Why is starting timecode default always 01:00:00:00?

The industry standard is for program to start at 1;00;00;00. What that number means is that this is the first hour of programming, or also associated with tape 1. 2;00;00;00 means hour two of programming, or tape 2. A lot of information is usually added BEFORE the 1;00;00;00 mark. Tapes are usually striped wth timecode to start at 00;58;00;00. First 30 seconds are black, then about a minute or 30 seconds of bard and tone, then black, then a slate for 5 or 10 seconds, then either more black, or a countdown.

I geuss you could change it to start at 00;00;00;00. It is in the preferences somewhere. Too lazy to go to my office and fire up my FCP system to check right now though. I am in the middle of watching the second episode of LOST.

The starting timecode is set in the Timeline Options tab of the Sequence Settings window.

There will be no negative consequences whatsoever. It's just a convention, as explained above. You can change it back at any time if you like.

"…any negative consequences…"

Only that: a) Those in the business are used to it, should you ever need to send out tapes of your work etc., and; b) The reason for the 01:00:00.00 starting TC convention is hinted at in Shane's post above- If your program TC starts at 00:00:00.00 and you need to lay down 2 mins of black & bars before that, your TC on tape will end up starting at 23:58:00.00. Some TC devices get awfully confused when the TC at the head of the tape is 23 hours after the actual program TC!

Hope that makes sense (-:

Also, here in the UK we use 10:00:00:00 as programme start time. This was chosen, as in the old days ⚠ when you were recording studio output you recorded "time-of-day" timecode, i.e. the timecode recorded is exactly the same as the current time of the recording (i.e. at 11.23AM you'd be recordine 11:23:00:00).

Studios started work at 10am, and never recorded straight away, so 10:00:00:00 start woud always indicate an edited tape.

Some stations I know use 05:00:00:00 timecode for promos and idents, so they can be clearly separated from programmes, which would have 10:00:00:00 for local and 01:00:00:00 for US programmes.

There's so much in TV tht's based on legacy practices!

Cheers

Steve

That's the way to go--less room for mistakes as you move forward.

And even if you didn't have to put anything before your program, how would your deck pre-roll back 6 seconds? It'd then be at 23:59:54:00 - after the time it's supposed to start and it'd freak out...

Patrick

"…how would your deck pre-roll…"

Exactly what I was trying to explain (though less efficiently) above, Patrick (-: