Issue with timecode and P2 cards

smelni

smelni

Veteran
Ok - so an issue comes up with tapeless workflow and timecode.

We just wrapped principal photography on our feature and have about 40 hours of footage. Problem is that timecode wraps back to zero at the 24th hour. With tapes this isnt a problem since you have tape name and timcode to resolve any conflicts. However, with tapeless workflow, clips are not seated to a tape so how is the timecode conflict resolved.

To make it even worse - there is no way in Avid to give a clip from a P2 card a tape name. So Avid wont allow a manual relabeling to resolve the conflict.

Any thoughts on this?

sorry for the crossposts but got no responses in HVX forum
 
Wouldn't naming the P2 folders (like tapes) help out with this? Then you could name your bin clips accordingly and with text notes.
 
Its more complicated then that - the files should be able to have a tape name.

If you just name the P2 folders - Avid doesnt know about that - it imports them all the same.

And yes you can put them into different bins - but this doesnt solve the base problem of system clip identification. For example lets say you took the timeline to another system - you imported the timeline - then you need to pull in the correct clips from a set of hundreds of mxf files on that system. If you have wrap around timecode the system will not know which file a timecode belongs to - it will be ambiguous because those clips do not have a tape name. Moreover, you cannot add a tape name to those clips.

MODs from Avid - is there a solution for this - I am sure I am not the only person who has a project with more then 24 hours of P2 footage.
 
Ah, I see what you are saying. I bet there's a simple solution we're overlooking. Maybe MichaelP can answer this?
 
I was thinking about this some more . . .

Isn't there metadata that specifies which date the clip was recorded? So instead of a tape name, you could substitute the date recorded? With free run time code, wouldn't this solve the problem?
 
The issue is the metadata in the MXF file itself as it is being written. Being file based, there is no concept of a TAPE MOB... Because of this, a lot of the legacy workflows we have come to depend on are no longer there that we have become accustomed to - namely a tape with a unique name (forced to be unique within Avid's tape naming window). We are looking to add additional metadata at time of import that the user can add to the already created MXF files such as a tape name to facilitate some of these workflows. But that will be in a future release. A default state would be shoot date such as 060613 for today combined with a timecode would make it unique. But there is a need for an override to that - in a multicamera situation all sources would have the same same so the user needs to have control over the file name itself as far as source ID's are concerned.

There are still many things that need to be ironed out with file based workflows in general - regardless of whether they be P2 files or 2K/4K scans - The wold of files is coming on fast and we are looking at all the possible workflows that come with that - it's just taking some time -

Michael
 
But there is not even a time of import when dealing with P2 files because you never import them. You drop them in the dir and they are available - so I dont even know when you would rename the "tape" in that workflow even if you could

using the date and timecode could you do a matchback - that is could you have a timeline that was editing in a lower rex version and then have the timeline "find" the right files in the HD version
 
The new design would allow for an import - the media would stay native as a "copy" bu the designation to project and tape name identification would be done as part of the import.

And yes, once a tape name is declared, a low rez encode for offline with relink to HD for online would be possible although there is a chance that can be done sooner than later without a TAPE MOB ID.


Michael
 
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