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atfaurote
Known Participant
March 12, 2019
Question

Mismatched time code between Mac and PC

  • March 12, 2019
  • 2 replies
  • 727 views

We recently started the switch for my small team from Macs to PCs. The one project that we've had span the transition revealed a bizarre issue.

The edit was built on our Mac machines, but when opened on a PC the media's time code values to not match. For whatever reason, the PC has each piece of media starting several minutes earlier than the Mac, which renders the entire timeline worthless. Over half of the clips in the edit don't even have media at the time code referenced according to the PC.

I could go in and modify the start time code of each clip by adjusting its properties, but that's going to be a nightmare to do every time.

From what I can tell, everything about the interpretation matches (both 23.976).

This topic has been closed for replies.

2 replies

MyerPj
Community Expert
Community Expert
March 12, 2019

Quick question, are you using the same PP version on the Mac's and PCs? At some point PP started working with variable frame rate and I think there were some issues regards that?

Jeff Bugbee
Community Expert
Community Expert
March 12, 2019

I'm not exactly sure if this will solve your issue but check your timeline start time:

atfaurote
atfauroteAuthor
Known Participant
March 12, 2019

Thanks, Jeff.

To be more clear, it isn't the sequence time code that is off. It is the meta data on the source clips that is incorrect.

So, for example, if file xyz123.mxf starts at 16:32:14:02 on the Mac, it will start at 16:40:23:14 on the PC (these numbers are made up, I haven't done the math yet to see if drop frame drift accounts for the actual difference.

So it isn't that the sequence as a whole doesn't match, it's that every individual piece of media from the camera is using the wrong segment.

Jeff Bugbee
Community Expert
Community Expert
March 12, 2019

Next step I'd try is to compare the same clip on your Mac vs your PC with the following command.