A strange quirk in the TL

TDK1044

Member Joined: Apr 11, 2019 12:27 Messages: 130 Offline

Solved by

Jun 04, 2020 08:18

I notice a strange quirk in PD18 that I haven't noticed before. It doesn't impact the editing or the rendering, but I never noticed it before. I find that the thumbnail images are just a little out of sync with the actual project as it plays back in the preview window. By that I mean that if you are for example setting up to add a caption that starts on the first frame of the next image in the TL, when you set that up, PD18 plays it perfectly in the preview window, and during the render, but if you look at the images in the TL, your caption looks like it will come up at the wrong point and not at the point where the new shot starts. As I said, PD will play it back perfectly in the preview window, and it will render it perfectly, but it looks wrong in the TL. I was just wondering if anyone else has seen this.

JL_JL

Senior Contributor Location: Arizona, USA Joined: Oct 01, 2006 20:01 Messages: 6091 Offline

Jun 04, 2020 10:13

Quote I notice a strange quirk in PD18 that I haven't noticed before. It doesn't impact the editing or the rendering, but I never noticed it before. I find that the thumbnail images are just a little out of sync with the actual project as it plays back in the preview window. By that I mean that if you are for example setting up to add a caption that starts on the first frame of the next image in the TL, when you set that up, PD18 plays it perfectly in the preview window, and during the render, but if you look at the images in the TL, your caption looks like it will come up at the wrong point and not at the point where the new shot starts. As I said, PD will play it back perfectly in the preview window, and it will render it perfectly, but it looks wrong in the TL. I was just wondering if anyone else has seen this.

Those are thumbnails, not frames. If you look the size of them, as a pseudo time scale, they change as you zoom in on a timeline. Usually at full zoom a thumbnail will span 2 frames or so. On a zoomed out timeline, a given thumbnail can span several real frames, 30+. The extent will also change if you have "Expand timescale for audio track" enabled. So obviously, they don't ever really align with a real preview frame very well. They are simply meant for easy scene recognition, not critical placement of timeline edits.

Yes, PD has been like that for, well, ages. Some users over the years have found it beneficial to turn off continuous timeline to not constantly generate the updated thumbnails.

Jeff

TDK1044

Member Joined: Apr 11, 2019 12:27 Messages: 130 Offline

Jun 04, 2020 10:22

Quote

Those are thumbnails, not frames. If you look the size of them, as a pseudo time scale, they change as you zoom in on a timeline. Usually at full zoom a thumbnail will span 2 frames or so. On a zoomed out timeline, a given thumbnail can span several real frames, 30+. The extent will also change if you have "Expand timescale for audio track" enabled. So obviously, they don't ever really align with a real preview frame very well. They are simply meant for easy scene recognition, not critical placement of timeline edits.

Yes, PD has been like that for, well, ages. Some users over the years have found it beneficial to turn off continuous timeline to not constantly generate the updated thumbnails.

Jeff

I know you're correct, Jeff, and maybe I just never noticed it before. Thanks for responding.