Audio/video loses sync/picture crap when timecode ends

[sloejelley]

This is probably something really stupid that I'm not thinking of,

But, I've been capturing video recently, and for most of the tapes, the audio and video would lose sync in a major way, and the picture would look awful when I went to review the footage after capture. i use my cam to capture, because i can't afford a deck, so I don't want to wear the motors and heads out by jogging back and forth.

After experimenting, I found that it only screwed up the footage when I let it roll past the point where the footage ends. I'm thinking this is because there's no timecode at that point. I usually roll tape until the tape is done, but for some of these, I pulled the tape early and popped in another.

I remember striping tapes with black/timecode when I was in school and we were running beta, but I've never thought to do that with dv.

Is there a setting I'm missing on my camera (dvx100a) that will insert some sort of header and footer on the footage so this doesn't happen in the future?

Or is this issue a result of th tape stock that I'm using: Panasonic Professional Quality 83 min. tapes? Does consumer stock have timecode already striped on it?

I've used "consumer" tape stock in the past, and don't recall having this issue, but since it never happened I never really noticed if I was rolling on blank tape while capturing.

 

[Alex H.]

Which NLE are you using?

Most NLEs don't like to hit blank tape during capture. That spot is seen as a time code break, and it does all sorts of weird things within the software. And no, consumer tape stock isn't pre-striped.

You can stripe your tape stock ahead of time, and that will help avoid any time code breaks at all, but if you pay attention during production, you won't really need pre-striped tape.

Though, it shouldn't be an issue. You should be watching your capture (I'm assuming that you are using Capture Now) to stop it before the footage ends. I rarely use Capture Now. In fact, I only use it if it's an absolute last resort. Logging, and then Batch Capturing, are always better but can be very rough on the camera if that is your capture deck. There are some really great deals on used Sony DSR-11 decks right now on eBay. These make perfect editing decks for DVX footage.

 

[Ric O'Shea]

Nothing good has ever happened for me when FCP hits blank tape during capture. I've gotten in the habit of recording about 30 seconds of color bar at the beginning of a tape and at least 10 sec of post roll footage. I believe FCP only needs about 3 seconds of pre/post roll but I'd rather err on the side of having too much.

I'll agree on using batch capture. Best of all it prevents you from having to sit there and wait for the end. I set my end point about 5 seconds before the footage runs out and have had no problems. The only time I do capture now is when using a non-controllable device (a/d passthrough on the dvx while digitizing vhs)

dsr-11 is a workhorse. A fantastic deck (although I hate that it doesn't have a timecode display on it) that apparently is still holding it's value pretty well.

 

[Alex H.]

dsr-11 is a workhorse. A fantastic deck (although I hate that it doesn't have a timecode display on it) that apparently is still holding it's value pretty well.

I've had my DSR-11 since 2002 and it is still crankin'. Be careful shopping for them on eBay, though... make sure that the remote is included and that the transport door is still attached.

The door is missing on some used units, which can allow dirt and other contaminates into the deck. And the remote is essential. Though the deck does not have its own LED/LCD time code display, the touch of a single button on the remote brings it up on the video output to the monitor (but not through FW, so no worries about capturing with the data display).