Friday, March 5, 2010

Strange Approximation Symbol in the Timeline

This screenshot was sent to me via email a little while ago:



The emailer is trying to find out what it is and what it means. I don't recall seeing this before in the Timeline. It looks like a formal Approximation symbol ≈ (option+x) to the left of the thumbnail and has actually moved the thumbnail to the right. Has anyone seen this before or know the cause?

UPDATE: Solved! It's a "mixed-sync indicator" and explained (with screenshots) in the FCP manual:

Moving a single pair of items out of sync results in a single out-of-sync duration, with out-of-sync indicators with positive and negative durations in both the video and audio items.

If you then move a second pair of audio items out of sync by a different amount, each audio item that is out of sync from the anchor item has an out-of-sync indicator noting its individual offset from the anchor item—in this example, the video item. The anchor item displays a mixed-sync indicator with no duration. This tells you that multiple linked items are out of sync by varying amounts.


Thanks to everyone who offered help in the comments!

Tuesday, March 2, 2010

Apple updates ProKit to 5.1

Apple updates ProKit to 5.1 and millions of pirated copies of FCS suddenly cry out in terror.