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TentacleSync E review


RadoStefanov

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10 hours ago, Christian Spaeth said:

Doesn't seem to work here...

 

ok, was too optimistic then :/

 

 

10 hours ago, RadoStefanov said:

Latest version?

Wow. Apple sucks...

 

well, apple makes some fantastic products and some that sucks, but in this case the same 6 year old hardware running windows/linux likely wouldn't work either since it's a davinci requirement.

 

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7 hours ago, Christian Spaeth said:

Doesn't seem to work here...

Bildschirmfoto 2018-01-15 um 09.11.12.jpg

 

 

I have an older Win7 x64 laptop that does not have an Nvidia CUDA video chip, when I encountered this dialog box I just clicked on Update Configuration and then everything started working.

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So I got a Tentacle yesterday and was playing around with it today and seem to have run into a problem. I plugged in into the my Zoom F8 and tried to jam the TC into the Tentacle and it appeared to work. However upon looking a little closer at the app and the TC on the recorder the app was about 8-12 frames faster then my recorder. I tried various settings, INT Free Run, RTC, nothing seemed to get me a perfect sync. I then used the Tentacle and went TC into the F8 and that seemed to help, however I'm not sure how solid the F8 will hold that TC when I unplug it, which I did. I 

 

I then took the Tentacle and plugged it into our Blackmagic Ursa Mini Pro and a similar thing happened, the TC in the app was just a little off from what was being displayed on the camera. I'm wording if anyone has had any similar problems or if anyone has any idea what I'm doing wrong. I'm just going to assume it's me because everything I've seen about them are they work really well. 

 

Thank! 

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10 minutes ago, Erob said:

So I got a Tentacle yesterday and was playing around with it today and seem to have run into a problem. I plugged in into the my Zoom F8 and tried to jam the TC into the Tentacle and it appeared to work. However upon looking a little closer at the app and the TC on the recorder the app was about 8-12 frames faster then my recorder. I tried various settings, INT Free Run, RTC, nothing seemed to get me a perfect sync. I then used the Tentacle and went TC into the F8 and that seemed to help, however I'm not sure how solid the F8 will hold that TC when I unplug it, which I did. I 

 

I then took the Tentacle and plugged it into our Blackmagic Ursa Mini Pro and a similar thing happened, the TC in the app was just a little off from what was being displayed on the camera. I'm wording if anyone has had any similar problems or if anyone has any idea what I'm doing wrong. I'm just going to assume it's me because everything I've seen about them are they work really well. 

 

Thank! 

What frame rate? Is it matching on both devices. How do you power up the tentacle ? There are two different ways depending on how you want to use it. Where are you reading the difference? IPhone? Android?

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Thanks for reminding me, I forgot to mention the frame rate. On my F8 I had it set to 23.976 and the tentacle set to 23.98 (the camera was also set to 23.98). My researched told me that they are the same frame rate, 23.98 is just shorthand for 23.976. Now please correct me if I am wrong there. 

 

I held down the power switch until I saw a red flashing light then I released it and plugged it in and got the green light. I was unaware there were two different ways to turn it on, looking more into that now. 

 

I was reading the difference on an iPhone also. 

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8 hours ago, Erob said:

I held down the power switch until I saw a red flashing light then I released it and plugged it in and got the green light. I was unaware there were two different ways to turn it on, looking more into that now. 

 

 

If the new one works the same as the old one (which I own two of), then yes you have two ways to turn it on (long press, or shorter press). 
One way is to accept TC to jam to, and other sends TC out.
There should be a quick shortcut card with it probably for setup?

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9 hours ago, Erob said:

Thanks for reminding me, I forgot to mention the frame rate. On my F8 I had it set to 23.976 and the tentacle set to 23.98 (the camera was also set to 23.98). My researched told me that they are the same frame rate, 23.98 is just shorthand for 23.976. Now please correct me if I am wrong there. 

 

I held down the power switch until I saw a red flashing light then I released it and plugged it in and got the green light. I was unaware there were two different ways to turn it on, looking more into that now. 

 

I was reading the difference on an iPhone also. 

Are you checking the time code on the phone? What kind? There was a bug with American frame rates. You know the world does not really do all those strange frame rates...

