Known timecode break issue?

Hi all,
Does anyone know if there's a known timecode break issue with the DVX? Because of past problems with this same issue, we began to black all of our tapes when doing anything, and we still get timecode break issues when trying to batch capture in FCP. Is there a chance the timecode gets messed up when you turn the camera off in between shots?
 
This has been discussed alot on this board and the text below is copied from one of my earlier answers to this question.

You will get breaks in the time code after a powerdown/battery change etc. There's one easy thing you can do to always avoid these breaks. Before every new take (or as soon as the camera has been powered down, you have changed batteries or rewinded to watch the last scene) you press the "rec chk" button (located above the rec button). This will make the camera back up a few seconds, play them back for you so you can see exactly where on tape you are (so you know you start at the right spot), and while doing this the camera will also pick up the old (last recorded) timecode and resume it once hitting the rec-button again.

As long as you do this you should be fine regarding breaks.
Keep in mind though that the camera will always start recording at the current position on tape, which means if you rewind to check a previuously recorded scene you will have to manually go back to where you want to start recording and then hit the "rec chk". If you play back the last scene longer than you recorded it (tape is blank, the time code freezes), you will get a break in the timecode. So make sure the new starting point is always on a previously recorded frame. Thumb rule, always record a minimum of 5 seconds before and after every take.

Also make sure you are using REC-Run and not FREE-Run for the TC. How to setup this can be found in your DVX100 manual.

Good luck!
 
Thank you as well. :dankk2: Does this prevent the breaks after all these scenarios? (battery/stop/pause/turn off camera, etc.)

Rob
 
I'm glad this forum has a search feature... I had the timecode problem too, and figured it out by accident and didn't remember exactly what I did that fixed it. Your right, the *rec_chk* brings it back to last frame of last take (scene), and timecode no longer has a break.

Thanks for this!
Matt - drinks for everyone!
 
I've fooled around with different scenarios. Unfortunately, this solution only works if the camera is put in pause, not if it is turned off. In those cases it loses frames, and the rec check does no good...at least as far as I could tell. It works fine when it is still on and changing from record to pause, but I believe the time code stays constant in that case anyway, unless you go into playback mode manually.

Rob
 
Strongbad_2Z said:
Hi all,
... we began to black all of our tapes when doing anything, and we still get timecode break issues when trying to batch capture in FCP.
What everyone else replied is correct but if your blacking your tapes, you should have no such problem.

You mention that the problem occurs on FCP capture. Does that mean that the TC is stable while tape is running through the DVX?

Are you experiencing dropped frames on capture? or timecode that strays or restarts to zero?
 
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