[MacDV] Re: Time Code Breaks in 20-min clip--Ping Marisa--MacDV Digest #1816

[Gregg Gorrie]

on 12/24/02 2:33 PM, Ted Langdell at ted at tedlangdell.com wrote:

> Hi, Marisa...
> 
> FCP is trying to tell you that the time code is not continuous in the
> section of tape you're trying to capture in one take.
> 
> Breaks can happen when a tape is removed from the camera and then put back
> in without finding the end of the last video, and backing up a few frames
> into it, so the camera's time code generator picks up the time code and
> continues on from the place you parked it.

>SNIP

> If not... try making an analog copy to a DV camcorder or deck or Digital 8
> camcorder that has analog INPUTS.  That should give you a copy with minimal
> loss and create continuous time code.

I started out archiving all my family VHS tapes to my Sony Digital 8
camcorder via the analog inputs (it's one of the models without
pass-through, otherwise I would have gone straight to hard disk) with the
idea of logging and editing them at some future date. To ensure I didn't
have any time-code issues, I even "blacked" the tapes beforehand.

For some bizarre reason, when I now try to capture them in Premiere or Final
Cut Pro, my video and audio drift dramatically out of sync (like maybe a
second during a 2 minute capture). There is no message about dropped clips
or anything. Keep in mind this sync problem seems to increase with the
number of edits (on the original VHS), even though I recorded to the D8 in a
continuous stream.

One workaround I have found has been to re-capture the Digital 8 footage in
iMovie 2, which >doesn't< have the time-code sync problem between audio and
video, export the movie as DV (which takes forever), then print back to the
Digital 8 camcorder via Firewire using FCP. The resulting tape >can< be
captured properly without sync problems ... not a very efficient work flow
for 12 hours of video, I can tell you.

If anyone has some suggestions as to why this happens (and better yet, a
solution), please let me know.


-- 
Gregg