Christian Spaeth Posted April 24, 2012 Report Share Posted April 24, 2012 At my current shoot I use the Ambient wireless TC link. For days there have been drop frames so they exchanged the body but still the problem persists. Now they are suspecting the Tc causes the drop frames. When the RF connection is lost the Alexa Tc blinks. Has anyone heard something like that? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
studiomprd Posted April 24, 2012 Report Share Posted April 24, 2012 " there have been drop frames " ?? sorry, but can you please clarify..?? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Richard Lightstone, CAS Posted April 24, 2012 Report Share Posted April 24, 2012 Dumb question: Is the Alexa set to "Ext Jam" in the TC menu? Then press "Info" button to go to the info page and see "system good". Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RPSharman Posted April 24, 2012 Report Share Posted April 24, 2012 In addition, I don't understand why people put a box on the outside which performs the same function as the box on the inside. I say jam the Alexa and leave it be. Robert Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kevin Sorensen Posted April 24, 2012 Report Share Posted April 24, 2012 I have a dumb question, does the Alexa hold TC during battery changes? or do jam after every batt change ? In addition, I don't understand why people put a box on the outside which performs the same function as the box on the inside. I say jam the Alexa and leave it be. Robert Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RPSharman Posted April 24, 2012 Report Share Posted April 24, 2012 It holds. But the good news is that if the TC resets, it resets to zero value, so you'll know right away. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Philip Perkins Posted April 24, 2012 Report Share Posted April 24, 2012 I was specifically instructed by Arri to NOT leave a TC/sync box hooked up to the Alexa while it rolls. We've been jamming it (as many as 3 at a time) and they've been holding sync beautifully on their own. phil p Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
studiomprd Posted April 24, 2012 Report Share Posted April 24, 2012 " It holds. " interestingly, we had mixed reports on that this morning during the Ambient presentation at Coffey Sound, a Trew Audio Company. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Philip Perkins Posted April 24, 2012 Report Share Posted April 24, 2012 What can I tell you? I've been getting back to every editor and DIT-nerd I've worked with with the Alexa, and we have yet to have any issues w/ TC w/ the Alexa if was still jammed. One in awhile it would go back to 00:00:00:00 after a frame rate change, but that was a few firmware updates ago. phil p Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Richard Lightstone, CAS Posted April 24, 2012 Report Share Posted April 24, 2012 Phil, On the HBO show "Luck", Lockits were on the Alexa's all day, every day. No problems reported by post. In regards to the battery change timecode question. In theory the Alexa will maintain the Internal timecode for about 10 minutes. In production, that has worked for me. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
old school Posted April 24, 2012 Report Share Posted April 24, 2012 We always have lock it boxes on the Alexa's when we use them. Never heard of any issues with tc drift or dropped code. CrewC Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
larry long Posted April 25, 2012 Report Share Posted April 25, 2012 We jam in the morning and after lunch , season 1 of homeland 1 pilot and the current feature I am on. Sometimes we jam from the tc3 itself Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David Waelder Posted April 25, 2012 Report Share Posted April 25, 2012 In regards to the battery change timecode question. In theory the Alexa will maintain the Internal timecode for about 10 minutes. In production, that has worked for me. At this morning's Ambient briefing at Coffey/Trew Audio, Sebastian, their rep, said that he was getting reports from users that the capacitor in the Alexa would not reliably hold code for more than a few seconds. His theory was that operator error was drastically reducing the expected ten-minute safety window. If the camera is shut down prior to the battery exchange, it should hold code reliably. If everything stays powered on, the demands of the viewfinder, operator displays, etc. will quickly drain the capacitor. Its an untested theory but it makes some sense. David Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Philip Perkins Posted April 25, 2012 Report Share Posted April 25, 2012 Yeah--for me, just jam and disconnect, the camera clock has been as accurate as our Lockits, on our jobs. phil p Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ProSound Posted April 25, 2012 Report Share Posted April 25, 2012 Yeah--for me, just jam and disconnect, the camera clock has been as accurate as our Lockits, on our jobs. phil p +1 six week movie jammed camera in the morning and after lunch Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Richard Lightstone, CAS Posted April 25, 2012 Report Share Posted April 25, 2012 From my practical on set experience on over 10 projects with the Alexa. Battery changes have yet to lose timecode. On those shows cameras were jammed from a Denecke TS-3 slate. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marc Wielage Posted April 25, 2012 Report Share Posted April 25, 2012 I recently did two Alexa projects: one, the assistant jammed from the SB-T box; the other, the AC went external in all day (no jam). Both methods worked fine. I usually prefer for them just to jam every so often, just because I worry if the cable is bumped or something, there might be a momentary "burp" in the code, which will cause a glitch. Under controlled conditions, it should be perfect. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Christian Spaeth Posted April 25, 2012 Author Report Share Posted April 25, 2012 Thanks for all the replies. We changed to jamming. By drop frames I meant that single frames were lost, happened maybe twice a day. Still wondering what that has to do with TC. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Philip Perkins Posted April 25, 2012 Report Share Posted April 25, 2012 Thanks for all the replies. We changed to jamming. By drop frames I meant that single frames were lost, happened maybe twice a day. Still wondering what that has to do with TC. In theory if the camera is aligning its TC to its "frames" then by not supplying both sync and TC you could cause a glitch in the recording by the camera trying to follow two non-synchronized clocks. This issue dates back to the Sony F900, and was controversial then as it is now. This was why Arri really preferred us to jam sync and then let the camera run on its own clock. I prefer this method as it is simpler and thus less failure prone than adding the Lockit to the camera. phil p Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Christian Spaeth Posted April 25, 2012 Author Report Share Posted April 25, 2012 So according to that theory if I use an ERX1TCD there should be no glitches because it never loses TC? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
studiomprd Posted April 25, 2012 Report Share Posted April 25, 2012 " So according to that theory if I use an ERX1TCD there should be no glitches because it never loses TC? " there still could be other glitches possible... remember: CRAP happens. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jeff Wexler Posted April 25, 2012 Report Share Posted April 25, 2012 So according to that theory if I use an ERX1TCD there should be no glitches because it never loses TC? This is not correct. An ERX1TCD will accomplish continuous timecode just as a jammed sync box attached to the camera does this. I think the glitches being referred to, as Phil P. mentions, come from only TC being input to the camera without sync (gen lock). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Philip Perkins Posted April 25, 2012 Report Share Posted April 25, 2012 This is not correct. An ERX1TCD will accomplish continuous timecode just as a jammed sync box attached to the camera does this. I think the glitches being referred to, as Phil P. mentions, come from only TC being input to the camera without sync (gen lock). The Arri guy wasn't keen on feeding the camera either sync or TC all the time from an external source (a la RED). In my recent shoots with Alexa we've jam synced TC (w/o sync) then disconnected the external TC gen. from the camera and it ran on its own clock. phil p Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jeff Wexler Posted April 25, 2012 Report Share Posted April 25, 2012 The Arri guy wasn't keen on feeding the camera either sync or TC all the time from an external source (a la RED). In my recent shoots with Alexa we've jam synced TC (w/o sync) then disconnected the external TC gen. from the camera and it ran on its own clock. phil p Another reason to like the Arri approach. Seems like the best idea, jam the camera TC system and walk away. Evidently this works. I wish my next movie was using the Arri Alexa --- no such luck: RED Epic. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
studiomprd Posted April 25, 2012 Report Share Posted April 25, 2012 " RED Epic. " RED Epics ?. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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