HD Production recording,no vid ref?

One more thing if I do need to resolve MetaCorder to Video ref but the Mbox Pro only has wordclock in, I imagine the Ambient vc550 would do this, looks to be overkill but it will take Vid ref and then output Wordclock, since I am receiving time code from the camera and not generating I imagine this may work. Has anyone done this?

When I use Metacorder in sync w/video we always try to derive the system clock from either trilevel sync or at least TC. Unfortunately you need an interface that can deal with this in some manner. W/Metacorder I usually use a MOTU Traveler, and there are several ways to get your A-to-D in sync w/ the TC and the camera. The easiest is to feed TC to both the analog input of the computer (for Metacorder) and an analog input of the Traveler as well, while telling the Traveler to sync itself to the incoming TC on the specifiied input. I don't see a way to do this sort of thing w/ an MBox, at least the older one, while recording via the analaog inputs. The recording in that scenario will be clocked to the computer's internal clock. For short takes it will be fine--for long takes, several minutes etc you might see some drift. For an hour live show you will definitely be out by the end. I would very much encourage some experiments w/the camera and your rig before you start with some test takes that are of the same length you will be shooting. Try syncing them up and see what you'll be up against. Philip Perkins CAS

Thanks so much for the information, So with the timecode being fed to me at 23.97 and avids projects running at 23.97 I can safely record at 48.000K sample rate? Cool, Now I just need some way to convert the video ref into wordclock, since that is the only sync reference that my audio interface will accept. The Ambient devices looks expensive, I do not own a Motu interface I am using a MboxPro or a Appogee (both have wordclock inputs only) Any additional information would be greatly appreciated! Thanks! John

Hi Thanks for the reply! I am wondering about the statement you made "Not one of the machines used daily on set are word-synchronized and there are never problems." Is this a typical situation, do most people not lock there recorders to clock ref. on set? Thanks again for all your help!

I do not know about boom recorder (have not used it-pc only app) although I know MetaRecorder will lock to external clocks via your audio interface settings etc (in my case the appogee firewire interface). MetaCorder follows however the OSX core audio settings are set, For instance if I wanted to lock to vidref, I would set those settings in CoreAudio and just open MetaCorder, there are no settings from within MetaCorder for clock etc.