FCP Edit to Tape for Sony M25 DV tape deck

Hi

I am in Sydney, Australia - ie in PAL-land, but am working towards exporting our project to NTSC for the USA TV market.

I am TRYING to interface FCP 7 to a Sony M25 DV tape deck for both PAL and NTSC using the Edit to Tape command.

I am trying to use both Fwire and also a Blackmagic Declink Studio card.

Firstly, when sending over fwire, for PAL it shows on the M25 screen and records the colour bars onto the tape, but when the FCP count down and the program output starts, it still shows the colour bars. The 1K Hz tone is recorded during the colour bars.

When I try an NTSC timeline and set everything to NTSC, I get a similar result, but the colour bars have squares of black in the colour.

I believe that I have all the settings made to show Fwire and also DV PAL 48 kHz for Pal and all to NTSC for NTSC.

When it comes to setting for the Blackmagic card, I connect the composite output of the card to the video in and get nothing on the screen, although, I set FCP to export Blackmagic PAL or NTSC.

The tape deck still records OK when I hook a camera to the video input and I think I can import over the Fwire. The Fwire seems to be working as it is controlling the starting and stopping of the deck. So, I think the tape deck is working.

When FCP is showing what (I assume) it is sending to tape, it shows what I would expect *(ie colour bars, count down and program segment). However, the Sony M25 display and what is recorded are just the colour bars.

Has anybody managed to get a Sony M25 working with FCP or experienced similar problems?

Thanks

Rob

I don't know that deck at all, but is there a setting somewhere to show bars perhaps? So that what its recording is it's own internal bars?

What is your timeline settings when you are going out via FW? And what are your BMD/FCP AV settings?



www.strypesinpost.com

Hi

Thanks guys

Late last night, I worked out that the Sony M25 needs to be switched to NTSC mode from PAL. My electrical engineering experience told me this was likely, but the M25 "manual" (said with some cynicism) does not describe the need or process.

BURIED in the LAST menu item "Others" on the M25 is the item "60i/50i Sel". Living in PAL-land, it was set to "50i". Changing this to "60i" and bingo, the unit now records NTSC. Yay! Wow - what an unfriendly and obscure way to change he mode. There is no mention in the index of NTSC/PAL modes and even the description in the manual for changing this item does not say what the significance and purpose is!

I had read on the net that the M25 auto-detected NTSC and PAL. I have now found this only applies to playback and not record where the mode has to be selected.

From the FCP aspect, it does output a PAL track in NTSC when you place a PAL track into an NTSC timeline. However, the quality is not good. I am now working on using a Natrass converter to get the quality up.

Some of these embedded processes are a bit like dragging a poor cat through a barbed wire fence (not wishing to hurt it), but the cat gets through, but some of the fur gets left behind. The aim is to not leave too much fur behind.

So, thank you all for your help and guidance. It really helped me on the search.

Happy FCP days to you all!

Rob