[Kdenlive-devel] Default title length

[John T. Mertz]

Hi Alberto,

I tried your patch and it is not working for me either.  Then again
that may or may not be a surprise since I do not see this behavior in
Dolphin either, as you reported should work.

Keep trying! :)

Thanks,
-JTM

On Wed, Mar 31, 2010 at 9:21 AM, Alberto Villa <avilla at freebsd.org> wrote:
> On Wednesday 31 March 2010 16:29:22 John T. Mertz wrote:
>> On Wed, Mar 31, 2010 at 7:17 AM, Alberto Villa <avilla at freebsd.org> wrote:
>> > imho - just imho, as a user - if i'm working with frames:
>> > 1. i set N frames and i want them to be N forever. i don't want the
>> > program to change them for me. if i want 2 seconds, i would work with
>> > timecode 2. it's my responsibility to take care of this
>> >
>> > if something has to be done, i vote for adding a notice on profile
>> > changing. there is already one if i remember correctly (that isn't
>> > really a suggested operation): conditionally adding some text to that
>> > one would be trivial
>>
>> You brought up a point which I hoped would be quietly swept under the rug
>> :)
>>
>> I both agree and disagree with this.  Typically, I don't want
>> something I set to change automagically.  In this case, however, I am
>> curious whether the benefits of storing such a setting in a way that
>> can be automatically adjusted for different frame rates outweighs the
>> fact that the user would have to set the default setting again within
>> the new project settings in order to achieve the desired results IF
>> they care about the frame count more than the real time consumed by
>> the default duration.  IMO, I think most users will be more concerned
>> with the real time than the frame count when switching between project
>> formats.
>>
>> Personally I think the benefits outweigh the negatives.  In the case
>> of video, timecode and/or frame count is a count of time, relative to
>> the time base of the video format.  50 frames in PAL has a longer
>> duration, in real time, than 50 frames of NTSC video.
>>
>> If the 50 frames is stored in fractional seconds, then it will always
>> be translated as 50 frames in PAL video, so in your typical working
>> scenario, you will always have the 50 frame (2 second) duration that
>> you want.  If you switch to 24P or 60i, then the duration will remain
>> 2 seconds and the frame count will adjust accordingly.
>>
>> Generally speaking, I agree with you and if I am working in a single
>> project frame rate, then I want my 50 frames of video to always be
>> exactly 50 frames.  But when I look at the bigger picture, really what
>> is more important to me is that in a PAL project my 50 frames be
>> equivalent to 2 seconds of video.  If I switch to NTSC at 30 fps, then
>> I have to go and change the setting to 60 frames to get the same
>> duration as I had in my PAL project.  IMHO I would prefer my default
>> value of 50 frames to equal 2 seconds in the PAL project, and to also
>> equal 2 seconds in the NTSC project, even though the frame count will
>> be different.
>>
>> Also, you can get in to trouble by just storing frames as the default
>> duration.  For example, in its default configuration, kdenlive ships
>> with a default duration of I believe 5 seconds for the default Title
>> duration.  If this were stored in frames, then it would be 125 frames
>> @ 25fps.  However, if the user (such as myself) normally edits in
>> NTSC, then I will probably switch to a default project setting with 30
>> or 60 fps video.  At 30fps, the default 125 frame duration becomes
>> 4.17 seconds, and at 60fps it becomes a mere 2.08 seconds.  To the
>> user, this will look like a bizarre default duration to have in a
>> video application.
>>
>> If kdenlive stores either timecode OR frames, then it has to manage
>> getting timecode for either type of value when the default setting is
>> retrieved, which is easily doable but would perhaps make it more
>> complicated than it is worth.
>
> you must forgive me. i don't know how, but i think i've replied with another
> question in mind :S
> what i wanted to say is: i think we should store timecodes
> --
> Alberto Villa, FreeBSD committer <avilla at FreeBSD.org>
> http://people.FreeBSD.org/~avilla
>
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