tc problems - best solution?

I' ve just finished a DVCam shooting of a DVD about one of Brazil´s
greatest composer and player.
By request of the finishing house, we run Rec Run 29,97 Drop FrameTC on
camera, and sent it from the camera to my Fostex PD4 dat recorder TC
input.
But now we found that in almost every take the tc from the camera
freezes for a few seconds then runs normally again, then freezes and so
on. The question is that the TC is not missing (drop-out) sometimes,
but it is FREEZING. So, while the image is running, we have, let´s
say, TC frames 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 6, 6, 6, 6, 7, 8, 9,...
The Avid is not accepting the DV tapes like this, and they can´t be
logged. There´s a suggestion that we copy all tapes again with a new
continous TC, so the avid may read it. But then we´re going to loose
the TC sinc with DAT tapes, which should be resincd in the final steps
to be mixed.
As in 20 out of 24 tapes I´ve sent the line out of the PD4 to the Line
In inputs of the camera, I´m suggesting that they use the sound
actually on the tapes as the sound source for the editing and mixing.
This way even if they change the TC on camera tapes, the sound is
actually there, and if imported into the avid correctly, and handled
correctly by the image editor, it willl reach the mixing with the
necessary quality. I´m also suggesting that if they go this way they
sinc immediately the 4 camera tapes which run with camera mike and my
sound on dat tape only.
Another option was that when they cloned the tapes, maybe we could copy
the bad TC into camera Ch 1 audio track, and mixdown both audio tracks
into camera Ch 2 audio track, just for the editing. The we could keep
this bad TC track as a 4th audio track in the Avid, carry it up to the
end of the editing, and then use this TC on audio track 4 on it´s good
points to find the audio sinc on the dats. Because there are good TC
moments both in camera and on DAT tapes. But actually I don´t think
that the Avid will be able to track the bad (frozen frames) TC on the
Dats either.
So I think that maybe the best option still would be: to check the
audio quality of the audio tracks on the camera tapes. If they´re ok,
and they should be, because I´ve sent the Fostex PD4 line outs to
camera, and these are recorded on digital tracks on DVCam, then they
could consider the camera tapes audio to be the final audio, because
there´s quality, and they´re are already sincd with the image. This
way they could clone the image tapes WITH it´s audio tracks, sinc,
which are going to be the final tracks, and not use the DATs audio at
all, except in the four image tapes without audio, which they´ll will
have to sinc manually, or where the image tapes audio have any kind of
problem - dropouts, saturation, etc...
I know this is not the perfect way to go, but now we have to find the
best sound solution with the last cost for the production company.

If anybody has any other suggestions, they will be most welcome.

Thanks a lot

Tony Muricy - Rio de Janeiro

"If anybody has any other suggestions, they will be most welcome".


Toninho,

Vc já levou seu problema para os especialistas
em time code da ABC?

Ab,
Bié