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Timeshifting Clip
MattC [Avatar]
Member Joined: Jun 03, 2016 12:12 Messages: 102 Offline
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Hi All,

Here's an interesting one (for me at least). I'm sure the answer is going to be negative, but I'd be interested in any comments.

Much of my editing involves correctly aligning a video with a master soundtrack. This, I'm guessing is not unusual. This is often done after all the clips are positioned. I carefully move through the film and minutely adjust the position of any out-of-sync clips. Unfortunately, the only way I can find to do this is to pull one or other end of the clip in slightly, adjust the clip position until sync'd and then extend both sides to original positions. Sometimes it's a single clip on an independant channel, so repositioning the edges exactly as before is quite dificult without taking notes on them.

If you hover over the selected clip you get the 'hand' to move it; if you hover over the edge, you get the double arrow to adjust the start/end position; if you hold the shift and hover over the edge you are able to adjust the speed of the clip. However, there doesn't seem to be a way of 'timeshifting' the clip, leaving the start and end positions the same.

Or is there?

If this doesn't make sense, let me know.

Matt .
PDR14; Win10-x64; i7-6700; 3.4GHz; 16GB RAM; plenty of HDD space; AMD Radeon R5 330.
ynotfish
Senior Contributor Location: N.S.W. Australia Joined: May 08, 2009 02:06 Messages: 9977 Offline
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Hi Matt -

I always understood "time shifting" to mean changing the speed, but I don't think that's what you mean.

If you're trying to align clips with the master track, you can:


  1. Move the entire clip - frame by frame using Alt + arrow keys

  2. Change video speed - Ctrl + drag ends (or use Tools > Video Speed)

  3. Split/trim clips to fit


It's difficult to know exactly what to advise without knowing the circumstance, because how you'd approach it would vary.

Maybe a few timeline screenshot with specific examples might help.

Cheers - Tony
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MattC [Avatar]
Member Joined: Jun 03, 2016 12:12 Messages: 102 Offline
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Hi ynotfish,

Thanks for your reply.

It's difficult to give a screenshot example of a scenario that doesn't exist - as far as I'm aware. You're right in that I'm (hopefully) not describing time 'compression'. Time shifting (my definition) is simply shifting the clip/point-frame left or right to align with the audio track. Your suggestion 1. is one of the ways that I achieve what I want. However, it still requires movement and/or cropping of the clip before and after the adjustment. What might be useful (to me at least) is the ability to grab hold of the middle of the clip (with say the Shift key held down) and, rather than moving the entire clip left or right, it 'scrolls' the clip within the clip's set boundaries.

If I'm still not making sense, I'll try to rig up some graphic.

Matt .
PDR14; Win10-x64; i7-6700; 3.4GHz; 16GB RAM; plenty of HDD space; AMD Radeon R5 330.
The Shadowman
Senior Contributor Location: UK Joined: Dec 15, 2014 13:06 Messages: 1831 Offline
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Quote Hi ynotfish,

Thanks for your reply.

It's difficult to give a screenshot example of a scenario that doesn't exist - as far as I'm aware. You're right in that I'm (hopefully) not describing time 'compression'. Time shifting (my definition) is simply shifting the clip/point-frame left or right to align with the audio track. Your suggestion 1. is one of the ways that I achieve what I want. However, it still requires movement and/or cropping of the clip before and after the adjustment. What might be useful (to me at least) is the ability to grab hold of the middle of the clip (with say the Shift key held down) and, rather than moving the entire clip left or right, it 'scrolls' the clip within the clip's set boundaries.

If I'm still not making sense, I'll try to rig up some graphic.

Matt


Hi Matt

Iv'e read and re read what you have asked for and I have come to the conclusion that what you want is not physically possible. I think I understand what you mean by scrolling the clip from the centre, but because the clip has a distinct start and end, scrolling would require the clip to have hidden material at the start and/or finishing points.

Just my thoughts

Robert Panny TM10, GH2, GH4,
Longedge [Avatar]
Senior Contributor Joined: Apr 28, 2011 15:38 Messages: 1504 Offline
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When I first saw this post I read it over and over several times and the only way I could interpret what was required was to move a clip without lengthening or shortening it and keeping both the start and end positions in the same places. That's clearly nonsense so my best guess was that the clip simply wanted to be nudged slightly, perhaps by a few frames.

I don't know of any other way to nudge a clip other than by grabbing it on the timeline and moving it with the mouse. While you do so at least the start/end times are displayed to show how far you've gone.
MattC [Avatar]
Member Joined: Jun 03, 2016 12:12 Messages: 102 Offline
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Thanks both of you for your replies, and I appologise that I hae not been clear.

Both of you are right and wrong in your interpretation of my post.

What I mean is not the shifting of the clip along timeline. Longedge, your initial interpretation of my post is correct. Shadowman, I will try to demonstate that it could be done.

Take a look at the image. The cropped 'Kite Surfing' clip is positioned on the timeline. The clip shown begins at 10:01 (should have been 10:00 but my finger slipped and I didn't realise ) and ends at 14:00. The actual clip is just the middle 4 second segment of the whole clip. Now what I'm suggesting might be a good idea (the question of whether it's possible seems academic, now) is to be able to grab the centre of the shown clip and scroll it left or right within the fixed time frame of 10:01 - 14:00, upto its maximum drag of the extent of the original clip. That is, if you dragged it far enough to the right, you would end up with the displayed clip showing the first 4 seconds of the original full clip, but still with the start and stop positions the same. It is true that inserting a full clip into the timeline would leave no room to adjust the position. Just as it would be impossible to lengthen the clip further than its original length. But just as a shortened clip can be lengthened, so this ability could be used to adjust the clip where a cropped clip was used.

I can appreciate that it looks very unlikely that PDR14 does this, but I still think it might be a good attribute for PDR, just like 'squashing' the clip by grabing the edge with the shift key is.

Thank you for your patence.

Matt
[Thumb - PDR14 1.jpg]
 Filename
PDR14 1.jpg
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 Description
Centrally cropped clip of Kite Surfing
 Filesize
82 Kbytes
 Downloaded:
71 time(s)
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PDR14; Win10-x64; i7-6700; 3.4GHz; 16GB RAM; plenty of HDD space; AMD Radeon R5 330.
Longedge [Avatar]
Senior Contributor Joined: Apr 28, 2011 15:38 Messages: 1504 Offline
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I'll try again with another interpretation smile.

Is this an edited clip of a larger video which you want to leave on the timeline at exactly the same start time and for the same duration. In other words, do you want to shift the start point of the edited clip within the original video slightly?

If my guess is right this time, then the only way I know is to start again and drop the original video onto another video track temporarily and re-edit it more accurately then delete the first try and drop the new one in it's place.

Just by the bye, it's a good idea to drag your timeline right out i.e. zoom right in and that will give you much finer control.
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