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New TC-box from Betso


DjGo

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Cute! But essentially quite similar size the Ambient Tiny Lockit due to launch in January. The Betso is slightly cheaper, but you gain the transceiver function on the lockit. Competition is good!

Betso S-Box: €495 - 75mm x 62mm x 21mm (98mm²)

Tiny Lockit (ACN-TL): €660 - 71,5mm x 56mm x 20mm (80mm²)

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On the C300 you definitely need Video Sync as well as Timecode.

So I still use my Ambient Lockit box on the C300…..

But I do wish that Ambient had included Video Sync on their new Tiny Lockit (ACN-TL), It would be useful for smaller Camera’s like C300 and F3, but both need Video Sync.

It is a pity that the Sync output of the Betsy only outputs Wordclock. That makes it as useless as the new Tiny Lockit for many Cameras……

Gertjan.

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On the C300 you definitely need Video Sync as well as Timecode.

So I still use my Ambient Lockit box on the C300…..

But I do wish that Ambient had included Video Sync on their new Tiny Lockit (ACN-TL), It would be useful for smaller Camera’s like C300 and F3, but both need Video Sync.

It is a pity that the Sync output of the Betsy only outputs Wordclock. That makes it as useless as the new Tiny Lockit for many Cameras……

Gertjan.

Yeah, I figured that out.. pity indeed

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I just did a shoot with c300 and my nomad ,everybody feed by denecke boxes, didn't use video sync, even thought I had no complain from the editor, what problems could this lead into? The shoot was mainly itw with quite long take ( 30 to even 60 min] EU world so pal 25frames/ sec...

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We found the C300 to be pretty stable TC wise in tests, only part of a frame off after 6 hrs or so, BUT this is w/o moving the camera around and in a very stable environment temp wise, and running on an AC adapter (so no reboots for battery swaps). On location I've mostly used an SBT, trilevel and TC.

Of the last 5 c300 jobs I've worked on, 2 of the 5 cameras had TC issues (same Lockit box). Don't know if this common... but it is annoying. Probably cameras built on a Friday afternoon ;)

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What issues Matt? I have been doing multi C300 jobs all year with my SB-3's and had no sync issues?

Hi Tim, it was very odd. It didn't happen often but sometimes the TC value from the lockit would be simply ignored and we'd find the TC value reset and had freerun from 00:00:00.

I changed cables a few times but never tracked down the issue. Fortunately we had a digi slate as well. Belt and braces saves the day!

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Hi Tim, it was very odd. It didn't happen often but sometimes the TC value from the lockit would be simply ignored and we'd find the TC value reset and had freerun from 00:00:00.

I changed cables a few times but never tracked down the issue. Fortunately we had a digi slate as well. Belt and braces saves the day!

Sounds like a lockit box problem, as it was always the same lockit box. Could it be loosing power intermittently and reseting to 00:00:00:00 ??

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I think I am going to be wrong about my next statement but if someone could explain why that would be great. I thought Video sync was only required if you were using multiple cameras.

The engineers at Complete Post/Technicolor explained to me that timecode alone will work with one camera. With multiple cameras, the risk is that the timecode phase will drift slightly -- at a sub-frame level -- so that it's not precisely lined up with the first line of video. You might compare this to two pieces of film that get 1 sprocket hole out of sync. They're almost in sync, but still out about 1/96th of a second (1 quarter of a frame), which is extremely noticeable. Only with genlock reference (i.e., video sync) will everything be in absolute sync.

When timecode phase starts drifting a little tiny bit, what happens is that some timecode-reading gear gets "confused" and will flip over to the previous frame number or the following frame number. As a result, you get multiple cameras and sound that occasionally and unpredictably go out 1 frame, depending on where the drift leans. If there's absolutely precise video sync and timecode reference, this will never happened.

I know of a very famous recent 3D horror film that did not use genlock and timecode reference, and it wasn't noticed until the 11th hour, when the film was conformed and checked. The slight sync error caused massive 3D issues, causing preview audiences to get sick. I believe five or six technicians working 20 hours a day for about 5 days straight had to be employed to make manual changes (at a six-figure expense) to fix the problem. If they had just used proper reference on all cameras, this would have saved them about $150,000 at the end. But that was a "picture problem," not sound per se.

But for one-camera shoots, just timecode alone will work OK. I have some experience with the C300 and none with the C500 yet, but what I don't like is that the camera is teeny-tiny and there's no room to bolt anything on it. It's like a very big DSLR. I have no clue how stable it is with longterm timecode jamming; I've used it in both external and in jam modes, and I was told by post that sound was perfect all day.

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