MXF Files not sorted by timecode in Media Tool

M

mckayview

Member
In XpressPro 5.5 my HVX-originated P2/MXF files show up all mixed up, i.e. not following timecode order. Thus I have clips from one shooting day mixed with those of others and it's a complete mess to sort them.
I searched the help, the manual, the web, but cannot find a tool or setting in Avid to sort them by timecode. Any hints?
Or is there something wrong with my handling timecode on the P2 card? I have it in rec run, I let it roll for all the shooting on one subject.
Still the master files shows up in the media tool in Avid strictly sorted by TIME of day, regardless of the date, in this way awkwardly mixing timecodes, and dates.
 
go to the text view in media tool - then you can right click on the timecode column and sort by it
 
Thanx a lot, that was helpful. It worked and sorted by timecode. But still there are some freaky clips left from day 1 that show up here and there among the clips of day 2, as in fact they have timecodes that are in line with those of day 2.
I'm puzzled - do I mishandle timecode on the P2 cards ( I actually never touched the TC preset in the HVX recording menu, but reformatted only after uploading to laptop and transferring the files to the Avid System).
 
your timecode might be set at free run - you want rec run so that it runs only when recording and then you wont have a conflict until you wrap timecode (after 1 frame shy of 24 hours)
 
Nope, smelni the timecode is set on rec run. But I analyzed the problem closer and found that Avid sorts by timecode perfectly in the , brief, text and script view mode and it's possible to work like that. But in frame view mode the clips are still mixed, even if I restart Avid and redo everything after setting the display to sort by timecode.
So I can work, but I'm still puzzled: do you have a clue what the heading "Creation date" refers to? It neither matches the actual creation date and time of the clips in the camera, nor the creation of the files in the Windows systems when I copied them from the P2 cards. Avid seems to have some way to go for real implementation of the P2 stuff in an ergonomic workflow inside their program.
By the way: the 24 hours issue timecode conflicts doesn't apply to my case as I never have that many shooting hours (working in news).
 
that is as intended in the frame view I beleive - you can move and sort in the frame view to facilitate storyboard editing where you drag a bunch of clips into the timeline and it places them from the order in the frame view.

For me - creation date always has beent he date and time I shot the clip and it is accurate. Maybe your camera time is set wrong OR whatever process you are using to copy files are corrupting the date stamp

P2 footage behaves just like any other footage once its in avid - except for being able to assign a tape name (which would allow a low rez offline) - now that is a big issue.
 
That's what I thought the creation date should be, but it doesn't match (the actual shooting time).
The time in the HVX is set right.
I'll have to keep monitoring that to find out where the strange creation times come frome.
I copy with windows explorer from P2 to notebook and from there to external disk and workstation where I process in Avid.
Thanx anyway for your nice help, didn't know about this frame view feature.
 
The creation date and time issue: I found out that my Avid (XPress Pro 5.5) always seems to add two hours to the actual creation date that's written on the P2 card.
So if the clip property says 21.30, the Avid creation time in the media tool is 23.30!
Setting different time zones in the camera doesn't affect this. Avid always sees the clip property time as + 2 hours.

Bearing this in mind one doesn't get confused too much, but wouldn't it be nice to have the real creation time (the P2 viewer sees it correctly, why not Avid)?

I tried to find a setting in Avid that modifies this.
No luck.

Any clues?
 
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