DP & QT movie suggestions?

[williemyers]

h'lo again ,

I had another frustrating session with DP (4.5.2) an a QT movie (29.97fps) yesterday an I'm wondering what systems or suggestions that you out there might have? Here's the deal;

I'm running a Mac G4 DP 1.25, 2 Gig RAM, multiple 72k 120G HD's. I get a QT movie from an editor - usually 29.97 non-drop - and *alwyas* with a "2 beep". I "open" the movie in DP, fiddle a bit with tempi and start times and settle in on a good tempo to start the cue with. Then I extract the movie's audio to an audio track and lock the soundbite so that the "2 beep" is at 1:00:58.00 Then, lock the Movie to the sequence and fiddle with the Movie's "Start Time" until it's "2" sits at 1:00:58.00.

At that point, all seems ready to go, but when I roll the seq., the "2 beep" from the audio and the "2 beep" from the Movie will never consistently hit together. I can roll the seq. 5-10 times and get different resutls almost every time. Sometimes, a couple of frames apart, sometimes just a few fields.

And here's the rub.... since most editors do not send burned in timecode on picture anymore, I'm *counting* on DP to give me accurate frame numbers when I "walk" the film down to a specific frame for a hit point that I'll enter in to Markers.
And, because of the aforementioned problem with sync and others, I'm wondering if I *AM*, in fact, getting frame-accurate numbers from DP with I lock QT movies.

So, my questions would be;
Are you using similiar methods (sucessfully)? and, if not, what method or gear would you reccomend for me to get a more accurate "lock" between DP & QT?

*many* thanks for all suggestions,

bill myers, composer

[lightningad]

i think your most obvious option is to speak to the editor and tell him you need burnt in timecode. Ask and most will be happy to oblige.

I can't help you with your problem - i use QT all the time but i use burnt-in t/c and have the editor create the QT as a DV Movie - starting at 10 00 00 00 (we in the UK tend to start timecode on 10 rather 01). Also I'm still on dp4.12, and it locks to QT without a hitch everytime without fail.

I also wonder about your system clock - i use a Motu Digital Timepiece, and i once had a problem where one of the pulldown buttons had been knocked. I did a record session at my normal frame rate of 25fps (PAL) with the sample rate set to 48khz, yet unbeknownst to me, because my clock was not set correctly i recorded a file that thought it was a 48k hz file but played back at a higher pitch and faster speed. This is probably not related to your problem but also worth being aware.

adam

[Morpheo]

Don't you have a TCBI on the QT file ? That's what I'm counting on...

[Morpheo]

Originally posted by Bill Myers:
And here's the rub.... since most editors do not send burned in timecode on picture anymore, I'm *counting* on DP to give me accurate frame numbers
[/QB]

oops... forget my previous post, I misread yours apparently...

[3rdpath]

the "2 beep" from the audio and the "2 beep" from the Movie will never consistently hit together

bill,

if i'm reading you correctly, you're trying to get the duplicate exported movie audio to lock with the audio playing in the QT movie itself...this won't work. the audio in the QT movie always floats-thats why you export it to the sequence...then turn the audio down on the QT movie. at this point, provided you've got the right frame rate, etc., you should be good to go. but as others have said, if you don't have visual time code you'll never know for sure that everything is locked.

if i misread your post...please disregard.

[williemyers]

many thanks, all three of you, for the quick responses. you've got me on the track to some more questions, if I may.

Unfotunately (for me), I'm not in direct contact with the editors and getting BITC is most often not going to be an option. The spots (TV adverts) have already been cut and QT'ed by the time they get to me. So, maybe what I need to be looking in to is whether or not I can get a more accurate "lock" between the QT movie and DP, so that I can trust the frame counts that I'm extracing in Dp from the QT will be accurate.

I know (or at least, belive) that friends with ProTools systems have frame-accurate "lock" between the app (ProTools) and the QT movies they're viewing. Currently, I'm using "internal" sync for everything, that is no word clock or external sync source.

So, do you think that adding something like a MOTU Digital Timepiece would get me a more accurate lock between DP and the QT movie I'm inporting?

again many thanks,

bill myers, composer

[lightningad]

nope - you don't need the DTP. QT and DP are frame accurately locked.
Locking to a timecode is really easy, just enter the timecode on the Movie Start Time button and hey presto, the first frame of the QT locks to whatever time you tell it.

so if the timecode for the 2 pop starts at 2 secs before 01 00 00 00, then if memory serves correct, you need to enter a start time of 23 59 58 00. The first frame of video should now be at 01 00 00 00.

Only when you have your timecode locked to picture should you then copy the quicktime audio to the timeline. Once thats done, turn the QT movie window volume button to zero.

I only mentioned the clocking problem earlier in case you were using a device like the DTP - if you don't don't worry - its not needed. I often workj to frame accurate video using nothing more than my laptop and DP4.12, then when i'm back at work copy the project to the big mac and its all perfectly locked.

happy scoring...