OT:SMPTE, LTC, MTC....

[1150Post]

Hello all.

This is off topic, but I need an answer.

I am building a small home system and am looking to digitize frame-locked video into FCP (or Premiere or whatever, will purchase the correct solution once I know it will work) from a window burn-in VHS with LTC on Ch. 2. Need to have FCP/Premiere/whatever lock to the LTC, so that I am certain I will sync to the OMF when I finally export QT and open in PTLE, and also back to the original DBeta back at the mixing stage or edit suite.

Horita makes a SMPTE to RS-232 box just for this, but it's about $200 and I want to go cheaper if I can.

I have a GeeThree Stealth serial port, and am wondering if I can use an old serial Motu or Opcode box (found drivers for both) with SMPTE in/out to convert and shoot it down the RS-232 on the Mac, or does that TC signal not show up at the serial port as a standard RS-232 MSPTE signal? I am not a midi user, except for a few pads or odd samples for design work. I am by no means a composer. What is the difference betwen serial TC and MTC to the computer at the computer's serial port?

Goal: I need to be able to ingest VHS video with audio LTC to do design work at home. I need frame accurate lock so that the design will sync when delivered either the mix stage, or the video edit suite, depending on whether I am finishing the project or not.

Thanks for the input. I will buy the Horita if necessary, but I would prefer to get this operability for about $50 with an old serial midi synchronizer on eBay.

Here's my setup (so far... still shopping!)

Mac G4 DP 533mhz, 1.25 Gigs RAM, AMIII, Stealth Serial Port, Miro Video Capture, OS X.2 or 9.2....

Or, if there's a better way to do this with the above hardware, let me know. Due to space limitations, I'd prefer to have the picture lock on the same screen as ProTools, and not have to bring in a second monitor. That's it!

Thanks in advance for your kind assistance.

Brad McIlvaine
Sr. Mixer/Designer
Henninger Media Services
Washington, DC 20036