System time and timecode

Hello lovely people.

Jamming the timecode from time-to-time, works great. But this seems to have no effect on camera's internal system time, the clock in the cameras menu. In fact the only way I see to adjust internal system time (which also drifts), is to very imprecisely (to nearest minute) adjust it by hand. With multiple cameras, and needing to organize files by creation time (this uses system time not timecode), it becomes a problem.

Any way to sync system time to timecode? Or any other way sync system time to something over usb, bnc, bluetooth?

Thanks,
Artur

This has been driving me crazy as well. I'm using 3 UMP and a Sound Devices Mix Pre 10T. I will set all 3 UMPs and the MP10T to the current time of day according to my iPhone. When I dump the files after the shoot, the files of the MP10T shows the correct time that the files were recorded, but the UMPs will be off by an hour and about 17 minutes or so. I adjusted the GMT time to be correct, but the file created times are always off. The timecode start and stop times all match so it allows me to sync all footage and audio, it's just frustrating to know which takes match when importing into software.... Is this a bug in the UMP?

I've noticed timecode drift on pretty much every camera, regardless of how expensive- best to use an ambient timecode generator, I'd strongly recommend using Tentacle Sync. Super lightweight, cheap. and I've never had a problem with it. Use them all as slaves on my SD633, never had a problem.

[Tim Schumann]

Any way to sync system time to timecode? Or any other way sync system time to something over usb, bnc, bluetooth?

Timecode can be done by jamming an external timecode source into the BNC labelled 'REF IN, TC IN'. UMP should hold this code accurate to within a frame for up to 8 hours with all sync speed recordings. If you leave it permanently connected it will not drift at all to your master.

If you want to sync up the internal system time on multiple cameras, you just run the Blackmagic Camera Utility and plug each one in via USB... you do not even need to flash new software onto the camera. Just plugging it in and the mac detecting the camera is enough for your computer's time-clock to update the URSA Mini's internal system time.