Using VTR Emulation on Avid Systems

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Brian Garrison
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1 Usig VTR Emulatio o Avid Systems VTR emulatio allows you to cotrol a sequece loaded i the Record moitor from a edit cotroller for playback i the edit room alog with other sources. I this sceario the edit cotroller treats the Avid system as a play deck. You typically coect a edit cotroller to the Avid system usig a 9-pi serial coectio. The, you use the Serial (COM) Ports tool (Widows) or Serial Ports tool (Macitosh) to establish the coectio to the cotroller. The followig mauals describes how to use VTR emulatio: Avid Symphoy Editig Guide Avid Media Composer ad Film Composer Editig Guide Avid Xpress User s Guide Avid NewsCutter User s Guide Avid Media Statio XL Workflow Guide For iformatio o usig VTR emulatio with NewsCutter ad Media Statio XL systems, see NewsCutter VTR Record Emulatio ad Media Statio XL Telecie Record Emulatio o page 7. Limitatios You ca also coect a record deck to the cotroller ad use the cotroller to record from the Avid system to the record deck. This white paper describes some limitatios that you might ecouter

2 2 whe usig the system i this way. Workarouds are provided whe available. The limitatios are associated with maitaiig frame accuracy betwee the Avid system ad the record deck. Specifically, you ca lose frame accuracy whe you attempt to usig VTR emulatio to perform a frame accurate, pre-rolled edit. Frame accuracy depeds o the types of commads that the cotroller seds to the Avid system. VTR emulatio works best whe the followig coditios are met: The cotroller seds cue commads rather tha shuttle commads to the Avid system. This esures that the Avid system ca preload the media ad begi preroll at the same time as the record deck. Durig preroll, if it is ecessary to speed up either the record deck or the Avid system, the cotroller speeds up the record deck. If the cotroller speeds up the Avid system durig preroll, frame accuracy will ot be maitaied. Overview The followig illustratio represets the coectios betwee a edit cotroller, a Avid system, ad a record deck. Preroll poit IN poit OUT poit 9-pi serial coectio Avid Timelie i VTR Emulatio mode Edit Cotroller Preroll poit IN poit OUT poit 9-pi serial coectio Tape o a record deck Usig this example, assume that you wat the portio of the Avid Timelie betwee the IN ad OUT poits to be recorded oto a

3 3 specific portio of the tape o the record deck. To accomplish this, the cotroller must make sure that the Avid system ad the record deck reach their respective IN poits at the same time. This process esures a frame-accurate recordig. To achieve frame accuracy, the cotroller performs the followig tasks: 1. Positios the play head for both systems at the preroll poit. The types of commads that the cotroller uses to cotrol the Avid system ca affect frame accuracy as described i Cue Commads Versus Shuttle Commads o page Issues a play commad to the Avid system ad to the record deck. 3. Durig the preroll, frequetly checks to see whether the two uits are at the same relative distace betwee the preroll poit ad the IN poit. If ecessary, the cotroller istructs either the Avid system or the record deck to temporarily speed up. Icreasig the speed is called bumpig. c If the cotroller bumps the Avid system, frame accuracy is ot maitaied. See Bumpig (Speedig Up the Record Deck or Play Deck) o page Oce the IN poit is reached, starts recordig. The cotroller stops recordig at the OUT poit. The followig two sectios describe the limitatios associated with the types of commads that the edit cotroller seds to the record deck ad to the Avid system.

4 4 Cue Commads Versus Shuttle Commads A edit cotroller moves the play head o a deck to the preroll poit i oe of the followig ways: Issues a cue commad with a timecode value. This method gives cotrol to the deck. The deck moves to the specified timecode poit ad seds a completio commad to the cotroller. Seds shuttle commads to the deck to move the play head to the specific timecode. This method is ecessary for some older decks that do ot recogize cue commads. I this case cotroller must shuttle the deck util it reaches the correct timecode value. The cotroller maufacturer decides whether the cotroller seds cue commads or shuttle commads. Cue commads are the preferred way to cotrol the Avid VTR emulatio software. Whe the Avid system receives a cue commad, it expects a play commad soo afterwards. The Avid system performs the followig procedure after it receives a cue commad: 1. Moves the play head to the specified timecode 2. Preloads the digital media so that play ca begi immediately 3. Seds a completio message to the cotroller The eed for the Avid system to preload the digital media highlights a importat differece betwee playig media from a deck ad playig media from a computer-based editig system: Whe the play head of a deck is positioed o a portio of the tape, the deck ca start playig very quickly. There is a short ru-up time for the deck to reach playig speed, but it usually takes just a few frames. A computer-based editig system, o the other had, must preload a portio of the digital media ito computer memory before it ca start playig. The time required to preload the media depeds o the complexity of the sequece.

