Final Cut Pro 6 has the ability to batch capture DV footage and separate clips by breaks in the time code. It’s far better to burn consistent time code before using a tape (striping or rewinding a bit) but if you’ve inherited media with inconsistent time code you may not realize how FCP handles certain nuances.

Time Code Break

Time code break detection works as expected: a new clip is created at the break, assuming a new shot was intended.

Blank Tape Detection

Suppose you have a DV tape without any time code and you have portions of unrecorded tape (i.e.: black between shots). FCP will treat these blank portions as time code breaks even though there is no time code.

The same is true for media with time code breaks and black breaks.

How Does FCP Assign Missing Time Code?

If your source media is sans time code Final Cut Pro will add its own. I’ve noticed it assigns Hour 12 and higher to such footage although I’m not sure why it chooses that number. This makes it easy to spot in the Browser.

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