[Solved - User error!] Video track numbering and Clip Paste

I know that I am going to regret posting what is likely to be an issue relating to be a newbie - but will will risk the wrath just in case this is an error (and because some of the functionality is likely between manual Resolve 14 and Resolve 15 meaning I wont know if its a bug for a long time).

+) I notice that when you choose a video track - you get a red box around it (eg for Control-Y to select all clips after your current playhead position) ==> Expected result

+) Adding video 'Track' ==> you can still select Video tracks

+) Adding video 'Tracks' ==> you can No Longer select a video track (ie NO RED BOX around it).
Note : Reloading the project resets this behaviour (ie draws a box around the previously selected track number)

+) Also (I've been trying to find any picture in the Resolve manual that has anything other than video or track 1 selected) - If you have two video tracks - and select video 2 ... you end up with V1 video 2 / V1 video 1 .
I was left puzzled he significance of 2 x V1's (I am sure I will find this out later in the manual).

+) When you Lock Video 1, and select Video 2 (red box around it on left hand side) - I was hoping that when you PASTE a clip .. it might insert into Video 2 (which has a V1 in a red box on the left side of the screen).
What happens in nothing. It only paste into the Bottom most track at the current playhead position

+) When a track is Locked - I would have thought you would be able to click and Drag on a clip in timeline to make a duplicate copy of the clip, and and drag to another video track.

As these rudimentary - I am guessing this is a newbie error - but have not found anything in the manual (yet) to convince me either way.

ATTACHMENT 1 : There are two 'V1's
ATTACHMENT 2 : There are two 'A1's - AND it is no longer possible to highlight a Video track (for control-Y selections)

AJ

There have been issues in the past, being unable to select a target/destination video track by mouse clicking (not yet seen in b6, btw). Using the keyboard shortcut sometimes works in lieu of the mouse. If the shortcut doesn't work, double click any timeline clip and that should reset the selector.

Where a pasted clip goes depends on the state of track selectors. If you have 4 tracks and want to paste a clip from track 1 to track 4, turn off the track selectors on tracks 1-3.

The temporary renumbering of the target track to v1 or a1 is the way it's always been. Why, I don't know.

[Shrinivas Ramani]

Your destination tracks (V1, A1, A2 etc with red boxes) determine which tracks your inserted clips go to if you use the Insert action/hotkey or overlay.

You can drag them up or down to the tracks you desire - and obviously the presence and number of these red boxes reflect the currently selected media, so if you can't select a video track it just means there are no video tracks in the selected media pool clip, and the numbering (if you have multiple) determine the ordering of your tracks (A2 below A1 or vice versa)

John & Shrinivas,

Thankyou for chiming and helping me understand what is supposed to happen (and how you can get it unstuck).

What I understand now is:

+) If you drag a CLIP on to INSERT_ACTION_HOTKEY -> It uses the Audio & Video track highlighted.
+) If you use Edit : Insert -> It uses the Audio & Video track highlighted.
+) If you use Edit : PASTE INSERT -> The Video track that is used is SEMI random. Audio uses the highlighted (red box) track.
+) If you use Edit : PASTE -> The Video track that is used is SEMI random. Audio uses the highlighted (red box) track.

REPRODUCING the bug where the VIDEO and AUDIO track (red box) both vanish

I did this by inserting Track, then Tracks, then Subtitles, Track Tracks : Deleted unused tracks for a couple of mins and then broke.

+) I tried John's suggestion (double click either on a Clip or the V1 Video on the left) -> This did not work.
+) The first thing that I found worked was : Edit : Insert -> The AUDIO and VIDEO highlight reappear.

Attachments:

1) Shows the screen when you CANNOT highlight a VIDEO or AUDIO track
2) Shows how the CURRENTLY selected VIDEO and AUDIO track are shown after INSERTing a clip.

AJ

[John] "The temporary renumbering of the target track to v1 or a1 is the way it's always been. Why, I don't know."

Thankyou for that John.

I have been somewhat puzzled by this - especially as in places the manual refers to the lowest number track.

