making dubs and it’s been going strong for the past four years. I also have a Sony PVW-2600 for capture into a NLE that I got used. It’s got about 600 hours on the heads now and is still going strong with good RF off of the tape. If you are going to use the deck for logging, get a PVW series. It has a jog/shuttle knob that is built-in and it handles tape better than a UVW -series deck.
How long a deck will last depends greatly on how it was treated in the past. If you get a deck from a reputable dealer that was well cared for and used in a professional environment, you should get a lot of use out of it. For logging, don’t worry too much about the heads as much as how well the transport handles your tapes. You don’t want to be shuttling your master tapes around in a machine that’s mechanically unsound.
Tom

[Tom Matthies]

We’ve used both Sony and Fuji stock for years with good results. No problems with either. I’ve been buying Fuji’s for shorter productions and Sony’s for longer format programs. I’m not a big fan of BASF.
I would imagine that the tape should work OK in the machines, but some of BASF’s tapes in the past were pretty abrasive and would tend to wear the transport/heads at a faster rate than some of the other tapes. Can’t say whether this would be true for Digibeta’s or not.
Tom

[Tom Matthies]

Have you tried to use FCP’s “built-in” clouds?
Go to the generators tab and look at Render>clouds.
Might work for you and it’s free.
Tom

[Tom Matthies]

Thanks Andy. I’ll give that a try. It was just a matter of not knowing just where the file was on the drives.
I’m in a session today, but I’ll check it out after hours.
Thanks,
Tom

[Tom Matthies]

I think I have a way to do what you’d like here.
Black a tape, preferably on a professional format such as BetaSP or Digibeta. Any format will work as long as it has a dedicated time code track and output.Black the tape using the same timecode as your sequence . Now, capture this tape in the usual manner but rather than capturing the audio from the usual audio channel outputs, plug your input to FCP into the Time Code out jack on the deck. Now, rather than getting audio from the tape you will capture audio time code from the deck. The audio TC will match the time code of the tape. As added confidence that the code matches, capture the character output from the deck as well. The burned in time code will (should) match the code recorded on the time code track. Take this newly captured clip and edit the audio timecode into your sequence at the same time code location as your music reference. Now when you play the clip back it will have your music on the left (or which ever) channel and the audio time code on the other channel. Output your sequence to what ever media you are using to play back the audio on location and feed the audio Time code channel into your smart slate for your reference. Make sure you leave enough pad on the head of the clip to allow everything to lock in before the camera rolls. In the past, I’ve actually edited a click audio track to tape, recorded it on a BetaSP tape and used it to drive a slate the same as you are trying to do. If you have a good playback machine in the field (a good STABLE broadcast deck) ,I’ve also run the time code from the reference deck into the camera that I was shooting with thus jamming the code in the camera to the reference track as well. It makes matching/syncing the clips a cinch later in the edit room. Again, just make sure that you have enough on the head of the reference tape to allow everything down the line to lock up before you hit the actual location of the material you are recording. Simple and it works.
Tom

[Tom Matthies]

Also when using the Sony DSR-1500, I’ve found that setting the input to the internal signal generator (color bars) rather than to external video while capturing that this error will likely go away.

There is also a patch available that is supposed to address this problem.

Google “DisableAltETTPolling.tx[1].zip” for the patch.
I used to have the same problem and the combination of these two things seems to have solved it. I haven’t had it happen in quite a while now.
Tom

[Tom Matthies]

However, remember that with the widespread change over to server based play out systems rather than traditional VTR’s at most broadcast facilities these days, the connectivity between these servers is relying more heavily on traditional “IT” distribution methods. Many server based systems are transferring data via CAT5 or CAT6 Gigabit.
I believe that the traditional routing switcher is still a very necessary piece of equipment but a solid and fast network is quickly becoming just as necessary for smooth operations in a modern broadcast plant.
Tom