Any tips to avoid losing audio sync when capturing?

[Sac John]

I'm capturing numerous Hi8 tapes to a Mac. Camcorder > TBC > Capture card > Mac. Per LS advice, the audio cables skip over the TBC and go straight from the camcorder to the capture card.

I read somewhere, not on this forum, that audio drift (ie, losing audio sync) is "inevitable" when capturing long spans of tape time at once. I want to capture as much of my tapes at one time as possible so I don't have to baby-sit the project any more than necessary. Ideally, I would just capture the whole two hours at once and come back and clip it up later, but it sounds as though that's asking for trouble. I'm only focused on archiving my tapes at this point to avoid further deterioration, not organizing or editing them.

Is there a rule of thumb for how long to capture at one time before stopping the capture and restarting mid-tape?

Any other tips to avoid audio drift / audio sync issues?

[lordsmurf]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sac John

I'm capturing numerous Hi8 tapes to a Mac. Camcorder > TBC > Capture card > Mac. Per LS advice, the audio cables skip over the TBC and go straight from the camcorder to the capture card.

What camcorder, what software?

Quote:

I read somewhere, not on this forum, that audio drift (ie, losing audio sync) is "inevitable" when capturing long spans of tape time at once.

This is not true.

But I've seen some folks also make this claim. The actual culprit is always settings, or the capture device, or both. Some eventually discover this, others are stubborn and continue to believe in nonsense/conspiracy/etc. The latter is easier. (That translate to everything, not just video. Science/truth/facts can be hard to grasp, made-up crap is easy to "understand".)

Quote:

the whole two hours

FYI, that's not even remotely long. EP mode is long, 6/8/10 hours.

For example, even then, with 6/8/10, I have few issues with long runs. Noting I deal with more stubborn tapes, so sometimes I have to recapture segments. It's a source issue there, not hardware or software. Horrid errors can still confuse even the best TBCs.

Quote:

I want to capture as much of my tapes at one time as possible so I don't have to baby-sit the project any more than necessary. Ideally, I would just capture
at once and come back and clip it up later, but it sounds as though that's asking for trouble.

Nope, no trouble.
What you want is perfectly reasonable, and is what I do frequently.

Quote:

I'm only focused on archiving my tapes at this point to avoid further deterioration, not organizing or editing them.

Quote:

Is there a rule of thumb for how long to capture at one time before stopping the capture and restarting mid-tape?
Any other tips to avoid audio drift / audio sync issues?

I'm reminded of James Carville from '92, his famous phrase: "It's the economy, stupid".
Here, "It's the hardware and software, stupid."
Not too far away from KISS, "Keep it simple, stupid."

And no, I'm not calling you stupid.

But it really is that basic.
The TBC is fine. The monkey wrench is the Mac, the software, and the capture hardware, both camera and capture card. Those are the variables that drop frames.

[Sac John]

Quote:

Originally Posted by lordsmurf

What camcorder, what software?

Sony TRV-81 Hi8 Camcorder

VideoGlide for Mac

[lordsmurf]

Does that TRV-81 have line TBC?
If so, confirm it is enabled in the menu of the camcorder.
That alone is probably not enough, but we do need to start there.

And you have the TBC-1000, right? And it's between the camcorder and capture card?