Urgent Emergency: 24pA direct to computer over firewire possible?

[Stephen_Stifano]

Hi All,

Last night I got the dreaded "Auto-off T_Reel Lock" error on my DVX100b, and we're in the middle of a feature shoot with 2.5 weeks left to go. We have a major location shoot tonight, and most viable rental houses are either closed or unable to get us a stand-in before we need to start rolling in 12 hours. Sending the camera out for repair is not a viable option without *something* to shoot on, so I'm trying to be resourceful...

Without a tape in the deck, the camera still processes images just fine in standby mode. I tried hooking this up to my laptop (MacBook Pro 2.4ghz, 200 gig HD) via firewire, and capturing some live footage in iMovie. Seemed to work like a charm. But now I have a few questions and need some help:

1) We're shooting in 24pA, and I'm wondering if the pulldown flags would be present in a direct-to-harddrive recording, such that I could have digital 24-frame files, and use another cheap mini-DV camcorder as a deck and output properly cadenced 24pA to a master tape for backup. Is this possible?

2) Will final cut pro be able to read the 24pA footage properly, and remove pulldown on the fly, using capture now? I imagine that without timecode (since the camera's in standby mode) this would not be possible. If it is, it's actually a decently-efficient workflow for me, and I imagine we'd be able to rough it for the remainder of the shoot with proper disk-management. The problem is, we already have 16.5 hours of footage shot in 24pA, so any new footage is going to need to match that old footage before we start the edit.

3) Is there any other comparable solution that could bail me out - at the least for the evening, so I have a couple days to regroup before shoots on Monday and Tuesday?

Time is of the essence, so if you have any answers, I'd appreciate a quick response. Thank you all so much for being so helpful. Oh, and if anyone's got a DVX lying around in the RI/CT areas and would be feeling particularly generous (or eager to rent) please let me know.

Best,
Steve

 

[Jan_Crittenden]

1) We're shooting in 24pA, and I'm wondering if the pulldown flags would be present in a direct-to-harddrive recording, such that I could have digital 24-frame files, and use another cheap mini-DV camcorder as a deck and output properly cadenced 24pA to a master tape for backup. Is this possible?

Use the Firewire connection and the flags should be there, but I would say do not use a cheapy camcorder as most of these will not take in the time code over the firewire. The flags are in the timecode. So try this against the MBP firewire in.

2) Will final cut pro be able to read the 24pA footage properly, and remove pulldown on the fly, using capture now? I imagine that without timecode (since the camera's in standby mode) this would not be possible. If it is, it's actually a decently-efficient workflow for me, and I imagine we'd be able to rough it for the remainder of the shoot with proper disk-management. The problem is, we already have 16.5 hours of footage shot in 24pA, so any new footage is going to need to match that old footage before we start the edit.

Put the Time Code into Free Run and make sure the camera's user bits are in the Frame mode. The Free Run will put the time code into a generating output rant than Rec Run which will wait until the camera is in record.

Good Luck, hope this was in time to help,

JAn

 

[Stephen_Stifano]

Jan,

Thank you immensely! Just a couple followups, as I think I have this working properly already...

A) When you say put the user bits into frame mode, you're discussing the UB Mode: FRAME RATE setting, correct?

B) When doing this, it seems like it only works by setting the DVX as a "non-controllable device" in final cut pro - is there any information lost by doing this? (I doubt it, since frankly I can't even control the device due to the malfunctions).

Thanks again!

-Steve