@Shrinivas : I am GUESSING this is a simple bug to fix, and that seasoned RESOLVE users understand that when there are two VIDEO TRACKs both called V1 - or two AUDIO tracks called A1 - that they this is a 'feature'.

Side Note : When I was trying to reproduce the issue where no track gets highlighted - I tried 'add Subtitle track' -> and was somewhat confused when NOTHING happens, and not warning message is given.
This may well be that I haven't reached the part of the manual that explains under what conditions adding of subtitle track is permitted - but if this is not a bug - a help message explaining why this is not permitted could be of use (to those also new to Davinici).

AJ

The red box selects the timeline destination track and the number inside the red box indicates the Source channel (V1 A1 A2 A3 etc) which will be edited onto that track.

[Shrinivas Ramani]

Antony, this feature has been behaving as intended since DaVinci Resolve 12.

http://documents.blackmagicdesign.com/D ... Manual.pdf

Pages 292, 332-335, 366 clearly show what the intended functions of the track destination controls are meant to be.

Shrinivas.

Thankyou for directing me to the manual references that related to Track numbering.

I will try and lay out more comprehensively what I had previous noted - and then follow this with a suggestion.

WHAT HAPPENS AT THE MOMENT

1) When there is a DESTINATION track - there are two indicators.
i) The track will either have an ORANGE BOX drawn around / or a LIGHT GREY background
ii) The NUMBER of a video track will be RENUMBERED to 'V1'.

2) In ATTACHMENT 1 : A new track has be created. That track is called V2 - however,
when it is selected - V2 is renamed to V1.

3) In ATTACHMENT 2 : The manual was not able to refer to track V2 directly without further clarifying that V2 is actually V1 in the screenshot.


THOUGHTS

+) I CANNOT see any benefit in changing the DESTINATION track to V1.
Is there a hidden reason that I missing why this renumbering occurs?

+) When NEW user adds and selects a NEW TRACK - would it not be less confusing them to see the new track be called V2 - rather than sometimes V1 and sometimes V2?

+) Even if the policy had been to rename the destination track to VD - it would avoid ambiguity (because there would NEVER be two tracks with the same name). HOWEVER - I would again ask - would renaming the DESTINATION track be required (as it always has an ORANGE BOX around it or a LIGHT GREY background).

SUGGESTION

+) The user always knows which track is the DESTINATION because of the ORANGE BOX or LIGHT GREY background.
+) It is NOT necessary to rename the DESTINATION track.
+) This seems like historical 'FEATURE'. Its removal would reduce newcomer confusion.

AJ

Caveat : It is entirely possible that I am missing something - in which case I can only apologise.

[Shrinivas Ramani]

I think you've misunderstood.

Track indices are numbers without the highlights. They're just track numbers. You can't "interact" with them in the conventional sense.

Track destination controls look like track indices with orange highlights. In a nutshell, they match source indices to target indices for setting up quick edit operations.

Say I want my source audio channel #1 to go to A3, channel #2 ('A2') to go to A6 in the timeline and so on. To get this, I drag the destination indicators to A6... or click on an empty track index to set the destination there. If I don't want a noisy source inserted, I can click on its destination index and turn it off.

The number of destinations matches the number of source tracks available for insertion - so 1V 6A for multi-channel recordings, 0V 1A for stereo wave files and so on. The destination indices show this. They have nothing to do with the timeline indices that they overlay.

For example, to insert cuts from a long reference 5.1 clip, I set the destinations correctly, mark I, O extents, F9, another extents, F9, play a bit, select another bit, F9... and in a few minutes, I have 25 rough cuts all headed to the right destination tracks. The manual gives a more context-specific examples where they are useful.

Antony, I think you have misunderstood.

As per my previous post: The red box selects the timeline destination track and the number inside the red box indicates the Source channel (V1 A1 A2 A3 etc) which will be edited onto that track. Therefore the currently selected timeline track number indicates the SOURCE track V1, V2, A1, A2 etc that will be edited to the selected timeline track. It works VERY differently to other editing software.

Thankyou for your time and insights Peter & Shrinivas.

I can see now that I have not used an editor before with this type of functionality.

I will update this title of this thread to indicate it is solved.

Thankyou Again,
AJ