smpte locking

shproductions03 · Post by **shproductions03** » Wed Apr 12, 2006 7:33 pm

I have an audio for video shot coming up and was wondering what people had the best luck with for locking DP with incoming smpte timecode. The Miditime piece doing the smpte to MIDI TC or a dedicated device for smpte input. Does anyone know if DP will lock to TC well. And if the smpte has dropouts does DP dent to stop recording like Pro Tools does. Does the (Record while still-framed) mean it will keep recording if TC drops out and will DP lock backup to smpte if the TC becomes good again without stopping?

m2 · Post by m2 » Thu Apr 13, 2006 2:15 pm

MTP will lock to incoming TC just fine. You do not need to convert it to MidiTC unless you want to control some 3rd device simultaneously with MidiTC. I would just jam sync with SMPTE all around. If you put SMPTE into the Timepiece it will regen it back out so you can pass it on someplace else.

The stop-start issue you referred to is freewheeling and both DP and ProTools can be set to freewheel to a specific number of frames. Good to keep that set to about 15-30 frames to keep things running smooth in case of some drop out. If you have a source that has more than 30 fms drop out, you got a case of some pretty messed up media. [Good luck with that.] If you own a MTP, that's all you need to lock to incoming code.

Have fun!

shproductions03 · Post by **shproductions03** » Thu Apr 13, 2006 2:56 pm

Thanks M2
Can you tell me where I can find the window to set the freewheel amount of frames in DP 4.6 So if I understand it right if I lock DP to smpte it should starting recording when I tell it to and if I set it to jam sync it should record locked to the smpte but then if I was to loose TC for a second or two it should keep recording but in freewheel where the computer makes up it own TC till the smpte comes back online again.

m2 · Post by m2 » Fri Apr 14, 2006 9:08 am

I believe you set that up in the clockworks app. At least that's where was. Aldso in Dp be sure to set sync coing in to Direct time lock it's the "MTC, DTL, or DTLe" setting in the prefs for recieve sync. See also Chapter 10 in the DP manual starting on pg 835. I route things differently now thru a Digi's Sync I/O so it's been a few years.

Check the manual for the Timepiece for the freewheeling part - I remember it being really easy. I do hope that you do not loose TC for ' a second or two'. 60 frames of no code is a bad scene. What are recieving code from?

shproductions03 · Post by **shproductions03** » Fri Apr 14, 2006 9:29 am

Big Video Trucks. I would think they would be the best at giving TC out but in my experience they are the very worst. Every time a need SMPTE from them, different trucks mind you, I get TC with dropouts and errors and all kinds of crap. I guess video gear runs ok with less then perfect TC, audio gear does not like bad TC. I have checked locking to TC. on my end of things and it works great, or with TC from small video shots where TC comes from a piece of gear I can see (like not in a big truck). In the big truck stuff I ask there tech and he says (yeah I don't know why its doing that). Thanks, that makes me look good to producers when there audio ends up not lock to TC.
Sorry for the rant.
Thanks

m2 · Post by m2 » Fri Apr 14, 2006 4:04 pm

Yeah video tech.s pretty much think audio is a squeak-in-the-wheel. See if you can get a tap off a timecode distribution amp. That should be clean. The video gear like decent code as well. So they should be able to give you a decent feed. Bring your own cables. It may help.

Good luck!

m2 · Post by m2 » Fri Apr 14, 2006 4:04 pm

Yeah video tech.s pretty much think audio is a squeak-in-the-wheel. See if you can get a tap off a timecode distribution amp. That should be clean. The video gear like decent code as well. So they should be able to give you a decent feed. Bring your own cables. It may help.

Good luck!