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I was able to get it to work, I'll post my workflow if you will that I used to get it to work:

 

1) Turn on F8, to go timecode setting

2) Turn on Tentacle Sync E (short hold), plug into mixer TC output

      At this point the Tentacles seems to be synced with the mixer

3) Unplug Tentacle from F8 and from itself (I have to remove the 1/8" cable completely here, on the phone there is an error message saying it is not generating TC)

4) Plug 1/8" back in, error message goes away and we appear to be good

5) Plug into camera and verify we have sync there

 

This sequence seems to work for me, not sure if I was doing something wrong or if I am doing anything wrong still but at least it appears to be working. 

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9 hours ago, Erob said:

 (I have to remove the 1/8" cable completely here, on the phone there is an error message saying it is not generating TC)

 

This sounds a bit off. Although I can’t say if that happens on mine, as I always leave the cable on the recorder, so I‘d unplug it on the Tentacle anyway. But now on the Sync E you can just do this via Bluetooth 

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On 2/9/2018 at 10:16 PM, IronFilm said:

Or in other words, just following the instructions? 
Short hold to turn on then jam.
Done. 

 

I guess you could say that, however I really didn't see anywhere in the instructions that says you have to completely unplug the device from any cable after jamming but before plugging into the camera. I may play around with it a little more this week but have a big production the later half so gonna be a good test to see if it works. If not we will sync the old fashion way with audio and slate. 

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11 hours ago, Erob said:

however I really didn't see anywhere in the instructions that says you have to completely unplug the device from any cable after jamming but before plugging into the camera.

 

That did sound a little odd to me, and I suspect something else is in play, did you know not all TC cables are bidirectional? That would be my first guess.
(edit: although, now I scroll up I see you mentioned you're using with a F8 & URSA Mini, which both use BNC. And I can't recall any BNC to 3.5mm which are not bidirectional. As I'm guessing you are using this: https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1327596-REG/tentacle_sync_c08_cable_tentacle_to.html or https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1327595-REG/tentacle_sync_c06_cable_tentacle_to.html)

 

On 2/8/2018 at 12:17 PM, Erob said:

however I'm not sure how solid the F8 will hold that TC when I unplug it, which I did.

btw, the F8 will hold it rock solid all day long (unless you turn it off! But with my external battery I can easily run one all day long, or at least well past lunch anyway. And is just a good habit to jam again at lunch)

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On 2/9/2018 at 4:16 PM, Erob said:

I was able to get it to work, I'll post my workflow if you will that I used to get it to work:

 

1) Turn on F8, to go timecode setting

2) Turn on Tentacle Sync E (short hold), plug into mixer TC output

      At this point the Tentacles seems to be synced with the mixer

3) Unplug Tentacle from F8 and from itself (I have to remove the 1/8" cable completely here, on the phone there is an error message saying it is not generating TC)

4) Plug 1/8" back in, error message goes away and we appear to be good

5) Plug into camera and verify we have sync there

 

This sequence seems to work for me, not sure if I was doing something wrong or if I am doing anything wrong still but at least it appears to be working. 

 

 

At the end of step 2 does the Tentacle actually switch from the red to the green light?

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Hi Erob,

 I am still getting used to my Tentacle E devices and your post sparked my curiosity. I have been confused by the app a few times, and find it disconcerting as I consider the app to seem potentially reassuring, but when it doesn't work as expected I find it distressing.

 

FWIW, I have downloaded the latest version of the app.

 

Here's my latest experience:

 

1) Started with a long hold on a Tentacle E. It blinked green. I saw it on my app. It was set at 29.97. I powered it off.

 

2) Turned on a Sound Devices 633 set time code to 23.98 frame rate.

