Archive / Capture clips with wrong date and time

[Andrew Clark]

Hello people -

Need your insight / advice on this issue I have when I use the "Create Archive" function.

I'm creating archives of my DV and Analog (Hi-8) tapes.

I've noticed that some of my tapes that I've archived, there are a few clips that have the current date and time of when I did the archive; not when the footage was actually shot. But all the other clips seem to have the normal data of the actual date / time of when the footage was actually shot / recorded. And the footage / clips with this anomaly is not a clip that I shot days later either. I would shoot, stop, shoot, stop, etc... all within a span of a few minutes ... and it will be a clip within that time frame that somehow gets the wrong date / time attached to it.

I changed nothing during that short time span of shooting the footage ... and did not eject, rewind or fast forward the tape or change batteries, etc...

They aren't redundant or duplicate clips and they look fine otherwise. Just have the wrong date / time.


Here's my setup:

- Camcorders: I've recorded the footage using a Sony TRV99 (Hi-8), Canon XL1 and Sony VX1000. (Never interchanged tapes between cameras)

- Tape Stocks: (Sony, Panasonic, TDK, etc...)

- Capture Process:
* For the miniDV tapes: I'm using a Sony VX1000 and a Canon XL1 connected via Firewire to the Canopus ADVC110 ... which is connected to the MBP-RD 15" via the Thunderbolt to Firewire adapter.

* For the Hi-8 tapes: I'm using a Sony TRV99 connected to the Canopus ADVC110 via S-video & RCA (audio) cables ... which is connected to the MBP-RD 15" via the Thunderbolt to Firewire adapter.

(FYI ... I'm playing back the tapes in the camcorder they were originally shot with.)

- Open FCP X and click on the icon for "Import media from a connected device".

- Media Import window opens up, I then select my camera, click the play button icon, view the footage for a bit and then press the stop icon.

- Press "Create Archive" and it rewinds the tape in camera and starts the archiving process.

- After it finishes archiving, I either manually stop it (if there is no more footage before the end of the tape) or it stops the process and the camcorder automatically.

- Then I check the archive footage by selecting it under Camera Archives and look at the clips.

- This is where I view the clips (in List View) and see the date / time data .... and this is where I see the error on some clips.


Any ideas as to why this would be happening? Am I doing something wrong?

It's a pain in the butt and time consuming to have to figure out where the clip should "really" be in the footage of the whole tape.

Better yet, is there a way to have FCPX capture the tape import in just one big file instead of bunch of smaller clips ?

[Craig Seeman]

Have you tried going Firewire to Thunderbolt adaptor directly?
It's possible some of the metadata is "marginal" and getting lost.

Have you tried pulling the clips out of the camera archive and into a folder and checking them there?
The camera archive has a .plist which holds some metadata and that too might become corrupted.

I'm actually experiencing that with my Blackmagic camera. I create a Camera Archive and all the files seem to take on the metadata of the first clip (time code, duration, etc). So pull the files out individually and see if they become correct again.

[Andrew Clark]

Originally Posted by Craig Seeman

Have you tried going Firewire to Thunderbolt adaptor directly?
It's possible some of the metadata is "marginal" and getting lost.

** Yes, as I stated this in my (original) post. Besides, the only (input) ports on my 2012 MBP are Thunderbolt and USB 3.

Originally Posted by Craig Seeman

Have you tried pulling the clips out of the camera archive and into a folder and checking them there?
The camera archive has a .plist which holds some metadata and that too might become corrupted.

** I will give that a try; thanks for this tip!!!

Originally Posted by Craig Seeman

I'm actually experiencing that with my Blackmagic camera. I create a Camera Archive and all the files seem to take on the metadata of the first clip (time code, duration, etc). So pull the files out individually and see if they become correct again.

** Will do your suggestion. But mine happen sporadically; could be at the start, middle or end; no rhyme or reason to it occurring.


My thought is that the tapes have just plain lost that particular data at those points. I'm doing a workaround in my capturing process to avoid all this ... by using PPro CC 2014 on Windows. It's great because it captures the whole tape as ONE clip. (The Mac version can do this as well, but stops the capture process if it sees a blank (unrecorded) section of tape between clips.)


FYI, I received the below reply from a FCPX Product Manager -

"We do try to go into the DV packets during capture and pull out the original date of the capture that’s found in the bitstream.

However—The DV format spec does not require the original date be in the bitstream, and if it’s not there—we have no choice but to use the current date.

So, I can see how this could happen. Some of the footage has the date, and some doesn’t. If it’s there—it will be used, but we’re sometimes seeing it go missing."


So far, nobody has a definitive answer to this.

[Bill Davis]

I don't think you're doing anything wrong. I just think it's the various different recording systems from the various manufacturers encoding the date and time info in different configurations.

X is a database down deep. If you've ever tried to import records into a database, the field position and order is critical for the information getting imported into the correct fields. And something like an extra CR (carriage return) or an errant TAB can throw an individual record out of whack really easily.

It sounds like that's what's happening to you.

When you have a clip that's got bad info, you'll need to go into list view in X and figure out where the clip should sort and apply a manual timecode to sort it properly.

Remember, when these cameras were manufactured, video file databases didn't really exist as they do now. And certainly nothing like the complexity of the system in X.

That it even partially works over all those tapes is a minor miracle, IMO.

[Andrew Clark]

Originally Posted by Bill Davis

... X is a database down deep.

** Interesting; didn't know that.

Originally Posted by Bill Davis

... Remember, when these cameras were manufactured, video file databases didn't really exist as they do now. And certainly nothing like the complexity of the system in X. That it even partially works over all those tapes is a minor miracle, IMO.

** Agreed; seems like most of the NLE's are not so concerned about old school tape acquisitions anymore. But thank goodness I can still capture my old tape collections!!!