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Black Magic RGB to AJA RGB
I have some footage that was captured from HDCAM SR with a Black Magic system. It was captured at 10 Bit RGB (4:4:4).
When I try to open this footage on my Kona system, of course, the codecs aren’t compatible. AJA’s RGB codec must be different than Black Magic’s RGB codec, right? I had gotten used to the interchangeable 4:2:2 codecs between the two systems, so this caught me a bit off guard.
So, the idea was to transcode the clips to AJA’s codec so that I can edit the footage nicely with my Kona3 system. I thought this would be a task handled nicely by Compressor in batch for all the clips.
Here’s the rub I have and am wondering if anyone else has seen this… The timecode in the clips is not being read correctly by Compressor. It’s off by 7 seconds and 7 frames in the two clips I have tested.
For example, I have a clip that starts at timecode 02:00:30:00. Both QuickTime Player and Final Cut Pro show this as the starting timecode for the clip. When I drop this same clip into Compressor, it tells me the first frame has a timecode of 02:00:20:18. Ugh. I’ve verified this with multiple systems.
Has anyone else seen this?
Having consistent timecode is essential to an accurate workflow and this sure isn’t it. Compressor is supposed to be able to do this kind of thing, since it even has a timecode burn filter but if it can’t get the code right, what’s the point?
-Matt
PS–The other reason I posted this in the Kona forum was to ensure I got my codec settings straight for the transcode. I used the AJA 10 bit RGB codec at full range (0-1024) setting and everything seems to turn out fine, except for the timecode. I verified this by dropping the original and the transcoded clips into After Effects and compared them using difference mode. I don’t see any differences (it’s all 100% black) but the range options in the AJA codec make me question whether or not I did it right.
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20 Replies
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can you copy and paste the time code track like you can with audio..? i’m going to try right now..
del
you cant hear my inner voice scream… can you..?
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well it seemed to work, find your TC track in properties(apple J?) from your BM source copy it and paste it into your new aja codec’d file, but i take no responsibility for your computer exploding…
del
you cant hear my inner voice scream… can you..?
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Good idea. I may have to use that as a workaround very soon. I’ve got about 3 hrs of dailies headed my way and I don’t think I want to push around the full-res. stuff for editorial so I’ll need to make proxies. Thus the need for accurate timecode.
One thing that doesn’t help with, though, is that I can’t really use compressor’s timecode filter then to burn in the timecode on the picture (very useful for wrangling multiple editors and fx houses).
Grrr… This should, um, work fine. But it’s not. Argh. 😉
-Matt
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Call AJA
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What version of quicktime were these captured with and what version is on your system?
Compressor currently displays inaccurate timecode for reference movies, but we have not had a problem with normal clips.
If you open the clip in FCP does it display the correct timecode?
You could also use Episode to do the conversion, you can tell it to copy the original timecode, or set the timecode start.
—
Christopher Seguine
Sublime Films, San Francisco -
I’m not sure of the QT version they were captured under. I’ll have to ask.
I have verified the problem with 3 systems now:
– G5, 10.5.1, Compressor 3.1.2, QuickTime 7.4
– Mac Pro, 10.5.1, Compressor 3.1.2, QuickTime 7.3.1
– G5, 10.4.11, Compressor 3.1.2, QuickTime 7.3.1The only thing common to all these systems is the version of Compressor.
I just imported some P2 material last night, straight from the cards and when I drag those clips into Compressor the timecode is not correct, either. Arrr!
I still have some ideas to kick around. I’ll post back if I find out anything.
-Matt
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[Chris Seguine] “You could also use Episode to do the conversion, you can tell it to copy the original timecode, or set the timecode start. “
I just tried using Episode but it gives me an error when trying to preview the file.
Not surprising to me. I have little confidence in Episode. Different thread. 😉
-Matt
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Hmmm… After doing some more testing I’m starting to wonder if the 24p part of the files is throwing Compressor off.
I had a few NTSC captures that I threw into Compressor and the TC showed up correctly in those. All the other media I’ve been trying has been 24p (P2/DVCPRO HD 720p/24 and 1080p 4:4:4).
I don’t see any obvious way to have Compressor interpret the TC as base 24, though. Maybe that’s not it. Just throwing ideas out there out of frustration.
-Matt
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Hello. Working on a feature that is 1920×1080 23.98. My uncompressed 8bit quicktime starts at 00.59.58.00 with a 2pop. The first frame that the latest version of compressor shows in preview is 00.59.54.10
What a joke. any ideas from the crowd?
thanks
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For some reason, quicktime is unable to display 23.98 timecode.
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