Timecode stripping

You can black and code a tape from the Edit to Tape window (little button above the video). But why would you want to do that?

Patrick

This is correct. It's possible you might get a little bit of a tiimecode jump at the spot where you resume shooting, but it should be an ascending jump which should be fine as long as you give yourself sufficient time at the beginning of the shot to account for preroll when capturing. Remember to assure timecode accuracy of captured clips besure and have "abort capture on dropped frames" and "create new clip on timecode break" enabled.

Blacking a tape was common practice in the days of analog tape when cameras could do 'insert' recording; you could lay down the timecode track (aka: blacking) and then record video and audio on the remaining tracks without disturbing the timecode.

Most consumer, prosumer and professional digital camcorders no longer do insert recording, so pre-blacking a tape is useless. When your camcorder is in record mode, the tape is erased BEFORE it reaches the record heads. So your black & code is gone - replaced by the camcorder's recording.

The only real result you get from pre-blacking/stripping a tape prior to recording is that you've put one pass on the tape: it's no longer virgin tape.

You can achieve unbroken timecode when shooting by making sure you have sufficient pre and post roll before and after each shot.

-DH

David, it seems many people have a problem making sure they have contiinuous signal with DV cameras. The DP I work with (and he's been working for many many years - he was actually one of the original shooters on Woodstock) couldn't do it until I seriously threatened bodily harm. And w'ere working with the Panasonic DVX100 which actually has a button that will automatically position the tape so there is continous ascending timecode. Blacking the tape should give you consistent ascending timecode which will allow you to successfully batch capture an entire tape. I agree that it shouldn't be necessary, but for many people it

Michael,

I understand what you're saying, but you can achieve the same thing with sufficient post roll. Why put one pass on the tape when you can do the same thing by rolling a few extra seconds after each shot?

-DH

I agree David. I can shoot and leave sufficient post roll, you can do it, but it clearly is beyond many people.

You will still get a glitch at the off point if they roll past it before starting again. Blacking a tape is no insurance against that. Also, since it is an assemble edit, if the tape speed is even slightyl off between the time the tape was blacked and the time it is recorded (temp difference, different deck, etc), there will be a difference in the timecode between the blacking and the recording.

There is a reason for blacking tapes like DigiBeta - where you will be inserting material. I still say blacking DV tapes is no insurance against tc glitches...

Patrick

But it's extremely unlikely the timecode will reset to 0 isn't it? At worst you'll get a timecode jump and lose a few seconds of preroll. Or am I wrong?

Quite the contrary Michael! On all the tapes shot with Sony HVR-Z1 that I receive for capture from different shooters the timecode breaks every time they stop shooting. True, they rewind quite often to take a look at the taped material on the LCD screen, then they shoot again. The timecode always, I repeat, always jumps back to zero and those guys have no idea of pre- or post-roll. I like the suggestion of one of previous posters that beating up one of the DPs may help. FCP assigns a new roll number every time it finds zero timecode point, on one of tapes the count went to D09-T, meaning D09 was the original roll number and then FCP went A, B, C... T!

George, the original post referred to miniDV not HDV. HDV is a very different beast and my experience for HDV is always been postproduction, not production.

You are right actually. When I capture miniDV tapes with broken timecode from my own Canon camcorder I never feel the temptation to go physical because the process is much smoother when I work with HDV tapes from the Sony. Although the timecode stops at points when I had switched off the camera, in DV it goes on eventually, after a few seconds delay. In HDV, it starts from zero. And the delay is painfully long.