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amira timecode oddness


rich

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Just did a job with two Amiras. One worked perfectly and accepted TC from ERX properly right off the bat. The other would not accept TC from ERX no matter what I did (changes in voltage, menu settings, reboots, etc).

I am in the habit these days of being more confident in my gear, and less confident in camera firmware; and I make it known on location that it is the reason we also have onboard mics, TC slates and scratch tracks, etc. Production is never truly out of luck for syncing in post with multiple options like that, so we just work around the 'buggy cameras'. So many of them are buggy these days...

And I mean no offense to camera operators, but many of them don't know a thing when it comes to the sound menus or TC settings on their cameras. My only reason for mentioning it is if they aren't even aware of how their machine works and they are not willing to be responsible for all aspects of their gear, then I'm limiting the amount of time I de-bug their gear on set and then it's back to the myriad of other tasks I have to handle on my end. It works or it doesn't, but if it proves problematic and they can't help me operate their own gear, then I just immediately provide another option, make a note to bill production accordingly and we move along.

Anyway that's been my MO recently and it's working well.

Edited by Toy Robot
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TotaI agreement with others that 3v. is probably excessive.  I typically have an ERX set to 1v. no matter what camera I send time code to.  

With a TRX200, the setting is .9v (that's 9/10).  Both have worked without fail into Amiras.  If an Amira has ever jumped a cog (so to speak), I've not seen it from my end and have not heard back from post that they've encountered it.  

I've passed the word to owners and ACs that the bug exists and that Arri is working to solve it.  That way, if the issue rears its ugly head, finger pointing can start with the camera, not with me or another sound mixer down the line.

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  • 3 months later...

Doh, I hate DF timecode and just wish it would go away. Some post people are so superstitious, they don't want to try shooting the entire show in Non-Drop and then -- at the very end -- rendering out the file or going to tape in Drop Frame for broadcast. That will work, and smart people can calculate the segment time differences (3 seconds per hour). Very hard to get stubborn people to go with a different workflow. They always cry "but we've always done it that way," and just will not listen. 

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