Inserting into a file

1. After opening the application, the first step is to load the patch in the source monitor and the file to be patched in the target monitor.

2. Set the in and out points in the target monitor for the area to be replaced.

3. Set the in and out points in the source monitor for the patch. After setting three of the four points, the fourth point is automatically calculated from the duration. This is referred to as a “3 point edit” If the timecodes in both files match, you can set just the in/out points in one monitor and then select “copy in to other” or “copy out to other” Bear in mind that the out point is the beginning of the unmodified part of the target clip following the insert. In other words, as with VTRs, the out point is excluded from the insert.

4. With all in and out points selected, audio routed, and tracks armed, you are ready to start the actual insert edit. Select whether you’d like to do an insert (modify the currently loaded target file) or an insert with rewrap (generate a new file with the insert in the same folder) and click insert.

Some important things to keep in mind when inserting into a file

1. Video inserts to ProRes may only be made to VBR Padded files. If your files were created on 3rd party systems that do not support exporting VBR Padded files natively and you did not use one of the CineXPlugins, you will need to rewrap the file as VBR Padded in the Rewrap & Audio Versioning tab. Audio inserts may be made to any ProRes file without rewrapping. Patch files do not need to be padded. There are other benefits to rewrapping, such as cleaning up the header metadata to a standard that will pass broadcast QC. The process takes about as long as a file copy, which is highly recommended anyway due to the fact that insert edit is a destructive process . You can make the copy and rewrap at the same time, along with any track order changes or track additions/subtractions if your desired final file has a different track layout from the original.

2. Source and target files do not need to be the same in terms of quality or color space. You can load a YUV10 HQ file in the source and insert to a YUV8 SQ file, for instance, and the application will make the appropriate conversion during the insert. HOWEVER it is highly recommended that the patch is exported the same way and from the same application/timeline as the original so that there are no surprises, especially if inserting into the middle of a shot. Same-to-same inserts are the fastest as no transcoding is necessary. Eg ProRes HQ YUV10 to ProRes HQ YUV10 insert simply copies frames from the source to target and happens very fast. By contrast, YUV8>>YUV10 requires decoding the original and encoding to the target, so it will be somewhat slower. In short inserts this will hardly be apparent, but in much longer inserts it will be noticeable.

3. Some source and target file characteristics must match or the insert will return an errror. Frame rate must match (eg 29.97p can’t be inserted to 25p, and 50i can’t be inserted to 25p). In general any frame rate conversions (pulldowns or standards conversions) should be made while exporting the patch from your NLE.

4. Your patch file does not need to be the same codec or wrapper as the target. You can, for instance, export your patch as DNxHD mixdown or DPX frames from your NLE, and use that as the source for a fix to a ProRes delivery file.

5. While longer inserts are happening, you can open the file in another cineXtools tab or Quicktime/other player and watch down/QC the insert. The insert can be cancelled without damaging the file, but the frames already overwritten at the time of cancelling are changed. Insert can only be “undone” as another insert edit from a copy of the original file.

Inserting Audio

Audio Insert best practices

Because audio inserts take very little time, it is usually best to make a fix in the DAW and re-export the entire WAV track rather than to export a short piece and use insert to stitch it in. This helps avoid alignment issues when working with many tracks/fixes. Using the full length WAV also removes any ambiguity about which start timecode should be used for aligning the WAV to the clip. While the insert tool does allow VTR-style crossfade to hide transitions, it is so fast and clean to insert from black to black or for the entire track, it is better to do any audio fixing in the DAW or NLE before inserting, and insert an entire track or segment.

Understanding the Interface

Audio Mapping Interface