Marantz PMD620 File problems
Courtney Goodin
the machine a lot. Its controls are easy to operate and the line in and line
out work well.
The built-in Mics even sound pretty good. It has an internal Time of Day
and Date real time clock that is easy to synchronize with any TC slate
running Real time Time code (29.97 DF or 30 fps ND or 25fps) It will hold
close enough for transcription purposes.
I did however discover a problem with the Wav files recorded by the machine.
I could not successfully convert them to BWF files using BWF widget Pro or
drop cues in them and save the cues to the file. This is due to the fact
that the machine records Wav files that are not compliant with the RIFF
spec. The RIFF chunk size in the header of the file is off by 8 bytes.
This may make the files not play in software that strings files together or
add chunks or even if it just uses the RIFF file size to parse the chunks.
I notified D&M professional (the manufacturers) of this problem in their
firmware. The said they would turn the information over to the developers,
but I have had no word back from them on any fixes from their side. My unit
had version 1.0 Firmware.
In the mean time if made a work-around in BWF-Widget Pro to accommodate
these mis-calculated file sizes in the Wav files created by the PMD620.
So the latest version I posted a day or so ago corrects the problem and will
allow conversion to BWF and storing of Cues in the file. It will then
correct the RIFF header to be compliant with the spec. Version 1.185 has
this new robust conversion routine as well as a better way to calculate the
Time Stamp when converting standard wav files to BWF files and using the
file's time of day as the time-code reference. (It now assumes the time
stamp on the wav files coincide with the closing of the file at the end of
the recording. So it back-times the time code to include the files play
time. )
I also added a feature that lets you set the TC clock to the Time of Day
when playing MP3 files recorded on Marantz and other MP3 recorders that have
an internal Time and Date clock. This can allow transcriptions to use these
generic MP3 files as reference without LTC recorded on one channel.
Although it can only be accurate to plus or minus 1 second it is close
enough for timed transcriptions.
-----Courtney
efksound
Have you tried files recorded by other solid state recorders (ex: Zoom
H2) do you think that they will have the same issues?
Best
Eric
Courtney Goodin
Yes I have tried wav and BWF files from most other recorders. I haven't
looked at the Zoom files. The Marantz PMD660 files are correct and have no
problems.
Just checked the Fusion from Zaxcom and they are all correct. I did see
some problems with the early Tascam portable machines, But I think that has
been fixed.
If you send me a short Zoom H2 wav file (10 seconds or less) I will take a
look at it.
----Courtney
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