Batch capturing entire tape...recomended???

Question

Is it a good idea to attempt to batch capture a tape in its entirety? I am having problems doing this...I do a lot of events that last often over 2 hours. Instead of capturing footage in clips, I just capture the entire tape. When I'm done with the project, I simply make the clips offline.
I'm in the process of reviving a project now, and one tape in it's entirety(55 min approx), captured OK, but I am having problems with another tape. I am getting a broken timecode error, when I don't see how this is possible...because I let the tape freely run. Also, under the logging info, the media ends before the tape ends, which means that is space left on the end of the tape without any timecode. Yet when I batch capture, it still goes to the end of the tape.....isn't a batch capture suppose to go by the clips media in and media out points?
All help is greatly appreciated.

Answer 1

I do this often. There are two shools of thought on this method -
Capturing entire tapes allows one to scroll through non-linearly and make subclips. The advantage to subclips is that they are serachable and you can add comments. The downside to this method is that the files are large, and you may be capturing much more metarila than you need. I often do this when working on docs with very high shooting ratios. The most recent one had 190 tapes for a 1-hour program, which led us to use offline RT for our cutting format and then recapture for online.
Logging and capturing single clips fives you the advantage of starting out capturing only what you know you might use, you can input the logging info at the start, and will have several small clips that may be easier to manage. Since at some point you'll have to familiarize youself with the matreial anyway, you might as well do it at the logging stage.
Several factors can contribute to perceived TC breaks - reusing tapes, camera stops, shooting format (HDV, for instance, will show a TC break each time the camera stops). If you are capturing whole tapes, you might do well to let FCP create new clips on TC breaks and just let it roll. Make sure the TC format matches between your tape and settings (DF vs. NDF)
Regarding rolling off the end of the tape during capture, you might be very close to the end with the clip you are capturing. You might try lowering the post-roll value in the device control preset in your A/V settings.
Hope this helps -
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