5 5 Whe it receives a shuttle commad, the Avid system does t preload the media. This is partly due to the fact that the cotroller might sed several shuttle commads before it issues a play commad. Therefore, whe the cotroller fially issues a play commad, the Avid system must preload the media before it ca begi playig. By the time the Avid system preloads the media, the tape o the record deck might have advaced too far to allow the cotroller to syc up the two systems. Recommedatios Ufortuately, there is o easy way to tell whether a particular cotroller issues cue commads or shuttle commads for a particular type of deck. If you caot perform frame-accurate recordig with a particular cotroller, try selectig a differet device code from the VTR Settigs dialog box available from the Settigs scroll list. This will allow the VTR emulatio software to emulate aother type of deck. Depedig o the cotroller, it might sed cue commads to some decks ad shuttle commads to others. The Avid system does ot perform differetly whe you chage the device code settig. It just allows the edit cotroller to see a differet device code, which might cause the cotroller to behave differetly. You ca also try adjustig the ru-up time i the VTR Settigs dialog box. This might help the two devices attai full speed at the same time. However, if the cotroller is sedig shuttle commads, adjustig the ru-up time probably wo t help sice the amout of time to preload the digital media varies with the complexity of the sequece. It is possible to achieve frame accuracy with Macitosh OS 9.x systems. However, o a Widows NT or Widows 2000 system, VTR emulatio will always be at least oe frame off.

6 6 Bumpig (Speedig Up the Record Deck or Play Deck) Durig the preroll, the cotroller frequetly checks to see whether the record ad play decks are at the same relative distace betwee the preroll poit ad the IN poit. If ecessary, the cotroller istructs either the Avid system or the record deck to temporarily speed up. This is called bumpig. If the cotroller speeds up (bumps) the Avid system, frame accuracy will ot be maitaied. You should set up your cotroller so that it bumps the record deck rather tha the Avid system. Differet cotrollers have differet ames for the settigs that determie whether to speed up the record deck or the play deck. O some decks, the settig is called Record Syc. For example, a Soy PVE-500 cotroller has the followig optios to determie whether the cotroller will speed up the record deck or the play deck: Optio Descriptio Settigs Rec Syc Bump record deck O, Off P1 Syc Bump first play deck O, Off P2 Syc Bump secod play deck O, Off Usig this example, you should set Rec Syc to O ad set P1 Syc ad P2 Syc to Off. These settigs esure that the Avid system will ot be bumped. Other cotrollers use a TSO (tape speed override) settig to determie whether to bump the record deck or the play deck. For these cotrollers, you might have more choices tha O or Off. Select the combiatio of settigs that guaratee the play deck will ot be bumped.

7 7 NewsCutter VTR Record Emulatio ad Media Statio XL Telecie Record Emulatio Avid NewsCutter has a VTR Record Emulatio feature that allows you to cotrol the recordig of media ito the NewsCutter system usig a edit cotroller ad a source deck. Avid Media Statio XL has a similar feature kow as Telecie Record Emulatio that allows you to record media ito the Avid system durig the telecie process. These features require that the cotroller sed cue commads as described i Cue Commads Versus Shuttle Commads o page 4. However, bumpig is ot a problem for VTR Record Emulatio or Telecie Record Emulatio. Frame accuracy ca be maitaied as log as the edit cotroller seds cue commads. If you have frame-accuracy problems, see Recommedatios o page 5. The VTR Record Emulatio ad Telecie Record Emulatio features are used to record media ito the Avid system, ot out to a record deck.

Avid Interplay Bundle

Avid Interplay Bundle Avid Iterplay Budle Versio 2.5 Cofigurator ReadMe Overview This documet provides a overview of Iterplay Budle v2.5 ad describes how to ru the Iterplay Budle cofiguratio tool. Iterplay Budle v2.5 refers