FCP X - cant display or edit using distance-from-beginning timecode edits

Question

Level 1

18 points

FCP X - cant display or edit using distance-from-beginning timecode edits

using FCP X 10.4.8 on modern Mac

project: create edits in FCP X based on VoiceOver narration in an MP3 file. Using both static images done Ken Burns style as well as short MOV clips as content to present a visual as the narrator speaks Chapter 1 of her new audiobook, output will be a MOV file...

issue: FCP X GUI's "clock" cannot seem to display in h/m/s as one might expect

instead it runs up to 30, then starts over at 1.

The VO narrator has instructed me to insert edit points based on distance-from-beginning h/m/s found in Quicktime Player.

How to view distance-from-beginning in h/m/s within FCP X 10.4.8?

Posted on Aug 9, 2020 7:18 AM

Reply

Answer 1

Aug 9, 2020 11:43 AM in response to NITEBOATER

What do you see in Final Cut Pro->Preferences->General, next to Time Display?

Reply

Answer 2

Tom Wolsky

Level 10

152,991 points

Aug 9, 2020 11:45 AM in response to NITEBOATER

First check what display you have set in FCP General preferences.

This is the default viewer display

The first number is hours, the second is minutes, the third is seconds, and the fourth is frames. In this video and yours there are 30 frames to the second. The next number you would see in the video 1:39:30:00. The time has gone from 29 seconds to 30 seconds.

If you are not seeing this please post a screenshot of what you are seeing.

Reply

Answer 3

Tom Wolsky

Level 10

152,991 points

Aug 9, 2020 7:27 AM in response to NITEBOATER

You can change the General preferences, but the display is showing H:M:S:F, which is frames, which is the 30 you see.

Reply

Answer 4

NITEBOATER Author

Level 1

18 points

Aug 9, 2020 11:51 AM in response to Luis Sequeira1

Hi Luis,

thank you for your suggestion. Guess I didn't interpret Tom's reply above quite right.

Yes, my setup was still setup to HH:MM:SS:FF, must be the default for FCP.

Not sure why but I completely glossed over the "seconds" preference setting, which Ive now changed to, this is what my Project needed.

Thanks for your suggestion!

Reply

Answer 5

NITEBOATER Author

Level 1

18 points

Aug 9, 2020 11:32 AM in response to Tom Wolsky

Just to be more clear, here are the steps I'm using to get my project going, again creating video for a audiobook narration file in MP3 format.

a. I read in my media files, including my mp3 audio file of spoken narration

b. I bring a few media files into the timeline - graphics and mov files

c. I type "home" on my keyboard - timeline playhead goes to zero

d. expected Viewer time readout should be zero - it is

e. drag the playhead now at home to the right slowly. Expected result - the time display below the Viewer should show seconds above 30 (ie, 45 seconds into project, 53 secs into project etc).

f. instead the behavior is seen to be a count up to 30, and then it resets back to 1. The Viewer time display does not seem to be displaying seconds, so how does one control it? I should be able to see exactly where I am in FCP in terms of h/m/s from the start of the project at all times, no?

Reply

FCP X - cant display or edit using distance-from-beginning timecode edits

Similar questions