BUG? Video SMPTE offset doesn't save

[Simon R.]

I am doing some scoring to picture and instead of having to start all my arrangements in weird places of the sequences, like 1067 bars in, I want to move the video to whereever I need it, so I can start on bar 1 on each cue. However, the "Movie Start" setting seems to get lost each time I re-open a project and I have to manually reset it to bar 1. Is this a wellknown bug in Logic Pro? Is there another way to move your video to where you want it, that Logic remembers?

 

Here's another place with room for improvement. In Cubase I could just make a cut in the video and move it to bar 1. Hopefully Logic 8 will have better video facilities.

[David Nahmani]

Not a known bug, and it works fine here. If you save your song your movie start setting should be saved with it.

 

Try resetting the preferences file? Make sure you keep a backup. ~/Library/Preferences/Logic/com.apple.logic.pro

[guavadude]

Hey David,

when you trash the prefs, do you need to re-import your key commands?

I've had some issues before where I thought I should trash prefs, but I'm not sure what I'll lose.

thanks

[David Nahmani]

You can choose Logic Pro > Preferences > Initialize all except Key Commands.

 

If you do it manually, drag com.apple.logic.pro to the desktop and then reopen Logic and import your key commands from the key commands window.

 

It's a good idea to have a backup of a non-corrupt preference file, as it contains all your key commands and preference settings. Then you can just drag and replace the corrupt one when necessary.

[guavadude]

Thanks, again....I'm backing up now!!

[Simon R.]

I deleted the prefs file, it's the same thing. I don't think we are talking about the same function. In the movie window, it says "Movie start" and then shows SMPTE code or bar - THAT is the one being set to bar 1 (or the SMPTE start code at bar 1) each time you reopen the project. You can't "push" the movie out of the arrange boundaries, by e.g. starting your arrange at SMPTE 0:10:00:00 and then tell Logic to start the video file at 0:07:00:00 - that will work fine, until you reload the project. Then the movie will start at 0:10:00:00.

[guavadude]

Simon,

are you using the SMPTE view offset in File/Song Settings/Synchronization?

If I have music starting at bar 2.4.0, then I enable SMPTE offset and set 2.4.0 at SMPTE 1:00:00:00. I then set my movie offset on the movie window to 1:00:00:00 and it will start where the music starts.

This way if the movie gets offset by a tempo change or whatever, I know to reset it to 1:00:00:00 and it's right back on with the music.

The offset enabled in the Synchro window gets saved with the seq.

[Simon R.]

Simon,

are you using the SMPTE view offset in File/Song Settings/Synchronization?

If I have music starting at bar 2.4.0, then I enable SMPTE offset and set 2.4.0 at SMPTE 1:00:00:00. I then set my movie offset on the movie window to 1:00:00:00 and it will start where the music starts.

This way if the movie gets offset by a tempo change or whatever, I know to reset it to 1:00:00:00 and it's right back on with the music.

The offset enabled in the Synchro window gets saved with the seq.

 

Yes, e.g. I have set "Bar position 1 1 1 1" plays at SMPTE "0:11:18:0". I haven't enabled "Enable separate SMPTE view offset" if that is what you mean. But that only changes what is displayed, so you can have SMPTE 11,18,0 and still show "0:00:00" right? It doesn't move the movie file anywhere, no matter what these settings are at. I need to push the movie say, 5 minutes "to the left" of where bar 1 is, so I can begin scoring 5 minutes into a movie file. How do you handle that?

[guavadude]

I'm only doing :30 spots so that method works for me.

In your case, I would probably open up the movie in QuickTime (get the pro edition for $25 so you can edit movies), trim the front of the movie or cut it into different smaller movie cues and work with those.

[David Nahmani]

I deleted the prefs file, it's the same thing. I don't think we are talking about the same function. In the movie window, it says "Movie start" and then shows SMPTE code or bar - THAT is the one being set to bar 1 (or the SMPTE start code at bar 1) each time you reopen the project. You can't "push" the movie out of the arrange boundaries, by e.g. starting your arrange at SMPTE 0:10:00:00 and then tell Logic to start the video file at 0:07:00:00 - that will work fine, until you reload the project. Then the movie will start at 0:10:00:00.

 

I have no problem doing it here, and know for a fact everybody does that on a daily basis, so it does work.

 

Adjust your movie start time so the movie starts way before 1111, save and reload, and the movie won't move.

 

Try to determine if this might be song corruption or preference corruption.

[Simon R.]

Chopping the movie into separate little chunks for each scene, isn't a solution. It's way too cumbersome and creativity killing since I could later decide to make two sequences into one, start one earlier/later/whatever. It is just not a solution for scoring to picture (unless it's for commercials, like you say with a very fixed length and start+end point).

 

David, I think we are not talking about the same issue. Actually, you can't MOVE the movie to start before bar 1. However, you can tell Logic that bar 1 = SMPTE xx:xx:xx:xx, and then say that the movie begins at an earlier SMPTE code, thus moving it beyond bar 1. As already mentioned I tried deleting the preferences, and it happens in every project I do, no matter if it's old or newly created or whatever. The timecode input at "Movie Start" in the movie window isn't recalled. On another note, I am outputting video via Blackmagic Intensity, and the sound option for the movie can be set to "Mute", "External" or "System sound" and that setting isn't recalled correctly either (sometimes). That could be the Blackmagic drivers though so I am not blaming Logic. The movie offset thing however, I can't blame anything but Logic:) Maybe this "bug" / issue is dependent on some other settings which are different in your setup, I don't know, but at least I can say for sure that this is not how it is supposed to work on my setup.

[guavadude]

"On another note, I am outputting video via Blackmagic Intensity, and the sound option for the movie can be set to "Mute", "External" or "System sound" and that setting isn't recalled correctly either (sometimes)."

 

I have this problem as well so I don't think it's your rig.

[David Nahmani]

Actually, you can't MOVE the movie to start before bar 1.

 

Well, you should be able to, that's what I'm trying to explain:

[David Nahmani]

On another note, I am outputting video via Blackmagic Intensity, and the sound option for the movie can be set to "Mute", "External" or "System sound" and that setting isn't recalled correctly either (sometimes). That could be the Blackmagic drivers though so I am not blaming Logic. The movie offset thing however, I can't blame anything but Logic

 

That could be your problem. Try to output the movie to a window and see if the behavior changes. Like I said I do not experience any of those behaviors and I always output to window.