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User bits
I’ve just trawled the archives for this question and found it has been largely ignored but I’ll have another go.
I’ve just done a shoot with a Z1 which allows you to record time of day on the user bits channel. So we have good old fashioned continuous timecode on the timecode channel and time of day on the user bits channel.
My production requires frequent time of day captions as it’s a fly-on-the-wall kind of thing. So being about to consult the UB’s within FCP would make life so much easier than having to spool the tape to the right point on the camera and check it on there.
I have looked through the “freakin’ manual” and searched through FCP itself to see if there is a magic button.
Now the UB’s have got to be embedded in that data somewhere so why can’t it be read. Is it something Apple have not got around to yet?
Just asking. Thanks.
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12 Replies
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> “freakin’ manual”< There may be third party filters that can extract UB and the rest of the metadata that is already on the tape but FCP cannot, by itself, make this information available. That's why you couldn't find it in the freakin' manual. FCP can obviously see this metadata because it uses it for DV Start-Stop Detect but we've never been able to figure out a way to get at it. bogiesan This is my standard sigfile so do not take it personally: “For crying out loud, read the freakin’ manual.”
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A work around could be to use the Aux timecode feature in FCP. You could park the play head at the beginning of a clip and find the corresponding frame on the tape. Use the modify timecode tool and add the TOD timecode from the tape UB onto one of the AUX timceode tracks in FCP.
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Or…and a bit cumbersome, capture the window output from the deck with the user bits displayed in the window. Edit the piece per normal referencing the user bit/window information when needed. After the picture is locked, go back and recapture the video with the window display turned off. Easy but a bit time consuming.
Tom -
My understanding of user bits is that this is a “stamp” kind of thing… not an auxiliary TC channel. You can put in things like “cam a” or “bill” or “10-23-06”, but NOT just designate an alternate timecode. I welcome any corrections on this.
Mark
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[Mark Raudonis] “My understanding of user bits is that this is a “stamp” kind of thing… not an auxiliary TC channel.”
What he is saying Mark is that he already has TOD code on the user bits of the tape and would like to be able to “see it” in FCP. So my suggestion was to manually type in the TOD code onto the AUX timecode track of each clip within FCP. It would mean parking the play head on a frame of a clip within FCP. Then find the same frame off the same clip on the tape. Then read off the TOD code that displayed in the user bits and maually type that in, onto the Aux TC track in the FCP clip. Does that make sense?
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Hi Mark
User bits are ceratinly most commonly used as a stamp as you decribe, but there is no technical reason why you can’t use it to record auxilliary tc data … other than not being able to get at it with FCP!
Cheers
Andy -
Andy,
Are you sure? Have you every seen a secondary (aux) running code displayed in the the userbits field? I haven’t. And… how do you get this “aux” code onto the tape? Every deck that I’ve ever scene has only ONE primary timecode in point. I’d love to be proved wrong, ’cause I could certainly find a use for a secondary tc trk, but I don’t think it can be easily done.
mark
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>Are you sure?
Hi Mark
Well, I’ve certainly not ever done this, so I’m not talking from experience here. We all know that UB’s can be inserted on a frame by frame basis (you can do this from the front panel of any Sony beta deck given the time and inclination!), so my assumption is a) that given the right equipment the data should be able to be recorded, and b) the original poster has already done it
>Have you every seen a secondary (aux) running code displayed in the the userbits field? I haven’t.
Nope, Me neither … but again, the poster has said that he already has this.
>And… how do you get this “aux” code onto the tape?
the sixty million dollar question
Sorry its not the definitive answer!
Cheers
Andy -
Mini dv cameras have an automatic time of day timecode stamp in the metadata. That is how the DV start/stop function detects there has been a break in the recording.
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Hi,
The Z1 HDV camcorder has feature which enables the User Bits to be rolling TOD which I thought was great as I needed a TOD reference on this doco footage. I don’t know about other cameras, it’s just something I found in the menu whilst playing with my new toy on location and thought “hey, great that’ll be really useful”
When I playback the footage in the camera I can flick between the TC and the UB and the UB shows the time of the day that was recorded. So it is there – just how to extract it.
Hey, I appreciate all the input on this one. I hope others learn from it and developers take note!
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