Re-recording stems and Sony HDCam (SR) Deck Question

[Karl Kalbaugh]

Greetings all.

I've had a strange occurence and wondering if anyone has had something similar.

The devices involved are: PT7.4 using an Euphonix MC5 controller/console; and a Sony 5500 HDcam SR (but switched to standard HDCam).

What I was trying to do: re-record multiple stems back into PT while laying back a 5.1 mix using Dolby E (tracks 1 and 2 contained the downmix; 3 & 4 the Dolby stream).

My process: using the transport window, PT was in local/"ProTools" - using PT as master. Tape slaved to the location I cursored to on my timeline. Record standby'ed everything. Pressed record/play to start the re-record of stems.

In the transport window, I then switched master control from "Protools" to "Machine." And then pressed record. Everything honkey-dorey.

For about 45 seconds.

The playback/decode from the Dolby box stopped. However, I found that the HDCam deck was in pre-read. Set pre-read to "off" and started again. Once again, Dolby signal stopped being decoded at the 45 second mark. The HDcam deck reset to pre-read. And channels 3 & 4 dropped out of "data burst" and reverted to AES audio.

I went through this cycle 4 times.

Do any of you fine audio post folk have any idea what is going on here? It is kinda driving me nuts.

Does it have to do with switching from local PT control to Machine control on the fly?

I appreciate any possible insight! My undying gratitude to you fine folks.

Thank you!!

Karl Kalbaugh
Washington, DC

[rhumphries]

Did you try the edit without the simultaneous re-recording of the stems? I'll bet you have the same trouble with the deck. I don't think the two are related. That is a weird problem though. I can't think of a reason why the deck would change it's settings in the middle of an edit.

One other thought that I had was that you may have inadvertently set an in and out point on the machine and so it's popping out of record at that point. That still wouldn't explain the settings changing though.

or maybe a dropout on the tape? Does the deck show any errors at that point on the tape?

-Richard

[thermisonic]

Not directly your problem but did you try selecting another machine template other than the HDCAM deck in Setup> Peripherals> Machine Control and then choosing the HDCAM deck again? I've had strange behaviour (dropping out of a layback for no reason, incorrect TC displayed) which have been cured by this.

I would also make sure you have done the switch from PT as master to Machine as Master then back again to PT before then choosing Machine as master during the layback process. PT only lets me switch transports on the fly with a Control 24 once I've done this once after opening the session which suggests that it sees the transport change differently after the first time.


Rob

[quadraphonics]

Karl,
While my setup is slightly different (7.3 w/ Machine Control) i have the same issue. This issue is a bug and it has to do with you trying to re-record on the PT timeline while the machine is in record. I have verified this (atleast in regards to machine control) on several occasions in both HDCAM and SR setups. Unfortunately the only real work around is to either send your tracks for re-record out hardware outputs to another record machine (assuming you have enough out puts) or to do two passes.

I am not sure exactly how the Euphonix interfaces with ProTools, so I can only speak from my experience running the Machien Control software. However, there was also a similar bug in 7.2 and DVW-500 machines.

I know it is probably not the answer that you are looking for....

Randall

[Fulwave]

I left this same message in a previous post about the HDCAM SR issues.

So many months later we still have the intermittent issue of the HDCAM SR going into pre-read when using PT machine control. As I have said before it does not always happen.

During a recent Dolby DMU printmaster session I found out from the Dolby tech that when PT is actively using delay compensation it sometime messes up the machine control & LTC output from the Sync IO. Dolby now requires all stems to be pre-printed in Protools and delay compensation to be turned completely off to do laybacks to the DMU.

So the next time I have a deck I & experience the Pre-Read issue I will see if delay compensation is on & active.

We have 8 HDCAMSR decks in house and 10 PT HD mix suites. We do a lot of laybacks to this deck and the weird issues don't always show up. Maybe it happens only when the delay compensation is extreme?
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[bdangler]

Crazy. Has no one been able to figure out this pre-read issue? Like I posted in another thread, this problem doesn't happen on the newer black SR decks (Do they even have pre-read?) I always try to grab a black one but some days the video editors have them locked up already....