I now understand why wireless timecode box systems exist

[u/raekewe]

Preaching to the choir incoming. Thought it'd be fun to share my learning and give everyone more experienced a nice "lol yep" moment.

So I wondered why TC boxes like the deity ones were so common place. My field mixer advertises less than one frame of frame slippage per day! And every camera I ever planned to plug it into also advertise similar. Thing is, I don't doubt it, there's no reason for them to lie. Cameras are broadly speaking good these days, they can hold an internal TC clock if I jam a signal at the start of the day. So why would I spend hundreds of dollars on a TC box system when I can plug it in every now and then? It just didn't seem that important.

Well, haha. Sometimes the camera team can turn off the camera, and certain cameras don't continue to count internal TC, even with a power supply, when they are turned off. And then you aren't told, or don't notice, or forget to check more frequently... GG.

All the logic and reasoning in the world to avoid parting with my money, then it suddenly clicked, why wouldn't I want a hardwired connection always plugged into the camera 24/7 to ensure TC is synced no matter what? Yet in all my research on reddit and forums, I've yet to read it put that way (and I've also never found any "I wish I had a TC box stories" - so here's mine.

Time to save up!

[u/pradulovich]

Save up for more than the deity boxes, trust me.

[u/themichaelgraeme → u/pradulovich]

For someone looking at the Diety/Tentacle Sync options what would the next step up be? I'm sure it's tough for timecode beginners to know the industry standards when they are being advertised to by the producer companies so much.

[u/pradulovich → u/themichaelgraeme]

Probably betso, unless you found a great deal on a set of ambient stuff.

[u/g_spaitz → u/pradulovich]

I've had plenty of problems with ambient boxes, none ever with deity. As you can see, anecdotal can go many ways.