Does Firewire always transfer TC?

[Andrea Leoncavallo]

Hello all,
I am new to this and hope that I am not asking something that has been covered consistantly or worse, something that is too simplistic to be covered...
Anyway, its very simple...Does firewire always transfer correct timecode?
For instance, if I want to record a mini dv tape from a professional, play only deck to a canon gl1, will it bring over time code through firewire?
I have tried, not very hard bc of time constraints, and I could not make progress.
Any advice/info would be so greatly appreciated!
Thanks!
Andrea

[Chris Hurd]

Along with the video and audio media, FireWire also carries a variety of information including the original timecode. Hope this helps,

[Mike Hanlon]

I believe your GL1 puts its own timecode on the tape as it records over firewire, which is the question I think you are asking. If the source deck starts at, say, a timecode of 00:05:00:00 (5 seconds) and the GL1 has a fresh tape with nothing recorded on it, the timecode on the GL1 will start at 00:00:00:00.

If however the tape in the GL1 already has something recored on it, it will use the timecode already on the tape.


Does that make any sense?


Mike.

[Rob Lohman]

First a little bit of explenation on how it works under water. A
con-/prosumer camera records the timecode signal as Mike explained
it. It stores this WITH the audio and video streams into one
package we also call DV. When you hook up the camera to your
computer and start to capture it transfers this complete package
from the tape to your computer, including timecode etc.

So yes, it is always intact and maintained.

However, any device you put inbetween or a device other then
the camere you use can alter this data. So in theory the deck you
may be using to capture the footage can alter the timecode. I
can't really imagine it can or would do so, but I've read of decks
that can maintain timecode when copying tapes etc. etc. So there
are decks out there that can manipulate timecode.

So it is possible you can get a different timecode from the deck,
at least in theory.

Normally you have nothing to worry about and everything is
transferred in one go.

[Greg Boston]

Actually Rob, he's trying to go the other way. Deck ---> Canon GL1. I don't think you have the option on the GL1 to 'accept' the incoming tc over firewire. Like Mike says, the GL1 is going to lay down its own tc regardless. However, on the LE software I have, you can choose to ignore the incoming tc and have the program generate it, use an offset for synching tc of two cameras, or accept it as it comes over fw. I think he would have more options if he was going from GL-1 to the deck.

-gb-

[Rob Lohman]

Whoops, read it a bit too fast. The GL1 should put its own timecode
down indeed. However, a way to fix this would be to go the other
way. Play the tape in the GL1 and record it with the DV deck, there
you should have an option to maintain the timecode.

The timecode is still in the firewire signal, however in the first
case the GL1 will just ignore this and lay its own down.