Premiere Pro Reads Incorrect Timecode from Source-Makes Bad XML

[Tory Stewart]

Hi all,

Chiming in to report that I’m having the same problem and it’s making me tear my hair out. Finding this thread at least has given me the relief of knowing I’m not crazy! I’m working on a long doc and this bug is affecting about half of my media.

I’d transcoded a lot of footage shot on the C100 to ProRes 422 (23.976fps) using Log & Transfer in FCP7, from disk images of the original cards, keeping the entire card structure intact. I added metadata, and synced using Plural Eyes before migrating the project to Premiere via xml. All seemed well. Since the migration to Premiere, I’ve transcoded all new footage using Prelude and imported to the Premiere project via the Media Browser.

Since I’d heard negative things about merged clips, I instead made multicam sequences to link the dual recorded audio to the video clips and modified the audio channels on the multicams to reflect my preferred arrangement. This after losing a bunch of time modifying the audio channels on the video and audio clips themselves BEFORE making the multicams, only to find that offlining and relinking media knocks out those channel modifications and restores them to the file’s default.

While making multicams from the synced up sequences (that I’d imported from FCP7 via xml) I noticed that many of my video clips on the timeline were a frame or two or three out of alignment. The placement of the clips on the timeline was correct, but there were diagonal lines/dead frames at the head of the clips. Slipping the clips solved the problem, but sure enough when I checked the timecode I discovered that the problem was that Premiere was reading the start TC typically 1 to 4 frames later than was correct. It seems to be completely erratic, other than that it’s limited to clips that were transcoded in FCP7.

As Richard stated, every single other application I have installed that can read timecode reads the “correct” timecode, and Premiere and Prelude read the incorrect timecode. Not only that, but the incorrect timecode doesn’t even stay consistent on the clips themselves. After offlining and relinking several times, the timecode on the offending clips slipped even more. I modified the timecode in Premiere and checked to see if it affected any other programs and it did not, aside from Prelude. However, I have hundreds of clips that came over from FCP7 so double-checking all the timecodes against my old FCP7 project seems like it will take forever, and feels daunting and possibly futile since who knows if that will actually prevent the bug from manifesting again down the road.

The only minor success I had was relinking clips in Premiere after “modifying” the timecode in FCP7. I copied the original start TC, changed the TC to something else, closed the modify window, reopened it, pasted the original start TC back in, closed the window, and confirmed that the file read as having been modified at the Finder level. I opened a dupe of the Premiere project with all the media offline, reconnected, and the incorrect timecode in Premiere changed to reflect the correct timecode. If I open those clips in Prelude, Prelude now reads the correct timecode. I thought this might be the solution but sadly it doesn’t seem to be sticking. I’m not sure what happened but after working in the project for awhile I noticed the clips were again registering the wrong timecode.

Very interested to hear if anyone’s made any progress or had any insights since last month.

[Paul Whitfield]

I too am having TC problems with PPCC 2017 .1.2 on a Mac and ADOBE TECH SUPPORT SAYS “YOU MUST TRANSCODE YOUR FILES TO MP4 CODEC for it to work correctly in Premiere Pro.”
There is definitely a TC problem with Premiere Pro but Tech Support wont admit it. I sent them a file to test and it worked on their windows os but not on a Mac. They did at first say it was a bug but then called me right back and changed their story to “its your files, transcode them.”

My files are QT uncompressed video at 23.976 created in After Effects.
The TC from the files work perfectly in FCP7, QT player, and Resolve but in PP things go astray.
They usually start off ok but if I add a marker, the TC displayed for the marker does not match the TC displayed by the Source monitor. The difference is random. The TC overlays showing source TC is wrong. If I open the Modify-Timecode menu the original TC has changed. Revert does nothing. Manually changing the TC to be correct does nothing.

So I trash the project. Trash the files on my work hdd and copy the file from a backup. Start again and after a few minutes working in Premiere, yep wrong TC is back. But only in Premiere. After Effects is fine with the files, so is Bridge, FCP, Resolve, QT.

