View Full Version : Captured & Converted Clips all have new timecode--How to Fix?


Jack Walker
October 18th, 2009, 12:45 PM
All the clips I have captured have new timecode starting at 00:00:00:00. I need the original timecode. What am I doing wrong?

Here are the details:
Cineform Prospect HD
Premiere Pro CS3
HDV off of a Canon XH-A1
DV off of a Canon XH-A1
XDCAM EX files, transferred and converted with HDLink.

I have tried capturing inside Premiere Pro CS3 and outside Premiere, directly with HDLink... but all clips start with new timecode?

How do I capture and get the existing timecode?

(Or is the real timecode hidden somewhere?)

Thanks!

Jack Walker
October 20th, 2009, 10:12 AM
Since there are no answers, does that mean that using Cineform means I lose my original timecode for XDCAM EX and HDV?

So what is the workaround... after I transcode the video to Cineform, do I reset the timecode to match the original by hand in another program?

Or is this an issue I need to open a ticket for with Cineform support?

Ian Lewis
October 20th, 2009, 11:21 AM
My recently converted (in HDLINK) XDAM EX Cineform files have the original camera timecode. I remember the 00.00 problem, but I seem to remember it was the subject of a Cineform fix a few builds ago.

I'm using Prospect 4K, PremPro CS3, Win7 64

Jack Walker
October 20th, 2009, 01:35 PM
Thank you... I must be doing something wrong, if you do get the original timecode.

I am using the latest version just out a couple of days ago. I'll look for a check box or something I'm missing.

At least I now know I should be getting the original timecode. Some of the things I shoot are dance rehearsals and classes, where a lot of the video all looks the same. I rely on the time-of-day timecode to tell me in what order the action in the clips occurred. Other times I make a note of the timecode to tell me which takes I want to look at first.

Tim Bucklin
October 20th, 2009, 04:19 PM
Hi Jack,

The XDCAM EX conversions in HDLink should preserve timecode. Make sure the file structures are preserved so that you have the XML with the corresponding MP4 in the same directory.
Are you getting a "Timecode read failed. Resulting file may not have correct timecode." error in HDLink?

HDV captures in HDLink will not preserve timecode, but will in Premiere Pro.
DV conversions will not have timecode.

Laurence Janus
May 26th, 2011, 06:04 AM
I was searching for information about timecode and I came across this very old thread, just in case anyone has the same problem I thought I would reply. To get automatically split DV footage with date/time in the filename I used a great little program called WinDV (http://windv.mourek.cz/)