QuickTime 7.1 and timecode

[takev]

Hello everyone,

I just saw that QuickTime 7.1 was released, so I installed it right away. I also removed my BWFImporter plugin, just to see if QuickTime 7.1 handles BWF timecode natively.

And yes, it handles BWF timecode, but Final Cut Pro 4 does not handle it.

You can see the hexadecimal timecode by opening a BWF file in QuickTime player. Press cmd-J and enable the timecode track.

I've looked in the audio file after exporting it as a QuickTime file, and there is a new timecode format added; 'tc64', which would suggest that it uses the native 64 bit timecode format from the BWF file.

Could anyone check if Final Cut Pro 5 would handle this new timecode with QuickTime 7. I would love to know if my BWFImporter plugin is now obsolete or not. Maybe Final Cut Pro needs to be updated to handle this new format.

Cheers,

    Take

[Jeff Wexler]

Could anyone check if Final Cut Pro 5 would handle this new timecode with QuickTime 7. I would love to know if my BWFImporter plugin is now obsolete or not. Maybe Final Cut Pro needs to be updated to handle this new format.

Cheers,

    Take

I will see what I can do. I have just installed the upgrade to FinalCut Pro 5.1 on my son's computer. Anyone else here who already has FCP 5.0 or 5.1 running AND Quicktime 7.1 should try and check as well.

Regards,  Jeff Wexler

[Philip Perkins]

So we are hoping that we can skip the Sebsky step for making files for FCP?  So far Sebsky or BWF Import have made QT files w/ the correct BWF TC for me--is the idea that QT 7.1 might be able to do this conversion from  BWF on its own?  I sure they could get FCP to just read the BWF TC directly.....

thanks

Philip Perkins

[Tim Gray]

Just tried QT 7.1 and FCP 5.0.4 and it didn't seem to recognize it...

[takev]

Thank you Tim,

I guess they have to modify Final Cut Pro as well, before timecode in BWF will work.

I hope they will be able to do get it working.

Take

[bcopenhagen]

Could anyone check if Final Cut Pro 5 would handle this new timecode with QuickTime 7. I would love to know if my BWFImporter plugin is now obsolete or not. Maybe Final Cut Pro needs to be updated to handle this new format.

Cheers,

    Take

Take-

I tried the same process you did (open BWF file in QT 7.1, enable TC track, export as QT movie) and then imported into FCP 5.0.4.  No luck.

Brian

[takev]

Hello Brian,

You shouldn't have to export it to a QuickTime movie though, as Final Cut Pro is like QuickTime Player on stereoids.

But if what you did didn't work, I am sure reading a BWF file nativly doesn't work yet either.

Take

[Jeff Wexler]

Hello Brian,

You shouldn't have to export it to a QuickTime movie though, as Final Cut Pro is like QuickTime Player on stereoids.

Take

This is true. FinalCut Pro's native "engine" is Quicktime so there is no way that taking files and running them through Quicktime so that Quicktime in FCP will work. All versions of Final Cut use an imbedded specialized version of Quicktime and it is not easy for the user to discover what this is exactly (and no, don't attack Apple for this, Microsoft does the same thing with their media engine, Windows Media Video whatever --- WMV routines are used by developers of applications that need to handle video under Windows OS). The current version of FinalCut Pro is now v. 5.1 with the biggest apparent change is support for Intel Macs --- FCP 5.1 is now a Universal Binary. There may be other changes and as soon as I can get the time to test FCP 5.1 and BWF I will report back.

Regards,  Jeff Wexler

[takev]

Hello Jeff,

As a programmer I've been seeing much more what QuickTime is, but the documentation of Apple is very complicated and very unclear for a programmer like me and possibly it has something to do with my dyslexia (Although I find UNIX programmers manuals very easy to read, maybe the programmers documentation for Apple is not made by programmers.)

Anyway, QuickTime is a lot of things, I'll try to explain it in short here.

A QuickTime movie is a sort of an database of media-clips, it tells where each media-clip is on the timeline and in which track and which filters are in effect. Also it tells where the samples for the media-clips are stored and in which files. The QuickTime framework makes it relatively easy for a programmer to make mutations in this database, ie: adding, deleting and moving clips on the timeline.

The QuickTime framework (which can be found here: /System/Library/Frameworks/) is what is linked to an application that is created by a programmer. This framework contains a lot of services, such as playing a QuickTime movie, recording a QuickTime movie (Grabbing), reading and writing QuickTime movies, importing and exporting media files to and from QuickTime movies, editing QuickTime movies.

The QuickTime framework uses a lot of plug-ins, called QuickTime components to handle all stuff mentioned above where media and samples are involved. This includes audio and video codecs and file format importers and exporters and grabbers from cameras for example. The default components can be found here: /System/Library/QuickTime/, the components that are installed by other applications such as codecs for Final Cut Pro are installed in: /Library/QuickTime/

The QuickTime Player is a comparatively small application that uses the QuickTime framework, for playing and editing QuickTime movies. And work with importers and exporters to handle other files and the grabber for recording audio and video. When you download and install a new QuickTime player, you automatically have installed the new QuickTime framework as well.

Final Cut Pro is a much larger application than the QuickTime player, but is basically has the same function. It also uses the QuickTime framework to handle the same things. Final Cut Pro uses the QuickTime framework that is installed on the system by the QuickTime player. This is maybe why the QuickTime player installer is included with Final Cut Pro, to make sure that the correct QuickTime framework is installed on the system.

Cheers,

    Take