 

3) Turned on the Tentacle Sync E with a short hold. It blinked red. The iPhone app saw the Tentacle and reported that it was set at 29.97. I plugged the Tentacle into the Sound Devices 633's TC output and the Tentacle switched to blinking green. The iPhone app showed that the Tentacle was now in 23.98 FPS, but while watching carefully I could see that the iPhone app timecode display did not match the mixer's display. The iPhone app was advanced by approximately one frame while the mixer seemed to lag behind. Additionally, the iPhone app displayed the triangular warning icon and offered a dialog box that claimed the Tentacle was not generating time code (despite the fact that it was blinking green) and the dialog suggested that a cable needed to be connected. (FWIW the Tentacle Sync Sound Devices Lemo connector cables are wired so that you need two different cables; one for in and one for out so it seems routine to have to pull one out and replace it with another) I pulled the 1/8" mini plug out of the Tentacle E and re-inserted it and the warning went away and more importantly the iPhone apps timecode display seemed to sync with the mixer's display. The approximate one frame time lag was gone. I had not actually switched to the proper timecode cable for sending time code out of Tentacle E with a Lemo connector. All I did was remove and insert the 1/8" connector at the Tentacle E device.

 

I do not know how, or if, this differs from what is intended but it does seem like a fuddle through operation, when a green blinking green light is presumed to mean that everything is good but the iPhone app says it is not.

 

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On 2/13/2018 at 10:32 AM, alenK said:

Additionally, the iPhone app displayed the triangular warning icon and offered a dialog box that claimed the Tentacle was not generating time code (despite the fact that it was blinking green) and the dialog suggested that a cable needed to be connected. (FWIW the Tentacle Sync Sound Devices Lemo connector cables are wired so that you need two different cables; one for in and one for out so it seems routine to have to pull one out and replace it with another) I pulled the 1/8" mini plug out of the Tentacle E and re-inserted it and the warning went away and more importantly the iPhone apps timecode display seemed to sync with the mixer's display. The approximate one frame time lag was gone. I had not actually switched to the proper timecode cable for sending time code out of Tentacle E with a Lemo connector. All I did was remove and insert the 1/8" connector at the Tentacle E device.

 

I do not know how, or if, this differs from what is intended but it does seem like a fuddle through operation, when a green blinking green light is presumed to mean that everything is good but the iPhone app says it is not.

 

 

I get this every time now, and I go through the same steps to get it working. I used the Tentacle Sync E on a 4 day shoot last week, haven't seen any of the footage yet but it appeared to work the whole time. Starting post on the project tomorrow so I'll see if it actually worked or not then. 

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For what it's worth, I've owned several of the original model and have been using 2 of the new ones for the last month or so. I've had no problems totally replacing the old ones with the new ones in my workflow, and I absolutely love the new cable locks. One tip that may help folks here that are newer to these boxes is that you always need to switch the frame rate on the tentacle to the proper setting before attempting to jam. I don't believe they will auto-jam and pick the right frame rate by themselves. This is one of the reasons I have enjoyed using the newer ones - being able to do this wirelessly. 

 

I have had no problems with mine doing this. Jamming from a 633, have used to feed C300, C500, Amira, Alexa, Mini, various Reds, FS7, F5, probably some Ursa models, etc. 

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  • 6 months later...
4 hours ago, Ilari Sivil said:

Tentacle Sync came out with a firmware update for the Sync E that offers wireless sync over bluetooth: https://tentaclesync.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/360001337105-Sync-E-firmware-update-2-0

It's only been out there for about three weeks, have people tried it yet? Does it really work?

 

I have been using it for three weeks now and I can confirm that it really does work. I am currently on a two-camera shoot and I have one Tentacle on each cam and one on my recorder. I used to set my recorder as the master, but now the recorder receives TC from the Tentacle, because now I can check sync for all three boxes with the app and can re-sync if I want to. The app shows if there is something wrong, like one Sync E isn’t in sync anymore or a cable isn’t plugged in. That really happened the other day and luckily I caught it before we were rolling again. 

I have been lobbying TentacleSync to enable push messages on a smart phone, so if something happens, like a cable gets unplugged I get a warning by itself. 

If one camera comes in later, but the other is out if range and you want to add a new Sync E to the new camera you can also sync the new one to the Sync E nearby without also losing sync of the other one out of range. Another advantage of having the Sync E on the recorder. 

Range is amazing, by the way. Forget everything you thought you knew about Bluetooth range. They are using a different Bluetooth protocol and now I can easily sync across 15-20 meters or maybe even more (I never measured it). 

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