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Preserving Source Timecode when transcoding h.264 to ProRes LT
I have recently discovered Digital Rebellion’s QT Edit…which allows me to batch add TC to my Nikon’s D7000 clips. (Nikon isn’t as cool as Canon with their L&T plugin preserving TC metadata). Before now, although I could set the camera to time-of-day and batch rename with Adobe Bridge to make the name of each clip be the time-of-day, my timecode would still only start at 00:00:00.
With QT Edit, I can batch all of my clips from an event that I shoot and give them actual TC (with the “file creation” time, thus giving me time-of-day TC). However, this only seems to work on the original H.264 files. As I am working in Final Cut 7, these are obviously not editable before transcoding. If I bring the H.264 files into FCP, the TC that I generated is correct (starting TC, length of clip, etc.) So I know that QT Edit is at least working correctly.
Here’s my problem….
I normally use Compressor (via droplets) to transcode my footage (usually to ProRes LT). But, for some reason, Compressor decides that it wants to alter my timecode!?!?
Example:
My clip was created (recorded) at 8/26/11 4:22 PM. The batch rename from Bridge names it “082611_162234”. But, for some reason, Compressor seems to think that the TC start time is “01:08:11:07”. That’s not even CLOSE!
So, my question is,
Is there a way to keep Compressor from altering to the source TC? One would think that it would be completely pass-through…..
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2 Replies
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Compressor does not preserve TC, so no there is no way of keeping it. Have you tried dragging the entire contents of the card onto your hard drive and using L&T? I mean instead of straight off the card.
MPEG Streamclip won’t preserve it either.
Eric
Blog- Video Bits -
Alas, as I am using a Nikon D7000 there is no L&T ability. Canon’s are cool like that because Canon was nice enough to come up with an FCP plugin.
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