LPX Bug: Incorrect SMPTE Input in Project Settings

There appears to be a bug when you try to set your Project Start OR Movie Start to specific SMPTE Numbers....here is how to recreate the issue.

1) Open any Logic Project

2) Go to "Project Settings" -> Synchronization

3) in the text field "plays at SMPTE", enter: "00:59:00:00"

4) The result in the text field is "00:59:00:02"

The "Frames" Column will always be set to "02" rather than "00"

This appears to occur when the following criteria is met:

- The Hours column can be set to any 2-digit number

- The Minutes column does NOT equal "00"

- The Seconds column equals "00"

- The Frames column equals "00"

This same behavior ALSO occurs in "Project Settings" -> "Movie" -> "Movie Start"

Current Workaround: if you enter a number that behaves as mentioned above, you can click the Down Arrow twice, which is located to the right of the SMPTE text field. This should manually solve the issue.

This has occured in all versions of LPX, including 10.0.2

Wasn't this an old bug? I'm not getting this behavior at all here in 10.0.2.

J.

Even if I'm not getting the behavior you mention in the project's settings, I do get it in the LCD and Gian SMPTE display...but for the subframes:

Still this sounds like an old bug and I think there was a workaround...Ski?

J.

Hmm, I am running 10.0.2, and am having the issue....Could it be a prefs thing? Maybe I should try tossing the preferences I'm the only one experiencing it.

In the screenshot you included above, you added "58" in the Seconds column, which does not trigger the issue.

Instead of "00:59:58:00", have you attempted to enter "00:59:00:00" ?

also, I have set Display -> Display Time As: "SMPTE/EBU without Subframes", with "Zeros as spaces" left unchecked.

Not sure if this is related or not.

Did someone mention my name?

This should only occur if your frame rate is set to 29.97 drop frame. With that frame rate it's perfectly normal not to be able to acquire a timecode number of 00:59:00:00 because in drop frame, that frame number doesn't exist.

However, with my frame rate set to 25 fps, I'm getting exactly the behavior you described in the synchronization pane.

I don't think it's a prefs thing. In fact, I wouldn't recommend trashing prefs in a situation like this. It's a bug.

Gonna play with this some more now...

[EDIT] OK, I played around with it some more. It's a bug afaic. The workaround is to enter the desired timecode number and then adjust it.

More proof that this is a bug and is related to Logic calculating the numbers at the wrong frame rate internally.

HH:MM:FF:SS.BB

In this screenshot I'm showing the sync pane as well as the transport. (Click on the pic to see the full image). Notice how, after I entered 00:59:00:00.00 in the sync pane that the both SMPTE displays show the added 02 frames. But more importantly, note that there's a semicolon displayed between the SS and FF digits in the transport's SMPTE readout. The semicolon is a convention used to indicate drop frame timecode, appearing in lieu of the normal colon separator between SS and FF.

That, my dear Logic friends, is what I'd call a BUG!

In the screenshot you included above, you added "58" in the Seconds column, which does not trigger the issue.

 

Instead of "00:59:58:00", have you attempted to enter "00:59:00:00" ?

I followed your steps (or I think I did, it was late) and since I couldn't recreate I tried something else. I posted the result of that.

However, I can recreate it now that it's morning and had breakfast!

@Ski, thanks for chiming in!

PS: Moving this to the appropriate forum.

J.

I'm seeing similar issues when changing the project start. I've submitted a bug report to Apple in the form of a screencast.

To anyone else facing this bug (or any bug for that matter) please report it to Apple. This one's a deal breaker for anyone working to picture!

My temporary workaround for this bug is:

• change project start time - SMPTE readout breaks showing incorrect TC and ; (drop frame notation)
  
• with any track record armed, hit the Record transport button - SMPTE readout is corrected
  
• immediately hit the Stop transport button

Punching into and out of record seems to fix the SMPTE readout any time it gets broken (e.g. if you try to scrub from the SMPTE readout). Under certain conditions it seemed that scrubbing time from a "Giant Time Display" didn't break the timecode whilst scrubbing from the SMPTE readout in the Main Transport always seems to break the timecode. I wasn't able to re-create this behaviour at the time of writing - scrubbing time with either readout breaks timecode in my current project. Only the keyboard commands for "Rewind/Forward one Frame" allow me to reliably scrub frame by frame.

I seriously hope this bug gets fixed sooner rather than later!

I can confirm a variation of this bug over here.

Looks like it's also affected by changing the bar 1 position in the Synchronization settings. For example, if I'm working on a cue in the middle of a movie, I will set the Bar 1 position to the timecode of that cue.

In that case, entering the timecode into the transport bar gets completely out of whack.

For instance...

1. Set frame rate to 23.976 to match my movie.

2. My movie starts with timecode 00:59:58:00, so in "Movie" preferences, set "Movie Start" to 00:59:58:00.

3. Cue starts at 01:26:51:02, so set Bar 1 position to that timecode in Synchronization settings.

4. Enter any timecode in the transport bar. For example, 01:30:00:00. When I hit Enter, Logic jumps to 01:54:38;02.

This is a total deal-breaker, since I have to manually scrub to get to the timecode location I need. Filed a bug with Apple.