[Jay Smith]

I’ve encountered the same problem. I’ve been experimenting with using Davinci Resolve to us Scene Detection to break up a video into small chunks to edit in premiere. I export the cut timeline from Resolve as an xml and import it into Premiere/After Effects and the source footage is shorter than Resolve says it is by about 1 second. The timecode is different. I’v been messing with this all day.

At first, I thought it was a Variable Frame Rate Issue. After running it through Handbrake, there is no change. The problem persists. I’ve tried different frame-rates as well.

Currently, I’m using Media Encoder to create a new source for Resolve’s Scene Detection. If it works, it may confirm that the problem is with Adobe. Which would bring relief that I know the problem, but sadness that this problem exists. I remember using AME earlier today and I think I had success, but did not realize what exactly “fixed” the issue. I’m not sure it did. I will find out though. I don’t have another NLE to rule out it’s not premiere.

I can import the xml back into resolve without issue. The xml itself, near as I can tell, is fine.

If it is Adobe, I hope it can be resolved soon.

[Rignold Haywood]

Hi

I’m on the latest version of PP CC, 2017 1.2. There is definitely a problem with the way PP reads TC. I have clips I ingested from DV via firewire. PP reads the timecode wrong. AE reads it correct as does Media Encoder and Resolve.

Clip properties in PP report the timecode as correct, in other words it’s wrong in the bin and correct in clip properties. (See attached)

Regards

Rignold Haywood

[Gary Huff]

This is still going on, now 4 months later. My issue is trying to get a timeline into Resolve for coloring work, and the timecode issue is wreaking havoc with 59.94 clips that were interpreted to be 23.976. All the other footage is correct except for these clips, so this is a relatively easy fix, but massively annoying, and yes, the timecode is not the same between the same two clips both conformed to be slow-mo in 23.976.

[Stephen Montgomery]

I am also getting a similar problem. I’m on a PC with 25fps footage (ProRes). Premiere reports various timecodes, i’ve not checked what exactly but it changes what it thinks the start time is in the project bin when I click on the clip. The waveforms drawn on the audio are also shifted by a few mins until I zoom right in and it is then displayed correctly. I briefly opened the project on a mac and it displays yet different timecodes. I am trying to edit 2 min clips from a 2 hour session using timecode notes and failing.

[Ann Foo]

Just an idea, sorry if already covered, I didn’t read the whole thread….

But someone mentioned they were using multicam sequences/clips, which would probably give you a new timecode. So it’s best if you ‘flatten’ all multicam material in your sequence before creating the XMLs, which will brea the multicam material down to its original source video, which should have the correct timecode.

[Chris Bruun]

I am getting bad EDLs and XMLs because Premiere generates its own timecode for single graphics TIFFs I import. The play head is offset in absurd ways and the timecode seems random. This means that the timeline timecode and layout i snot the values I get when I create an EDL – the values are wrong because of the this generated Timecode that I cannot seem to change whatsoever. Any thoughts or similar experience?

[Ben Yonker]

I had a similar problem and found the solution for myself; not sure whether or not it will help anyone here:

My PPro sequence is 23.98. Several clips were shot at 30 (for slow motion) and interpreted at 23.98 in PPro. When I imported the XML, almost everything was messed up in Resolve. Off by several seconds. A look at the XML file revealed that many clips were being sent at 30. Therefore, Resolve set their frame rate at 30 in clip attributes. In the Media Pool, I selected all of the clips, clicked “Clip Attributes,” and set the timecode at 23.976 for everything. It immediately lined up correctly in the Resolve timeline.

I can’t imagine that your issue is this simple (or that you haven’t already tried it!), and and obviously the source of the problem still lies in PPro with the XML export process, which leaves this problem unresolved. But at the very least you might have a workaround.

Hope this helps someone.

___________________________________________
MacPro4,1 2.66 GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon
16GB RAM
OS X 10.8.2 (12C60)
NVIDIA GeForce GT 120

[Richard Clabaugh]

Thanks Ben,

Good to know but in my case, at least, there was no speed changes or interpretation being applied to any of the source clips.

So far as I know, and based on what I’ve read in this thread, this continues to be an unresolved problem. There are some work arounds, but they all start with importing the footage differently before you start the project. Once you’ve edited, if you discover the problem, you’re in a bad way.

This remains a bug I think Adobe needs to address.