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Major FLAW or BUG???? BE AWARE!!!
Was digitizing a tape that had Time-Of-Day timecode running as there were two cameras involved at this sporting event. Had the User Prefs set to Make New Clip on Timecode Break. There were alot of camera stop and starts and the process looked like it was working but taking forever to find the timecode breaks. At the end of the tape when timecode ran out an info screen came up advising “User aborted” or “User stopped” with a Okay button.
As soon as I clicked on the Okay button, every clip that was being captured disappeared from the bin. Upon checking the scratch disks (both video and separate audio)… there they were, except for the last one.
I had to import each clip and manually relink all 38 clips to the audio.
Anyone else run into this?
The one hour tape with 37 timecode breaks took over 3 hours to digitize and then I still had to find and relink all the clips.
I also did a little test and the other camera tape and let it digitize the first few clips and then hit escape to stop the process. Again all the clips disappeared from the bin.
Watch out!!!!
Best,
HarleyHarley Michailuck
Brass Orchid Post fx
Saskatoon, SK Canada -
12 Replies
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Always dicey to use Time Of Day Timecode. Not recommended.
Kevin Monahan
Author – Motion Graphics and Effects in Final Cut Pro
fcpworld.com -
Wasn’t my choice… TOD camera originals were given to me to deal with.
The whole point is that the digitized clips should not have disappeared from the bin… bad error handling subroutines in the programming code.
Best,
HarleyHarley Michailuck
Brass Orchid Post fx
Saskatoon, SK Canada -
It has nothing to do with time of day code. Without specifying an out point to stop the capture the capture will fail. If it was a single clip without TOD code the whole thing would be lost. The file either doesn’t get written (maybe be buried in a hidden temp folder) or appears as a corrupted file gobbling up chunks of drive space.
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Harley –
As others have mentioned your problem has nothing to do with TOD time code.
If FCP’s capture window get’s confused by time code breaks, which it always does, and gives you that “aborted” message and you either click OK or hit “escape” you are going to loose all the clips from that capture sequence. As you have noted, they are still on your drives, but you have to manually import them.
This is both a Bug and a Flaw, but the FCP faithful will almost never call it such. Basically the FCP capture window is terrible with time code breaks – by far the worst handling of ANY NLE I’ve ever worked with. But don’t look for it to be fixed, it’s not a sexy enough change for the marketing department.
It’s just one of many infuriating bugs in the system whose work-arounds have become so well known they are now considered part of the “normal” flow of the program.
Herb Sevush
Zebra Productions -
Kevin –
First let me say that I bought your Motion book and find it very well written and helpful.
However, your response to Harley’s post was just the opposite. As a working editor, not a producer, I often have no control of many technical aspects of a job. The mark of a well designed NLE is that it will HELP you, not Hinder you, as you try to work with whatever mess you’ve been given.
While your advice is quite appropriate for the Producer of the show, giving it in response to Harley’s post is a little like telling him to close the barn after the horse has gone.
Herb Sevush
Zebra Productions -
Herb,
Thanks for understanding my original post and taking the time to reply.
You’re right, this is a bug… bad error handling… the clips are in the bin as you capture and then the bin loses them although they are still on the drives.
For those who don’t understand the problem… follow the instructions on page 280 (FCP 5) Manual Volume I under “Make New Clip”… see how it works for you.
… nuff said.
Best,
HarleyHarley Michailuck
Brass Orchid Post fx
Saskatoon, SK Canada -
I would have duped off the tapes with fresh continuous time code – the time it takes to sync up the two tapes will be less than trying to get your system to digitize with tc breaks.
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Mike –
As long as you have multiple decks and don’t care about generation loss – not a bad work around. Better yet would be if Apple cna be pressured by it’s user base to fix the Capture window so it can handle this as well as PPRO for instance – let alone Avid or any serious NLE.
Herb Sevush
Zebra Productions -
If you hit CANCEL instead of CAPTURE it will save your media and you might just have to recapture the last logged clip.
Matt Small
Pair of Hands
Sherman Oaks, CA“If it was easy, everyone would do it.”
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If you dupe the tapes, you eliminate the whole purpose of time of day code, assuming there are multiple tapes all taking code from the same TOD generator. This goes hand in hand with the new multicam feature in FCP 5…if you’re shooting with a number of cameras at an event (say a sporting event like a race), it’s great to have multicam to cut between angles, but not if FCP can’t handle TOD code on the source tapes. The time wasted with workarounds in FCP might make it worthwhile to buy the least expensive Avid software just to capture and edit a show like this. I love FCP in a lot of ways, but Apple keeps ignoring really important fixes that need to be made, like this one and the Media Mangler debacle. If you’re going to call something “Pro” then make it live up to its name with real professional features that actually work.
eor (end of rant)
Joe Murray
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