Do u need pre roll for avid on DV cameras? I have like a 30 scene movie on tape and i didnt do any kinda 6 second preroll for any of the scenes, how can i possibly make this work?

You can reduce pre-roll to a minimum on the preferences, but I believe you'll need some pre-roll time in order to avoid problems when digitizing (that's what you want to do, or did I get it wrong?).
About the tapes, if you don't have timecode breaks you shouldn't have any problem with pre-rolls. But, in case you do, I recommend you to regenerate the time code on the tapes so that you can do batch digitizing. (the other option would be to "manually" digitize the whole material, an experience which I don't think you'd like

Yeah, preroll is usually done so that the tapes are stabilized and up to speed when the reach the edit point you are trying to get to on camera...

To answer your question Derek, are you trying to import, but because there is no preroll you cant import from the beginning of where you wanted to start import?

(sorry wasn't too sure about what you are trying to ask)

but yeah i would just try and locate where you want to begin importing, and then mark an inpoint with the IN button and then play the tape and mark an out point as well. once you have where you want to import marked, just click the record button, and the master clip should appear in the bin.

if this isnt what you wanted to know, just try and rephrase so this slow person (me) will understand. lol.

chris knows a huge bit more about avid than i do, so maybe he will be able to help you out!

good luck,
jeff

If you didn't do black pre-roll, avid (or any other program)doesn't HAVE to have black, it's just good so you don't lose your mind.

But if you didnt' pre-roll black, avid lets you have redudant time code, from what I remember.

So you can tell Avid to have 5 second handles when importing the clip, it will then ask you if you want to condense the overlapping clips, just hit no. This will make a new clip for every log entry you have, eventhough it will have some of the footage from the previous scene.

(I think Avid lets you set the handles down to 0 seconds, but I don't remember. I think FCP you have to have atleast 1 second handle. But uhm, don't quote me on that.)

So what will happen is it'll rewind a bit each time so that it can pre-roll and then digitize the scene you want. But of course you'll have a lot of overlapping time codes on the in/outs.

Also if you're using your camera, it'll really isn't good for the camera going back and forth like that.

So you can either do one long master clip, like everyone said, and THEN manually make in/out sub-clips of the scenes.

Or you can do it the way i said, but it'll put a strain on DV camera.

Also here's the pluses and minuses:

If you make subclips of a master clip, all the sub clips will only reference the master clip on the hard drive. Meaning it won't create NEW footage, it'll just reference the footage that is already there. The problem with that is that if something happens to that main footage, it happens to all the subclips.

It also makes it a hassle if you're editing at a low-res and then want to redigitize at a high-res for the final output, because you'll have to redigitize EXACTLY the same time code off the tape down the the last frame, or ALL your subclips will be off.

Making the overlapping clips means that it will create NEW footage for each log entry/clip on the harddrive, just like any other program. Each clip will be it's own file. So something that happens to one clip, only happens to that clip and not the rest.

The problem is that you might get confused with seeing all this timecode the slightly overlaps one another while editing. Also, if you have the preview feature, it'll confuse the hell out of you to see the beginning of the clip be the end of the previous scene instead of black. But if you know the footage real well, it's easier to keep track in your head.

The other downside of doing it this way, is that if you're digitizing off the camera, the camera motors are going to be doing A LOT of work rewinding/playing/rewinding/playing, so you might not want to put that much stress on the camera.

If you have access to a deck though, go for it, that's what they were built to do.


Does that help any?