Log & Transfer shows wrong Media Start TC and cutting off end of .M2T clips

I'm hoping this rings a bell with someone:

Editing on G5 Dual 2.3 Ghz, 4GB RAM, OS 10.4.11, FCP 6.0.6
Footage from Sony Z5U via a HVR-MRC1 recorded as 1080p30

Log & Transfer window shows all the clips on the CF card, with about the correct duration, but the "Media Start" for every clip displays 01:04. I could live with that, but when the clips are imported, that last second or so is being cut off - don't really want to live with that part! I'm supposing the two issues may be related.

Troubleshooting so far:

- MPEG Streamclip shows that the full clip is indeed on the card
- Tested with clips from two different Z5U's and two different MRC1's on freshly formatted cards (16 GB SanDisk Extreme 60MS/s UDMA)
- Trashed FCP Prefs (/Users/<username>/Library/Preferences/com.apple.FinalCutPro.plist and /Preferences/Final Cut Pro User Data/*.fcset, *.fcmch, *.fcpch)
- Rebooted and tried launching under a different user account
- From the L&T window (just to try it) "Remove advance pulldown..." checked and not; Cleared Logging cache
- Removed all user plug-ins from /Library/Application Support/Final Cut Pro System Support/ (the only place they live)
- Recorded with a Sony HVR-DR60 (older, hard drive unit): SD clip start is reported correctly, HD clip start shows: :01:00".

Finally, this has working fine for months so obviously something must have changed - I just can't figure out what. The editing Mac is ONLY used for editing. I have not added any software (except for a possible security update from Apple).

Any thoughts are very much appreciated. If I've left anything out of the description, please let me know I'll happily update.

It seems like you have run through quite a number of troubleshooting measures. I'd like to suggest cloning your drive and reinstalling FCP (Digital Rebellion's FCS Remover app does it easiliy), but you should run through other solutions before taking more drastic measures. I have to admit, I've never seen this before.

Did you do any firmware upgrades to your camera? Is the entire contents of the SD card copied over? Some of the cameras have # inserted into the names. Does it work if you rename the clips before you import them. Have you repaired system disk permissions? What happens if you switch capture drive to your system drive? Try it for one clip and see if the problem persists.



www.strypesinpost.com

Thanks for the suggestions. I may be on the road to reinstall. Sigh - always a little unnerving.

To answer your questions:
- No firmware changes to either camera
- I've tried L&C direct from the CF card as well as copying the entire structure and importing as a folder
- Yes, I have the MRC1's set to name uniquely for each camera
- If I change the file name before import (both the .idx and .m2t) the contents of the folder is no longer recognized by L&C
- Repaired disk permissions
- Changed capture drive to boot disk

Also set the camera name on one the MRC1's to a completely new name I've never used before and reset the unit to factory defaults.

For anyone this info might help in the future, here's what I've discovered.

The main issue seems to stem from how the Z5U interacts with the MRC1 in terms of delivering timecode. The MRC1 gets its TC from the camera and what the camera delivers varies:
- With tape in the camera, TC generation set to REC RUN and EXT REC set to SYNCHRONOUS, the TC on tape is delivered to the MRC1. Since the tape rolls with during recording it all works as expected.
- With the above scenario, except EXT REC set to EXT ONLY, the tape does not run so the start TC delivered to the MRC1 is the same (whatever is on tape in its current position) each time the record button is pressed.
- With the above scenario but no tape, the camera's TC is essentially zero (--:--:--:--) or in my case, 01:04, at that is delivered as the start TC each time it records a new clip.

Workarounds:
1. Keep tape in the camera. I'm not a huge fan of this option for various reasons, but it works. Or,
2. In the camera, set TC to FREE RUN and TC MAKE to PRESET. In this state, the camera delivers TC without tape loaded, which the MRC1 happily reads.

Note that FCP (or the Sony import plug-in) still has an issue not importing a second or so at the beginning and end of clips regardless of the media start TC (so not a related issue as I originally guessed). The full clip is written to the CF card - it should be imported regardless of the media start designation, IMHO.

I'm happy to hear any other approaches or ideas!

Nice work Curt. Thanks for adding to the knowledge base.

Nice work, Curt! I didn't notice that you had two devices in the recording chain, and thought the timecode was a L&T issue. It is interesting to see how the camera behaves when paired with a digital recording device. Can you set the recording module to rec run and ignore timecode from the incoming signal?

I wonder if it would be the same situation with the Ki Pro.



www.strypesinpost.com

Yes, I was pretty well fixated on it being a bug with L&T as well. After a new install of FCP on a new workstation showed the same 'error' I figured it was time to take another look at the camera/recorder combo!

The MRC1 does Rec Run when there is no incremental TC sent from the camera. What's troublesome in post is that each new clip will count up from zero, which leaves you with a bunch of clips that do not have unique TC. Not the end of the world since file names are unique, but certainly not ideal.

There is no Free Run option on the recorder, so to go that route, TC has to come from the camera.

A third option (which I rather like if going tapeless) is to rethink traditional TC altogether and use Time of Day TC. It's always unique (in one day) and incremental and will loosely group shots from two cameras without having to do the formal sync step. I've head there may be issues with shots that run past midnight if capturing from tape, since the TC will appear to jump backwards.

The only other device I've been able to test with is a Sony HVR-DR60, which behaves that same as the MRC1. A fancier, stand alone digital recorder might very well be able to generate it's own Free Run TC and ignore the camera.

I'm just surprised not to have found some existing discussion on this since the Z5U/MRC1 combo has been around for awhile. Made me wonder if I was unknowingly doing something really strange or trying to use it in a 'wrong' way.