Hello.

Once again my employer had the wonderful idea of having full access to an older project, whose media files have been deleted on some time ago.

I still have the project of course, but during the batch capture of the DV tapes, I get the message, that capturing has to be aborted due to lack of timecode, which is understandable, as the tape has reached its end, but I don't get the option to keep the media. (I also get the error message with "not enough samples", and I still can't save any digitized media).

I have 40 tapes to digitize, 30 DV and 10 Digi Beta, and as the project is a multicam project, it would be easier to just batch digitize the tapes.

But how can I avoid the dreadful message at the end of a tape, which gives me no option to keep the media already captured?

I don't want to regroup everything.

Thanks in advance for any input.

I have been through recently with  a client.

First backup your project in a safe place!

You need to modify your master clips.  You want to modify the out timecode by using the decrement tool in modify.  This will make the master clip shorter, therefore letting the Avid stop before you run out of code on the source tapes.

Jef

Thanks. 

I almost thought of this, but the last time it didn't work.

I also get an error message at the same TC on one tape (I'm only in three tapes).

I doesn't occur at the end, it occurs at 34:20:xx with the out point/mark at 44:03:21.

The message is the following:

Halted on clip 'Tape 500 D.02'.

Exception: ADVAudioDev: Calculation error - not enough samples

Number of clips remaining to re-capture: 1 (The one I want to capture three times now.)

Do you want to continue?

TRY AGAIN   ---   SKIP CLIP   ---   SKIP TAPE   ---   ABORT.

No other options there.

If I try again, I get the same error again and again.

I'll try another tape for now.

Is this the same system that captured the tapes before?

By same I mean -

Same VTR?

Same Avid system?

Same settings?  ( here I mean in the capture settings are the set the same - capture accross TC breaks, etc.)

What I say next is NOT yelling at you, but something to think about.

When capturing material, never take the easy way out and just capture the whole tape without logging.  You can create a situation like this.  Logging and then capturing with a documented workflow guarantees that the material can be recaptured later.

So you task is to try and get as close to the original setup.

Good luck,

Jef

I'd suggest you decompose the sequence, with very long handles if needed, and then batch in the .new clips in a shorter manner.  This should help you avoid the long clip/end of tape issue for the most part.

I thought about this too already for my future habits, about logging.

It is not the same Avid system (MC 12 then, MC 3.1.1 now) and not the same resolution.

The material was captured in 20:1 OMF then, now I want to capture it in DV 25 4:2:0 and the Beta material in 10:1.

The VTR was a big DV Cam tape deck, now I use smaller DV cameras via Firewire instead of SDI.

I don't have access to the older system anymore, as it was replaced with the newer system.

I also tried to decrement the timecode, as suggested earlier, but Avid won't let me do it in the end.

"The clip(s) you have selected could not be modified.

1 is a master clip and could not be modified by this operation unless unlinked."

I also tried the unlink method described in the help section, but I couldn't unlink the material, as the unlink option didn't become active in spite of every resolution I picked or equal option I choose.

No I just thought about just batch capturing the groups, but I would have to change tapes a lot, as there are around 100 groups.

Is there any way to use a tool like media tool to find sub-clips used for the groups, so I can select them tape-wise, and just put in one tape after another?

Thanks for any help given already.

EDIT:

It works selecting the groups and then Batch Capture its material.

I sometimes get the message of conflicting sample rates, but I just have to switch then, back and forth, as the cassettes have different sample rates.

But the more prominent error is the one I mentioned earlier, this time with another tape.

Halted on clip 'Tape 510'.

Exception: ADVAudioDev: Calculation error - not enough samples

Number of clips remaining to re-capture: 1 Do you want to continue?

Unlinking:

There is a very wierd combination of keys used to unlink a clip.  You have to search help for it.  This is becuase it is dangerous.  Not sure from your comments if you tried / found that combo.

Capture error:

I have never seen that one before.  Just curious.  In your capture settings, do you have "capture with clip settings" enabled or disabled?  (rough paraphrase on menu names here - not in front of MC)  I am wondering if the system sees one sample rate on input but your master clip info says it should be another one.  I would say make sure that your current settings override all clip settings.  Then make sure your current settings REALLY match what is on tape and coming from VTR.

System:

Not haveing the same system will make this much harder.  I have to say I do not trust cameras as VTRs and I NEVER trust firewire for machine control. 

Good luck,

Jef

Thanks for the answer.

jef:

Unlinking:

There is a very wierd combination of keys used to unlink a clip.  You have to search help for it.  This is becuase it is dangerous.  Not sure from your comments if you tried / found that combo.

I searched help for this, but it only got me to the Relink menu, where an Unlink options is listed, but right now not available.

The help says the following:

jef:

I have never seen that one before.  Just curious.  In your capture settings, do you have "capture with clip settings" enabled or disabled?  (rough paraphrase on menu names here - not in front of MC)  I am wondering if the system sees one sample rate on input but your master clip info says it should be another one.  I would say make sure that your current settings override all clip settings.  Then make sure your current settings REALLY match what is on tape and coming from VTR.

I'll check when the current tape stops, and report back on this setting.

But I remember doing that already with another project, and it didn't work.

I will try it nonetheless.

Edit: The option with "capture the logged tracks" was selected, I deselected it and try how it works for now.

jef:

System:

Not haveing the same system will make this much harder.  I have to say I do not trust cameras as VTRs and I NEVER trust firewire for machine control. 

I know about the harder part, but I can't circumvent it now.

We also don't have proper DV decks at hand, so I have to use those cameras, and the advantage is having the option to create subclips, which doesn't work with SDI, for which we have the Sony DSR 60 P, a machine almost 100 times bigger and 600 times heavier than a DV tape. I really can use subclips, as we work with several cameras at the same time, so having to look for every stop is quite a pain in the bottocks.

And why don't you trust Firewire control?

And good luck to you back.

Just chatted with the editor who went through the hell you are in.

The unlink command is:

control shift apple

She said:

"What ended up working best was to digitize the clip [not batch capture] with the exact same in timecode and relink the subclips to the new clip.

I never got decrement to work"

So there you go.  Does that help?

EDIT

Oh yea firewire - As a machine control protocol it is very inaccurate.  There is no guarantee that your recapture will be frame accurate to the original capture.  So be prepared for things to have "slipped" a bit.  Especially since it is a different machine.

Jef

jef:

Oh yea firewire - As a machine control protocol it is very inaccurate.  There is no guarantee that your recapture will be frame accurate to the original capture.  So be prepared for things to have "slipped" a bit.  Especially since it is a different machine.

Jef

Ah yeah, smegging frell.

I will try the tip you gave me with my next tape.

It works right now, but I still get that annoying message with some clips on some tapes (1 clip every five tapes) even though I deselected all the Settings > Capture > Batch > Clip options.

I will do them by hand later.

I'll report back, if that tip you got given worked.

Thanks, and a nice evening or morning or day.