Jaming TC to DVX100b via FireWire?

Alden

Alden

Member
Does anyone know of a hardware or software solution that would let me Jam my DVX100b's TC from an outside source other than another DVX100a/b? Preferably either a small box that also had a couple of standard BNC TC ports, or an app I could run off of a Mac laptop plugged into the cam via the FireWire port.

Does anything like this exist? If not, does anyone have a sense of how hard it would be to develop?

Thanks in advance!
Alden
 
If you were streaming DV data off the laptop through its firewire port, the 100B could sync to that... but as to whether there's an application that takes incoming SMPTE TC from a BNC jack and converts it to DV, I don't know... hopefully someone else will write in.
 
Sweet Lord in Heaven that thing is a BEAST! I was hoping for some little box that I could strap to my camera or, at worst, slip into the sound guy's rig. It's also not clear to me from the description that the INERTIA actually does what I'm hoping to do (e.g. jam the camera to this external clock at the beginning of the shoot and then let the camera and this clocking module run independently, but "in sync" during the shoot while the timing module feeds TC into something like Tascam's new HD-P2.

Maybe I should back up further and describe whats making me look for this. I've been investigating a variety of field audio recorders to complement my DVX100b rig (which I use primarily for documentary and live event work). What I'm seeing is that the only way to get Time Code (not just sync signal, but actual TC) into or out of the DVX100b is via FireWire. It seems to me that there ought to be a pretty simple way to convert between the TC information included in a DV stream and the more traditional forms of TC information (e.g. LTC and VITC).

It also seems to me that if that translation can be accomplished fairly easily, then it ought to be almost as easy to keep one's camera and audio gear in sync during a shoot. The DVX100b can both send and receive a new TC setting (since you can gang sync two cameras via FW this must be possible), so one should have the choice of jamming to video, jamming to audio, or jamming to an external clock as the mood (or technical limitations) takes you.

Even if this were too complicated for mere mortals to accomplish via an external box, surely something similar could be done in software. . . Then you could sync your laptop to the camera and, once they were synced, use the laptop as your field recording unit (via a MOTU Traveler or something similar with a built in TC clock). Surely this is a plausible dream. . .

Thanks Barry and PMD17 for your suggestions!

- Alden
 
HELLO. I have the same problem. I need a little black box to convert DV TC to the LTC to synhronise my audioequipment.
It will be a small cheap box.
If you find something, e-mail me, please.
Thank you.
Best regards.
 
This all sounds great, but really - let's take it a step further. What I want is a wireless solution to the Time Code Jam Sync issue. So that when I'm roaming around - shooting music concerts or other performances, I can keep 2 or even 3 DVX100B's in sync. Is that just toooo crazy? I just figured that those network guys who run 10 cameras at once must have a solution like this. Or maybe there is a post solution that I just don't know about?

More Suggestions?
Milt Lee
 
I've been looking for a while to sync up SDX900s and DVXs, and this is the only unit that gets DV to LTC, there are other ways, but you'd have to go from LTC to VITC, VITC to LANC then LANC to Firewire, the major missing componet is LANC to firewire. Can't find it anywhere.
 
LANC to firewire won't do you any good. In order to sync through firewire the DVX would have to be in VCR mode (which is the only mode that firewire INPUT works in). In camera mode, the firewire is always a constant OUTPUT.

Only way you're going to get live streaming striping sync'd timecode wirelessly would be through some sort of audio timecode transmission system, and dedicate one of your audio channels to record timecode.
 
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