Fostex PD204 owner manual Recording time code, Selecting the TC frame rate

Chapter 5: Recording/Playback

Recording time code

The PD204 is equipped with the internal SMPTE time code generator/reader, which is used when recording internal time code together with audio. You can also record external time code, or the internal generator time code while jamming to external time code.

Before recording time code, you must make the following settings via the "TC SETUP" menu of the MENU mode.

Selecting the TC frame rate

The frame rate of recording time code follows the setting of the unit.

You can select a desired frame rate via the quick setup mode or the "Frame Rate" item in the "TC SETUP" menu of the MENU mode (see pages 75 and 176). The available frame rates are 23.976, 24, 25, 29.97, 29.97DF, 30DF and 30.

<Note>: When the frame rate is set to "29.97" (or "30DF"), the time code does not agree with clock time and slips off at the rate of 3.6 seconds per hour.

Also note that, when selecting either of these frame rates, the time code continuity cannot be obtained when it passes through "24h 00m 00s 00f", according to the nature of the EIAJ format time code.

<Note>: When recording external time code, you can view the external time code value by switching the time display to "LTC IN" using the [TIME] key (see the screen example below). The external time code frame rate flashes on the right of the time display area. To record external time code, select the TC generator mode to "EXT" (see below).

Incoming time code value

Frame rate of incoming

time code

Selecting the TC generate mode (TC recording mode)

You can select the generate mode for time code recording from the following via the quick setup mode or the "Gen mode" item in the "TC SETUP" menu of the MENU mode (see pages 76 and 177).

24H RUN	Time code starts from the internal RTC (real-time clock) data.
	When recording to a new file, the generator records time code from the value which
REC RUN	continues to the last time code value of the previous audio file. When recording to a new
	disk which has no audio file, the generator records time code from the value which
	continues to the last time code value of the previous disk used before disk exchange.
FREE RUN	Runs the internal generator by the free run mode, and records the current internal
	generator time as the start time.

EXT RUN

Records an incoming external time code value as the start time.

90 Location Recorder Model PD204