Read TC from window burn ref movie

It would be really cool if, given a reference movie with window burn, Resolve could read the SRC TC and use it in the clips it created from scene detect.

That way one could reconnect source clips, export an EDL, etc.

Not sure if my situation is rare, but it would be just the ticket for me just now. Of course it won’t exist in time for that but wondering if it would be useful for other people/situations.


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[Shrinivas Ramani]

Reconnecting clips and exporting EDLs are possible using built in functionality from Resolve. Relinking does use the source timecode among other source properties.

The CSV files created from exporting the Edit index includes source timecodes on a per-edit basis.
To create an export, switch to the timeline, right click the timeline in the media pool, choose Timelines > Export > Index.

You can then extract/use the source timecodes and other fields from the appropriate columns and use them in diff/comparison/sort operations.

As Peter mentions, the timeline comparison tool built into Resolve can serve as a good starting point, both for visual timeline diffs and for a tabular diff-index. In the Resolve manual, see Chapter 34, page 606.

The case I’m talking about is with a reference movie that has only REC TC. So doing a scene detect on it doesn’t result in clips with SRC TC.

If said reference movie has a data burn though - with the SRC TC - then the info is available - just as a window burn rather than in the clips’ TC.

I’m suggesting a way to reconstitute the original sequence using only the ref movie with window burn.


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[Shrinivas Ramani]

In that case, you'd be better off exporting stills from the first frame of each cut, and using OCR tools to interpret source timecodes.

That’s precisely what I’m asking for to be automated.


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It would be really cool if, given a reference movie with window burn, Resolve could read the SRC TC and use it in the clips it created from scene detect.

I use a variation of this all the time for remastering feature films. We pull along a reference movie of the last approved version and I use it as a visual reference to make sure the new version is at least in the ballpark in terms of color, contrast, and levels. I change the reference movie timecode using Clip Attributes in order to get it in sync with the current timeline. In some cases, we have to re-export the reference movie in order to get it at the right speed: foreign versions sometimes come in at 25fps (or some weird off-speed rate), so we have to laboriously try different speeds until it precisely syncs with our 24fps timeline.

I generally re-render the reference movie to burn in source timecode and the file name, and that way I don't forget, "what am I looking at? The reference or the new version?" (I tend to confuse easily, especially when I'm 12 hours or more into a color session.)

Yup I’m trying just that approach right now.
The audio (of course?) is what’s derailing me. I’ve got about 18 tracks of audio and, while it’s not too bad to do this eye matching by hand with timecode guiding the way, adjusting all the attached audio clips is daunting to say the least.

What I really want - and what might be possible in Resolve - is to put all that audio in one track and then, after the adjusting is done, break it all back out again.

But I haven’t figured out how to do that yet.

One part that’s particularly hard is keeping the clip linkages between audio and video intact.

I could put all the clips into nested sequences but then I no longer have access to the cuts or timecode. I could put just the audio into a nested sequence or compound clips but then I break all the audio/video clip linkages.

I may try doing both - having a nested timeline and then the video clips duplicated and lined up in sync and try to adjust both sets in lock step.

Anyone have a better way to do this?


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We used to derive picture EDLs exactly this way, back in the day, from a VITC reader. A BITC reader would be trickier to implement (fonts, position, compression) plus VITC had the reel numbers in the user bits.

It all became redundant when the rm440s gave way to computer controlled offline tape editing.

I'd say your solutions are to either (pay to) do it manually, or sort the pipeline so you get a sequence file that matches the burnin.

It would be really cool if, given a reference movie with window burn, Resolve could read the SRC TC and use it in the clips it created from scene detect.

That way one could reconnect source clips, export an EDL, etc.

Not sure if my situation is rare, but it would be just the ticket for me just now. Of course it won’t exist in time for that but wondering if it would be useful for other people/situations.


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Anyone have a better way to do this?

This sounds horrendous. Why didn't they supply an AAF/XML/EDL or project file? What was the reference movie you have edited on + by whom?

Asking them for correct tools to do the job is going to be more productive than hope BM will develop something that would of next to zero use to anyone else.

Anyone have a better way to do this?

This sounds horrendous. Why didn't they supply an AAF/XML/EDL or project file? What was the reference movie you have edited on + by whom?

Thanks Trevor for responding. Yes it's pretty nasty. The problem is of my own making as I wanted to get started and it took them about 2 months to get me the media and project file.

The reference movie is the rough cut made by the director. Which I'm happy to have. She did the rough in Premiere and, as I'm finding out, the tools to move a project FOR EDITING from Premiere to Resolve are still not very good. There are issues both on Premiere's side - their XML doesn't preserve the audio/video clip linking for merged clips - and on Resolve's side in a few ways, like one can import a timeline but not the logged clips in their bins (as far as I can tell).

Asking them for correct tools to do the job is going to be more productive than hope BM will develop something that would of next to zero use to anyone else.

I could have waited the two months before starting the edit so that's on me.
As far as using the right tools I think the director did the best she could and did provide me with what should be sufficient to do the job. It would be sufficient if I was happy to just use Premiere to do the edit. I still might do that.

I think it's to BM's and its users' advantage to make better tools available to move projects from other NLE's to Resolve.

I think having a facility like collapsing the sound to fewer or even one track - like one can do in a DAW with folders - will be very useful to many people. The TC reading may or may not be useful - but several people have chimed in here saying they already do this workflow by hand. So I suspect it's far from of zero use to others.

Thanks again for your reply!