Lockit boxes or Pluraleyes?

[James McLellan]

Been searching and reading and I'd like some opinion on this. If I am able to consistently record scratch audio why not go with Pluraleyes instead of lockit boxes?

I have a 744t and an Epic and am looking for the most reliable method of ending my mannual syncing days. Your thoughts?

 

[Christopher Mills]

Lockit is preferred by studio backed tv series and feature films.
usually they decline scratch track.
Sometimes post asks for both.
Commercials I have mixed usually wanted scratch track, and timecode slate or hardlne continuous jam from sound cart. If this failed, they were fine with a scratch track, sent by wireless hop
Oh.. remember that some versions of lockit have genlock capability, with is useful in multi cam setups.
and you can charge extra for the box. fair market rentals are between $50 and $80/day per lockit

 

[Greg M]

Lockit is the correct way. PluralEyes is to correct for not doing it the right way.
Its always best to do it right from the beginning.

 

[Michael Romano]

Lock that shit down! Pluraleyes is a worst case scenario option.

 

[James McLellan]

I hear everyone here but I sit here and think OK two lockit boxes, a constant stream of AA batteries and jam sync every morning of your shoot just so you can still have a tolerance of 1 frame out each 8 hours. Then I think, plug in your scratch audio and don't do anything else and pluraleyes is just as accurate and maybe more so.

Where is this logic flawed? I want to buy the lockit boxes but it just feels like maybe it's old technology. Can someone explain why Pluraleyes is a no go for this?

 

[Arnold F.]

James, as a former mixer I would generally side with the other guys. However, I always hear such great things about Plural Eyes so it's possible that's the way to go. It may depend on how much you're shooting/syncing.

Also, can the 744T not be jammed directly with the Epic - I suppose the Epic won't hold timecode? In any case, you would need only one Lock-It box because the 744T will keep accurate timecode. Jam once in the morning and then again at lunch.

 

[Craig Weeding]

Hi James


I would recommend locket boxes and a clockit box. The Time code circuit in the 744T is from Ambient the same people who make the locket box. The locket box provides both TC and genlock which is needed for multi cam operations.
No editor wants to cut on the action, only to find the action is out of sync between cameras because of no genlock.




Using the clockit box you can tighten up the sync on both the locket box and 744T, I use the clock box to tighten up sync on the lockets and do three cycles with it.


I agree batteries are a pain with the locket boxes, we have DC power taps for powering ours, it is crazy to feed double AA batteries to locket boxes the way they eat them.
Also recommend getting external antennas for the locket boxes.

Good luck