Timecode display for shotlisting

[Mark Raudonis]

Dyson,

Unfortunately, the program you’re looking for is called Final Cut Pro! Earlier versions of Quick time WOULD display the Timecode if you opened up the “Get info” window. Depending on which version you are currently using, this may still work. Reel numbers are not part of the typical QT metadata.

Here’s how we’ve approached the problem.

When digitizing, we use the tapenumber as the file name. For example, 1021A06 Means: October 21st, A camera, 5th load. When Final Cut detects a TC break it increments the number (1021A06-1). So, your file names are the reel number. Next, we have our producers tied into an X-SAN so that they can see all of the individual media files. They have Final Cut Pro on their desktops and use it to create not just “shot lists” but stringouts of the relevent material. The FCP timeline becomes “the script”. It’s fast and efficient. Of course, for this to work, everyone has to be networked.

VHS window burns is so 1990. Think tapeless!

mark

[Shane Ross]

Yeah, on my current show, an MPEG camera was shooting simultaneously next to the Varicam, and the audio and TC window information was being red right to it…so it had window code. Then the producer just dumped that onto his computer and was ready to go:

From the Panasonic Varicam, I feed the output to an AJA box (HD10MD3) that takes the HDSDI and converts it to analog composite NTSC out.
This composite out is fed into a horita box, along with a feed of timecode from camera TC out. From the Horita box (old WG-50II), composite video NTSC emerges with time code in a window at the bottom of the screen. Since the picture is 16×9, and the AJA box is set to letterbox it into a 4:3 picture, the timecode is almost completely out of the picture frame in the black lower part of the letterbox. Since the AJA does not extract the audio from the HDSDI, I feed audio from the headphone out of the camera, along with the video with the timecode window, into the Sony DCR-HC32 MP4 camera which records it on a memory stick as MPEG-1 files with muxed audio. 180 minutes of 1/2 size video fit on a 1gig stick. The stick is downloaded into the computer.

For another client, I record onto mini DV camera and give them DV tapes with the downconvert with timecode window.

The only odd thing is that since the video is going through the AJA box, and the audio is coming straight out of camera, the audio is a frame or so ahead of the video. I have not really chased down exactly the offset, as the tapes are used for viewing and logging, not editing.
You could offline with these tapes, but they don’t have the 24 frame flags, and you would have to enter the code from a frame of the video into the system. You also might have to slip the audio back a frame against the video.

The box from Miranda (the DVC-822 for Panasonic, and DVC-802 for Sony) can do all this and put it out over firewire with code, I think. The $10,000 price for the Miranda made us decide to go the AJA route, with the HD10MD3 box costing just under $2000. We tried another box called the DV portal which was supposed to take SDI and give you DV with audio and timecode, but the AJA box does not pass the rp188 code from the Varicam HDSDI, so the portal was not of any real use.

You could feed all this to a firestore unit to go straight to an editable DV file, or use the Sony analog/digital (or a DV camera) to give you a firewire to feed straight to a laptop in the field.”

[Jeremy Garchow]

Put all the necessary clips in the timeline, put the timecode reader filter on them. Change the text (that defaults to TCR) to the reel number. Export the files to whatever format your producers want to watch.

[Ben Holmes]

Does raise a common need amongst my clients. More than one have complained about the lack of a decent sized TC display during editing – One concrete thing they can complain about that Avid actually has.

Sorry – I know it’s a bit off topic, but I just don’t understand why FCP doesn’t deal with this issue better.

With reference to the actual question asked above, naturally you could use the Timecode filter in FCP to output burnt in versions of your rushes – If you want to render each and every one seperately on to your harddrive…..

[Jeremy Garchow]

[Ben Holmes] “aturally you could use the Timecode filter in FCP to output burnt in versions of your rushes – If you want to render each and every one seperately on to your harddrive…..
“

NOt really. This method will still be faster than burning VHS window dubs. Put the filter on and export to small size (mpeg or whatever) so that the writers/producers can write their scripts at home, the coffee shop, office, etc. There’s no reason to render the filter first as it will render as it’s compressing to the smaller format.

Jeremy

[Dyson2005]

There must be another solution out there. I don’t want to tie up an edit suite exporting burn-in timecode into files. In a networked XServe RAID an application should be able to read the code natively and display it in nice large numbers. QuickTime should be the answer. Or a small shotlisting/logging app. Not the full expense of FCP! C’mon Apple. 🙂 There is a hole in your XServe RAID / FCP pipeline.

[Shane Ross]

At the current time there is no Quicktime solution. Either use a DV deck with the TC display turned on and dub (a very common practice) or slap TC on the ckip, render and output.

OR….

If you feel the solution is there, then write the code for quicktime and then market it.

Mother Necessity, where would we be…

[Martin Baker]

OK let me drop a hint. There will be a solution from us (released in the next 1-2 weeks), that will give you what you want and hopefully more. Watch this space…

Martin
Digital Heaven, London UK
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[Annaël Beauchemin]

great idea. It has been asked very often recently.

[Dyson2005]

Fantastic news Martin.

I assume this is a stand alone app? Ideally we’d like a PC & a Mac version. (PC being the priority)

It needs:
* be able to read FCP generated QuickTime files (even PCs which normally need the .mov extention, which FCP does not put on to files.)
* large timecode display
* reel number display
* scalable & moveable interface (i.e. so a user can have it & Microsoft Word open at the same time.)
* to keep playing even if another app is being used. i.e. typing into Microsoft Word the shotlisting info

would also be nice:
* display PAL 16:9 anamorphic material in correct aspect for computer screens
* can be controlled (assigned) through standard keyboards with play/pause/rewind media buttons
* a skip back function – say 5 seconds? (or user set-able amount). ideal for transcribing content
* ability to time a section of media. i.e. set an in & out to see duration, for timing interview grabs, etc.