Apple Final Cut Pro 6 - Manual (Page 290)

Chapter 17 Capturing Your Footage to Disk 289
IV
Recapturing Merged Clips
Merged clips are powerful because they allow you to group together a video media file
and multiple independent audio files within a single clip. This is especially useful for
dual system moviemaking, where video and audio come from separate sources and are
synchronized during post-production. A merged clip is a single clip in the Browser that
keeps these independent media files synced. When you recapture the media files for a
merged clip, you may have to make several capturing passes from different video and
audio sources.
Important: Generally, it’s best if all audio files referenced by merged clips are stored on
one scratch disk (preferably in the same folder).
For more information about merged clips, see Volume II, Chapter 3, “Merging Clips
From Dual System Video and Audio.”
Capturing Footage with Timecode Breaks
The Final Cut Pro timecode break–detection features let you easily and cleanly capture
entire source tapes without inadvertently introducing timecode errors.
The Importance of Avoiding Timecode Breaks
As you log your footage, it’s important to avoid timecode breaks in your clips. A
timecode break is any jump in the continuous flow of timecode numbers. There are
two kinds of timecode breaks:
 Ordered timecode break: This is a nearly imperceptible gap in the timecode track of
your tape which interrupts the continuous flow of timecode but doesn’t reset the
timecode to 00:00:00:00. Ordered timecode breaks can result from turning the
camcorder off and on in the middle of a tape, or from rewinding the tape to review
a section and then pausing at the end of the last recorded shot.
 Reset timecode break: This kind of break results in the timecode track being reset
to the default timecode value. For many DV-format camcorders, this value is
00:00:00:00. A reset timecode break can happen as a result of a tape being cued
slightly past the end of the last recorded shot before being recorded onto further, or
by partially recording over the beginning or middle of a previously recorded tape.
Note: There are also timecode gaps, when long gaps are detected with no timecode at all.