Export to Tape
by Dean DeCarlo
on
Dec 14, 2006 at 12:56:42 am
Is it just me or is the export to tape really lacking? Can't it be at least as robust as capture? No deck control? No ability to scan and set in & out points? Everything through the keyboard? I'm used to Flame and the Video Toaster which both have decent tape control interfaces. Is this as good as it gets with the Decklink / Premiere combo?
Re: Export to Tape by Dean DeCarlo on Dec 14, 2006 at 1:06:40 am
While I'm outputting a bunch of stuff I'll complain a bit more. My digibeta is in the other room so while Premiere is outputting there is no info at all on the screen of progress etc. And no way to abort?!?! How is everyone dealing with this? It's a huge step backwards to have little to no interface for output. Am I alone in this? Does Blackmagic have big plans to improve this?
Re: Export to Tape by BazinoZ on Dec 14, 2006 at 7:21:59 am
Hey Dean ... I always have an outboard monitor across the timecode display output of the digi or HDcam deck. Thats how I check on the 'export to tape' progress.
Also as a tip, if you need to abort 'export to tape' when using Decklink deck control just disconnect the 9 pin cable. In my case I have a switch box that connects the 9 pin devices and I just switch control away. The downside is that you have to manually stop the deck.
Yes there are some fundamental basics missing with the Decklink deck control and maybe oneday it will have all the functionality of ProVTR which I also have.
Re: Export to Tape by Dean DeCarlo on Dec 14, 2006 at 6:09:27 pm
Yeah, I had ProVTR years ago and it worked fine. I don't have to unplug the cable to abort. Taking the deck out of remote and hitting stop aborts. Why can't export to tape use the same interface that capture uses? Would that really require that much coding? If I'm dumping a whole segment out to tape then typing in code is fine but what about punching in a bit to an existing clip or replacing a bad frame? I have to manually (at the deck) search for the code, write it down and then enter it? Is it this way on he Mac with Final Cut? Minimal interface (at best!), no abort, no on screen information at all seems like such an obvious kludge. Will something be done about this in the foreseeable future? I'm second guessing switching from my Video Toaster.........
Re: Export to Tape by Troy Murison on Dec 15, 2006 at 2:12:51 am
[Dean DeCarlo]"I have to manually (at the deck) search for the code, write it down and then enter it? Is it this way on he Mac with Final Cut?"
No, FCP has a decent playout interface that includes accurate insert and assemble
editing with a 'live' feed from the deck (if that's what's patched/routed back to
the BM card) to allow you to see what you're doing. Also, you can mark in's and
out's on the fly and use 'goto-in/out', JKL, etc. keyboard shortcuts for deck
control or enter TC into the in/out boxes. We've had no accuracy issues doing
edits (insert or assemble) using FCP's edit to tape with BM cards of various types.
The window behaves just like the capture window with regards to deck control which
is very similar to PPro's. The only thing lacking is a 'preview' function (it's the
old online editor in me that wants that one- but then as one guy I know says
"Preview is for wimps!". That function has saved my absent or burnt minded self
in the past though!) Other systems (Avid, Quantel) allow you to preview an edit
if the deck supports that.
Re: Export to Tape by Dean DeCarlo on Dec 14, 2006 at 6:16:06 pm
Baz, Are you using ProVTR with the Decklink card? I had ProVTR with an old Pinnacle card with Premiere 5.1 I think. Not sure if I still have the cable that came with it. Didn't work without that as I recall. I'm guessing you'd have to use a Com port rather than the Decklink built in Rs422?
Re: Export to Tape by BazinoZ on Dec 14, 2006 at 11:14:45 pm
Hey Dean. Yes I still use ProVTR although recently I had some accuracy issues with it. I was having extremely good success with it about 12 months ago and the BMD deck control was sadly inaccurate. But now the BMD deck control is 100% accurate and ProVTR is not. Go figure that! the only thing that changed was the BMD drivers and having spoken to both BMD and Pipeline (ProVTR) we can't seem to get any logical conclusion. BTW you may need to upgrade your ProVTR to the latest if you need it to work with PPRO 2.0. It DOES require the use of a com port as it uses port sensors to detect their special 232>422 cable.
As for the 'PPro capture GUI', that is part of Premiere's software; 'export to tape' is a third party plug in. There is quite an amount of functionality available thru the plugin as evidenced by ProVTR's interface which BMD don't seemed to have tapped into; and maybe its a cross-platfom issue but nevertheless many years ago (Prem 5.1) I actually wrote a plugin for deck control using the then available SDK from Adobe. Maybe I better do a refresher course on Visual C....
Also it should be noted that PPro 2.0 has its own built in '9 pin deck control' based on ProVTR where a special cable is not required other than a 232>422 standard converter cable. I use a USB>422 adaptor but the PPro interface is so unpredictably inaccurate that I don't even go there!.
Re: Export to Tape by BazinoZ on Dec 16, 2006 at 2:40:05 am
Just an update on the ProVTR export to tape plug in with Multibridge Extreme; it appears to be consistantly frame accurate again when inserting into a Digibetacam using the 5.8 drivers. FYI my offet is 50.
I will check it soon using a Decklink Extreme.
