Timecode wandering and other problems

by **Shogun Assassin** » Mon Apr 23, 2012 11:06 am

Greetings,
I am doing a little bit of post for a friend's short movie.

I got my DP project set up with the film and have imported the OMF. The timecode of the DP project matches the Timecode burn of the quicktime, and all sound files from the OMF are in sync with all of it.

But while working i noticed a bit of the timecode drifting off.

beginning of film: DP= 0:00:00:00, QT timecode burn= 0:00:00:00
middle of film: DP= 0:07:04:17, QT timecode burn= 0:07:04:07
End of film: DP= 0:12:37:19, QT timecode burn= 0:12:37:00

the session and OMF are both 24B/48k. I followed all of the "Film Scoring Tips" to make sure everything was set up properly.

Is it just latency from the computer? Is this going to cause serious sync issues once I give it back to them?

Another problem. No matter where I place the cursor in the sequence, it always rewinds to the beginning, or whatever i have typed in the transport and plays from there. not where i have placed the cursor. no matter where i move the cursor, after about 1/2 a sec it automatically rewinds to beginning of film.

by **bayswater** » Mon Apr 23, 2012 12:08 pm

Do you have Auto Rewind on?
From DP Help:"Auto-Rewind button: Causes automatic rewinding to the Memory Start location any time playback is stopped (for any reason)."

by **Shogun Assassin** » Mon Apr 23, 2012 12:48 pm

yeah thanks i figured out the auto-rewind problem.

but now i have another problem.
when i said all the OMF audio synced with the QT timecode? I was wrong.
The QT audio that came with the movie syncs fine, but the OMF audio is early, and I'm not exactly sure how to go about getting it to sync. There is no 2 pop or anything, and the OMF audio is a bunch of cut up soundbites. it seems to be early by around 10-11 secs or so? Could this be because they added the SMPTE trailer?

one more question to ad: is there a way of removing the QT audio that came with the film? Other than muting it?

by **HarmonicMotion** » Mon Jun 18, 2012 10:17 am

First of all you never mentioned the frame rate. Your sync issues could very well be because the frame rate doesn't match the one from the quicktime. If they don't have the exact frame rate then the best way to find out is in quicktime itself, where depending on your version you should be able to select the window dropdown menu, hit "show movie inspector" and voila, you have your frame rate listed. If you can't do that, then just read the burn in code and make sure you look every 10 minutes to see if it is drop or non-drop (let me know if you need help with that terminology).

"it seems to be early by around 10-11 secs or so? Could this be because they added the SMPTE trailer?"

What exactly do you mean by "SMPTE trailer"? are you talking about the academy leader (countdown in seconds at the beginning of the film). When you say pops are you referring to sync pops at the -2 second mark? If they added an academy leader but exported soundbite audio before hand, then yes, all the timings should be exactly 8 second off. You should have sync pops though, which when pulled to the correct location (0:59:58:00), will line everything else up. In other words the countdown (academy leader) should start at 0:59:52:00.

In terms of the audio that is embedded in the film itself. Right now I'm guess you have it playing in the video control box (Shift-V). You can turn the audio down completely there, and you won't hear it. The thing is, unless you have clicked the pull down arrow next in the video dialogue, and selected "copy movie audio to sequence", then the audio will not be exportable to the final movie, and won't even sound in your stereo mix. If you have copied the audio to your sequence, then just mute it or turn it down when sending it to your stereo mix bus or final mix.

Let me know if this helps,

Harmonic Motion Productions
harmonicmotionproductions.com

by **martian** » Sat Jul 14, 2012 8:46 am

probably they didnt embedd the TC in the OMF

happens all the time..

in all likely hood - you can find some cuts in the pictures that you could line up with the OMF cut between shots..

just add audio to sequence and you should see some points you can line up..

it may phase with the QT audio - then you know you are real close!

perhaps they added the leader after export..

who knows? video editors :brucelee: