Additional issue regarding timecode emitted by XLH1a

[Andy Johnson-Laird]

I've been working with three jam-synced XLH1a's and three FS-CV DTE recorders connected with Firewire cables to their respective XLH1a.

In addition to discovering that you need to put a mini-DV tape into the camera to get valid time code to be emitted out the Firewire port (note: the tape just needs to be loaded, not being recorded to), I made another interesting discovery while going marginally crazy trying to solve another time code issue.

For valid, uninterrupted time code to be emitted, you must have a *blank* miniDV tape loaded. If the tape is not blank, after a few minutes when the XLH1a "times out" after powering up into "paused" mode, when the XLH1a switches from "paused" mode to "stop" mode, it stops emitting the free-running time code and emits a constant value for the time code -- which appears to be the time code of the current frame last recorded.

Note that the FS-CV has its own display and can display the time code value it is receiving.

However, the good news is, that to prevent accidental recording, and the ensuing corrupted time code coming out of the Firewire port, you can put the miniDV tape in with the write-protect tab open. You do get a flashing warning icon in the EVF, but the current valid time code will then be emitted regardles of whether the camera is in "Pause" or "Stop."

Only wasted three hours on that one -- wondering how on earth one camera could work flawlessly, but another was only emitting valid time code for a few minutes -- and then I heard the tape unload off the head just at the moment that the time code on the display screen of the FS-CV "wedged" to some value completely different from the current time code.

Hope this helps anyone trying to use an XLH1 and an FS-CV (or any other Firewire connected recorder).

Regards
Andy