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  • Hey all, just changed over the backend after 15 years I figured time to give it a bit of an update, its probably gonna be a bit weird for most of you and i am sure there is a few bugs to work out but it should kinda work the same as before... hopefully :)

MetaCheater Utility

New Web Page for MetaCheater

New Web Page for MetaCheater

I've placed MetaCheater on a simple website, so that there is now just one address to link to, and it will no longer change every time there is a new version.

The New Site for downloading the latest version is:

http://www.staticpictures.com/metacheater
 
Avid error message

Avid error message

Anybody else getting "An syntax error was detected while trying to interpret a column specification" when attempting to import the ALE file. Tried it on Symphony and Xpress Pro...same result.

Cheers

Michael
 
REDALERT edge code?

REDALERT edge code?

The TC I am getting to the QT seems to be time of day and not the edge code. at the bottom right corner of redalert are present two TC, the one on the left seems to be the source TC ( I was using edge code while shooting) the one on the right has a weird connection to the time the file was copied from the red drive to my systems.This TC is the one I get with the metacheater utility.
Am I missing any obvious setting in redalert or metacheater?
 
I believe RED stores two timecode tracks...
Edge Code - which is TC starting 01:00:00:00 on each reel and running REC RUN from there.
TOD Code - Time of Day which is a free running counter in the camera. The clips will have start timecode relating to the time of day they were shot.

I prefer TOD there is much less chance of timecode collision between reels. So if you get your numbering mixed up somehow, there is still a good chance you'll be able to find what you're looking for with the timecode which will be unique per camera per day.
 
v1.2 posted

v1.2 posted

new version of MetaCheater (1.2) posted at
www.staticpictures.com/metacheater

A minor new feature added that is not specific to Red projects.
Plus bug fixes.
Also the Red tape name option now defaults to using the filename.
 
Cogito -

Did you look into the PAL SD timecode conversion? It should recalculate from 00:00:00:00.

Michael
 
Do we really want anyone to cut films in Pal anymore :)

I have looked at it, but I need to clarify a couple of things. I'll talk to you about offline

MichaelP said:
Cogito -

Did you look into the PAL SD timecode conversion? It should recalculate from 00:00:00:00.

Michael
Click to expand...
 
a minor new feature... pfff... cognito you just kept alive many many avid sd editorial systems... I was going to post my excel script that did that but you beat me to it. When are you coming to LA so I can buy you dinner ;-)
 
Jeff Brue said:
a minor new feature... pfff... cognito you just kept alive many many avid sd editorial systems... I was going to post my excel script that did that but you beat me to it. When are you coming to LA so I can buy you dinner ;-)
Click to expand...

I was in LA last week.. just got home this morning :turned:
 
Sycophant said:
I believe RED stores two timecode tracks...
Edge Code - which is TC starting 01:00:00:00 on each reel and running REC RUN from there.
TOD Code - Time of Day which is a free running counter in the camera. The clips will have start timecode relating to the time of day they were shot.

I prefer TOD there is much less chance of timecode collision between reels. So if you get your numbering mixed up somehow, there is still a good chance you'll be able to find what you're looking for with the timecode which will be unique per camera per day.
Click to expand...

I just noticed that there's overlap in TOD TC between clips when the framerate is higher than the project rate (Which makes sense). But wouldn't this be a bigger problem when conforming with TOD TC instead of Edge Code TC?
 
rebusfilm said:
I just noticed that there's overlap in TOD TC between clips when the framerate is higher than the project rate (Which makes sense). But wouldn't this be a bigger problem when conforming with TOD TC instead of Edge Code TC?
Click to expand...

That is an interesting point. In that case it would be quite possible for two clips to include the same TOD timecode.

However Edge code will always repeat on every reel. So if you have two reels with the same name, and both have a clip C001, then that clip is almost guaranteed to have a clip from 01:00:00:00 to 01:00:05:00 for example, making it difficult/impossible to accurate determine which of the duplicate reels that clip may have originated from. Whereas even with overlapping timecode from offspeed footage, it's unlikely that two card would have a clip with the same C-number also having the same TOD timecode segment.
 
New MetaCheater (1.3) available

New MetaCheater (1.3) available

I've uploaded a new version of MetaCheater (v1.3)

It contains extra features and some bug fixes.

It now contains a 'Camroll' field. Camroll can be used as a tape source in an Avid EDL. In the RED options you can now have both the R3D's Reel name (ie A001) AND the full filename (ie A001_C001_080402) in the ALE in columns that will be able to be used as EDL source tapes. So you can decide later what sort of EDL you want to make - one that just refers to the Reel name, or one that refers to the full filename. (note: you have to download the special RED16 EDL template from the metacheater website if you want to make EDLs that use the full filename).

There is also now a setting for how the PAL 24 to 25 TC adjust button operates.
 
Timecode overlaps

Timecode overlaps

Thats why we always use edgecode...TOD is a PITA as it is easy to end up with duplicate originator and TC on different frames. Edgecode sorts itself out properly when high record frame rates are used. It would be nice if in camera you could set the edgecode manually rather than always start at 1:00:00:00. This would give additional protection from same reel/TC possibilities.


Cheers

Michael
 
Yeah, it's a problem.

Our recent music video would have been stung in either scenario.

Using TOD, as we did, there was one group of shots that was wrongly linked as the timecode was duplicated on multiple 100fps takes.

Using Edgecode would have been a problem in that we had duplicate reels, where the time of day code was all that we could really rely on to separate the takes.
 
Avid will track both edgecode and TOD timecode, so export whatever is needed for the situation at hand.
 
Metacheater does nothing to the sound. The issue is that the 24bit audio is backed into 32bits which the Avid does not like. RED is aware of the issue.

Michael
 
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