Awesome news for canon users

[James Crask]

Hi all - to supplement Evan's info - I've been able to borrow the company's new Z7 for the weekend to try this out, and I can confirm that this recorder does indeed start and stop recording with the A1's start/stop button.

The HVR-MRC1 needs to be set to cam link mode (press CAM LINK button, a little lightning bolt appears in the display) for the A1's start/stop to function.

It does create several M2T files for a single capture sequence, so I'm not sure if it's doing scene detection or what. The files are various lengths so it's not a max file size thing. Anyone have a link to the manual?

[Richard Hunter]

Originally Posted by James Crask

Hi all - to supplement Evan's info - I've been able to borrow the company's new Z7 for the weekend to try this out, and I can confirm that this recorder does indeed start and stop recording with the A1's start/stop button.

The HVR-MRC1 needs to be set to cam link mode (press CAM LINK button, a little lightning bolt appears in the display) for the A1's start/stop to function.

It does create several M2T files for a single capture sequence, so I'm not sure if it's doing scene detection or what. The files are various lengths so it's not a max file size thing. Anyone have a link to the manual?

Hi James. That is great news if the recoder does sync to the start/stop. Thanks for reporting that.

Regarding the scene detection thing, what exactly do you mean by "single capture sequence"?

Richard

[B.J. Adams]

the A1 tape system works flawlessly. I have been using Sony Premium DV tapes with no dropout problems whatsoever.

[David Heath]

Originally Posted by James Crask

It does create several M2T files for a single capture sequence, so I'm not sure if it's doing scene detection or what. The files are various lengths so it's not a max file size thing.

Like all tapeless workflows, it will create a file every time the you hit start and stop, so a separate file for every shot. Bring them in to an NLE and every shot then becomes a discrete clip. That can get unmanageable, in which case clips can be grouped to form a sequence, the actual material remaining as separate files. Max file only comes into play for long takes, (typically >10 minutes) when a single take may be split into single files. Obviously they can be seemlessly rejoined.

[James Crask]

Hi Richard - As David noted I meant a single take - one continuous start to stop sequence.

However, after a fun day experimenting, I've found that the MRC1 consistently creates two files per take when hooked to the A1 - a small 8-10MB file, then the remainder of the take in the second file with no further errors. Between the two files I see a glitch for two frames at 00:02;15. An example is shown this PPro2 grab.

The error does not appear on the tape of the same take. On the same subject with the Z7U, it does not create the error, and has a single file per take as would be expected.

[Richard Hunter]

Thanks James. So this 8 - 10 MB file is what - the first 3 seconds or so of each shot? If so, that's pretty bad news, right? That glitch could ruin a lot of otherwise good shots.

Richard

[James Crask]

Just to clarify - the first 2-3 seconds are recorded ok in the first file, then the glitch appears for the first 2 frames of the second file. The rest of the second file is ok. Of the about 20 takes I did on the A1 yesterday, 14 of the small files are 2 secs-15 frames long, the rest are 3 secs 0 frames.

A quick snip in your NLE of choice should remove the error without losing anything significant - it's just annoying as it is definitely repeatable on every take. It would be good to hear from any others with this combo - if they are seeing the same problem, of if I'm doing something boneheaded...

[Even Solberg]

So the moral here is "try to start recording 3 second early to avoid glitches", I suppose. Shame, but that's life, I guess.

What about sound? Does that drop too?

[James Crask]

Ok, getting to the bottom of this now... I found a setting in the MRC1 menu that sets it to "SYNCHRO" rather than "FOLLOW", with synchro selected I now get single files per take (6 out of 6 tries, anyway).

Just the sort of goof that happens when playing with cool new stuff without access to the manual! I found out that Sony put the manual for this on the CD that came with Z7U, which I don't have here.

Anyhow - it seems to work as Evan originally posted, and I will be borrowing this one every chance I get...

Cards used are PNY 266x 8GB. Very fast reading into the PC - finally a (cost effective) non-real time HDV transfer solution for the A1! PPro2 mode used was HDV1080i, I haven't yet tried the Cineform modes that I normally use to capture from the A1.

[Even Solberg]

Excellent news! Now, if B&H can just get this thing in stock, we'd be all set. :)

[Richard Hunter]

Yes that sounds a lot better! Thanks James.

Richard

[Ger Griffin]

I'm fairly happy about all this :)

[Brian Morris]

I am also intrigued by this. I would like the unit mainly for Same Day Edits during wedding day shoots. I was discouraged by the news that the unit only records mt2 files as FCP can't use them but then I found this thread on the Apple Discussion forums.

http://discussions.apple.com/thread....sageID=6807725

About 2/3 of the way down the thread "AlexTW" posted this link which is off of Sony's site. It is a plug-in to convert the mt2 files for FCP. Right under his post another person posts that, after some trouble, they got the plug-in to work with files from the Z7's memory recording unit. Here is the link to the plug-in.

http://support.d-imaging.sony.co.jp/...dv/fcp_plugin/

I downloaded it in hopes that Sony will sell these units.

PS.. if someone can get a hold of one of these units and test this plug-in I would be over joyed.

[James Crask]

Link to the PDF posted recently in the Z7 forum...

http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/showthread.php?t=114943

[Even Solberg]

James: Have you tried the cache recording mode? I'd be VERY interested to hear any experiences with that. I can think of all kinds of uses for that one.