I have a DV tape that has useful material starting from the absolute very beginning. I've tried changing the starting timecode and Preroll Method settings, but I can't seem get capture to start at TC 00;00;00;00. The best I can get is starting two seconds in by setting Custom Preroll to 1 sec and the in point to 00;00;02;00.

I'm using a Canon HV-20 as a deck with the Canon XL1 deck preset. The material is SD DV.

Thanks very much!

P.S. I've been trying to educate the filmer of this material on the importance of preroll and handles, but sometimes she regresses :(.

Hi.

The only solution I know is to capture the first few seconds 'On-the-Fly'.

Just place the deck on the very first frame, and hit the record button. It still wont capture from the first frame, but it is the best you can do keeping the original TC.

If you want even more you can disable the TC track in the capture tool, and capture only the first 5-6 seconds. make sure to capture it in DV resolution an not in 15:1 so you don't have to re-capture for online.

My advice is 'let it go' - unless you absolutely have to have it, just write of the first 5-seconds and capture from 00:00:05:00...

If you really really need the first few seconds the best result I've had is to control the deck manually (still capturing timecode in Avid through). Rewind the tape to the head, position the mouse over the Record button in Avid, press play on the deck and click Record in Avid as soon as the timecode starts rolling in the Digitise Tool. This way I can normally get within the first second a tape.

Unfortunately I do have to have it, the line is critical :(.

What do you have the Preroll set to? Thanks!

For the first shot. Turn off TC and Machine control. manually cue the tape to the first frame and pause it. Hit record on Avid then release pause on the deck. Avid should record the freeze frame and then the moving footage.  Should get you a clean record of all bar the first 5 frames or so whilst the deck gets uo to speed.

As suggested above record at online resolution

 You could also crash dub the entire tape to another and offset the recording start time to allow for pre-roll.

BobbyMurcerFan:

I've been trying to educate the filmer of this material on the importance of preroll and handles, but sometimes she regresses

Best way to remedy that is to stop using her - make her capture it or pay for the expense that you're having to endure during her "regression"

BobbyMurcerFan:

I've been trying to educate the filmer of this material on the importance of preroll and handles, but sometimes she regresses

Whatever happened to rolling 30 secs of Bars and Tone at the top of a tape. That little habit will fix this problem everytime.

mr_difficult:

Whatever happened to rolling 30 secs of Bars and Tone at the top of a tape. That little habit will fix this problem everytime.

Or black, or a hand, or feet, or the camera case, or pretty much anything other than something important. Bars and tone are nice, but not so necessary in the days of digital... Just non-important stuff really.