24P and timecode

B

bareflix

New member
After much headscratching I've discovered that premiere pro 1.5 treats 24P files differently than 60i files. Specifically, it does not show the timecode in the project window under "Media Start" for 24p files the way it does for 60i files.
If I look at the file properties, there is a lot more info on the 24P files, including mention of the 23.976 framerate, as well as the 29.97 framerate. I assume somehow Premiere is trying to be "smart" and "helpful" by understanding this, but it's making it impossible to find footage based on timecode.

My project framerate is set to 29.97. I'm not doing a film out or anything like that, so I really want to live in 29.97. Is there any way to tell premiere NOT to do this helpful 24p stuff? I'm using a matrox rtx.100 card and it's codecs, but I also tried the adobe setting for panasonic 24p, and that hid the timecode also.

When I say hid the timecode, I mean each clip starts with 00;00;00;00 instead of the actual timecode from the tape.

all suggestions welcome.
 
Was the project 24P or PA?

What is the intended final output for this project?

Why the desire to work with 29.97 drop frame timecode for a 23.976 fps project?
 
I didn't shoot it, so I'm not sure if it was 24p or 24pa. I have done a test myself, and as far as the timecode goes, p and pa are the same.

Final output is video, DVD.

The thing I need is to be able to see the timecode on the clip. For some reason, all 24P clips show 00;00;00;00 as their start time, regardless of the actual timecode from the tape. The director has already logged all the tapes on a DV deck and marked the timecode of the segments he wants to use. Since Premiere is not showing me the correct start time, I have no way to locate the correct footage unless the director sits here beside me and watches it all again.
 
Just to be clear, you are attempting to use the timecode in and out points that the director (or scripty) has provided as their 'circled takes'. Is this correct?

If yes, then Premiere does allow for this to be captured using these points. If it is just a few takes per tape, then just enter the time code in and out point and then capture using the "Capture In/Out" option. You can add handles on each side to give you a bit of safety margin in the "Handles" field.

If you look at the clips in the projects bin, you will see two fields, "Media Start" and "Media End" that correspond to the time code recorded on the tape.

Perhaps I am not following your question, if that is the case, please attempt to clarify your specific issue.
 
Yes, I am attempting to locate the "circled takes" amoung the files that I have already captured.

One thing I didn't mention is that I have already captured the tapes. I have a matrox RTX.100 card and I used the matrox media tool to do the capture. It breaks the tape into individual files wherever the camera was started and stopped.

It is many takes across 17 tapes, and other footage, in addition to the circled takes is needed so I just captured everything.

I am trying to use the "media start" and "media end" values, but for the 24P clips, "media start" is always = 00;00;00;00 so it's useless.

It does not seems to be a problem with the way I captured, but with the way Premiere is interpreting the 24p files. 30p and 60i files captured the same way show the correct timecode in the "media start" column.
 
I just re-captured my test footage using the capture tool in premiere, and the timecode is fine. I guess it may be a bug in the Matrox capture tool.
It's taken me all day to narrow that down. I've posted something on the matrox forum, I hope there's a work-around, otherwise I have to delete and re-capture 17 tapes...
 
Your explanation is perfectly plausible. Premiere is known to capture correctly and retain proper time code, the only variable in your situation was the capture utility you choose to use. Assuming that it has no advantage over the default technique, I would recommend using Premiere exclusively to capture the footage.
 
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