Not recognizing SMPTE/EBU timecode

Red Prince wrote on 6/10/2018, 8:37 PM

Well, I thought 🔮 Vegas Pro sported multicamera capabilities, which would automatically align a number of audio and video clips based on the SMPTE timecode, which has been around for about 50 out of my 68 years. 👴 Was I wrong? 😞

I created two test audio (.wav) files, both having the good ole LTC (linear time code, SMPTE) in the left channel and my voice in the right. I asked Vegas to Tools / Multicamera / Synchronize Media Timecode to Align Events, just to be smitten by Vegas, which claimed that, Some media did not have valid offset information and were skipped. 👀 And by some it meant all, even though both had perfectly valid LTC in the audio itself. 😱

Well, I ran it through Tentacle Timecode Tool, which removed the audio LTC and replaced it by the more modern bext chunk, as specified by the EBU Broadcast Wave Format. And here you can see Vegas smiting me again (at the end, the video shows both files do, indeed, have the bext chunk, which is quite empty, except for the timecode information!):

(This is in 4k because it is just a recording of my 4k monitor, but if it seems smudgy on smaller size screens, it just acts exactly the same as I described above for when I tried it with the timecode recorded in the left channel of each audio.)

And this shows Vegas media properties show the option to use the timecode grayed out in the first test file (the second one had it grayed out as well):

This was in the current version of Vegas Pro 15, as can also be seen in the video.

So, is this a bug or am I missing something?

Back to post

Comments

Red Prince wrote on 6/15/2018, 6:27 PM

To delete the empty space you can select a region of the timeline and enable auto-ripple (Ctrl+L) and press delete. Don't forget to disable this option afterwards.

That was it! Thank you very much!

Red Prince wrote on 6/15/2018, 11:12 PM

But when I check its properties under Vegas (Pro 15, current), it does not know about that metadata:

So, what am I still missing?

So, Marco . . . Are you going to answer, or do you consider this a closed case? As shown above, Vegas seems oblivious to the timecode inside the .mov file. Is there really no way to have Vegas place it in its proper position on the Vegas time line, just as you showed me it can be done with a sound wave???

The timecode is in the file, as seen by MediaInfo:

So, do we have a bug here, or am I still missing something?

Please reply before I make my next YouTube video where I show how bad Vegas is with the timecode that is the industry standard, and has been for many decades. I’d much rather make a tutorial explaining how easy it is to sync a number of videos and audios in Vegas (as it is in Adobe software and even the free Resolve), than make a tutorial on all the complicated steps needed to take to accomplish it in the Rube Goldberg machine called Vegas. Either way I will make the tutorial because I think this is something an NLE with the word Pro in its name must be able to do, whether on its own or with a complicated workaround.

JanVanBekkum wrote on 9/2/2024, 12:56 AM

Vegas 21 still has the same issue as the versions mentioned in this post. My objective is to sync video from differen cameras. I have found that the following method works relatively well.

I have the add-on Vegasaur already installed. It contains hundreds of add-ons for Vegas that Magix should have implemented long ago.

I synchronize one clip from both camera's manually, using audio. I now can calculate the offset between cameras. I keep one camera as reference camera. Keep in mind that the modification date is the moment that the files is closed, not opened. This means that you have to calculate from the end of the clip, not from the beginning.

I use Digikam for management of all my images and video clips. In Digikam I shift the Modification date with the offset just calculated.

I import clips from both cameras in Vegas.

With Vegasaur | Quick Properties | Placement | Sync by | File Modified date I now can synchronize the clips using the file modification date/time.

The manual action remaining is to move all clips back their own length to correct for the modification date storing closing of the file. A clip of 5 seconds is moved back 5 seconds etc.

Vegasaur also has an option to synchronize based on recording time/date, but that gave results I didn't understand.