Timeline Clip Properties inPoint and outPoint give inaccurate results when clip speed / duration not 100%

[Premiopolis]

To recreate this issue, define a clip using the following extendScript

ThisClip=app.project.activeSequence.videoTracks[0].clips[0];
//i.e. the first video clip on the first video track of the active sequence.
Output={
  name:ThisClip.name,
  start:ThisClip.start.seconds,
  end:ThisClip.end.seconds,
  inPoint:ThisClip.inPoint.seconds,
  outPoint:ThisClip.outPoint.seconds,
  duration:ThisClip.duration.seconds
};

Then take a clip, called "TestClip", 0:00:00:00 and a TRT of more than 6 seconds.

For clarity's sake make the Active Timeline an even frame rate (24, 25 or 30fps, not 29.97 or 23.976)

Take a 4-second stretch of "TestClip" from source 0:00:02:00 and edit into the Active Sequence starting at 10 seconds, clip speed / duration at 100%

So you'll effectively:

     Source from 0:00:02:00 to 0:00:06:00

     in the timeline from 0:00:10:00 to 0:00:14:00

There is nothing else in this timeline.

If you run the above ExtendScript

the variable "Output" above will populate as follows, exactly as expected.

name	start	end	inPoint	outPoint	duration
TestClip	10	14	2	6	4

All is well and right with the world

Now apply a clips speed of 200% to the clip in the timeline and run the same ExtendScript above.

The results will show inaccuracies for inPoint and outPoint

name	start	end	inPoint	outPoint	duration
TestClip	10	12	1	3	2

Consider that in the timeline the source content has not changed, only its speed.

The expected result for inPoint and outPoint should be the SAME as the Output for 100%, starting at 2, ending at 6, representing 4 seconds of source even though it accounts for only 2 seconds of TRT in the timeline.  It runs the footage faster, but uses the same source In and Source Out.  But our Output is falsely reporting we're starting source at source sec 1, ending at source sec 3 which is not true. You can verify by looking at your footage, and of course, if you match frame from the first frame of source in the timeline, indeed you pull up second 2 in the source monitor, not second 1.

Same issue with the clip slowed down to 50% though in this case the inPoint is at 4, ending at 12, when, again is should show from second 2 to second 6.

name	start	end	inPoint	outPoint	duration
TestClip	10	12	4	12	8

Am I missing something or is this a bug in the ExtendScript API?

[Indigo128 · Accepted solution]

First of all, I know that this is outdated topic. But yesterday I faced this problem myself and was totally convinced that this is a bug. But today I understood logic of this behaviour. When you speed up/down or/and reverse clip it changes its internal system of coordinates.

For example, you have video that is 300 seconds long (5 minutes). You have clip that starts with InPoint 80 seconds and you make it's 2x faster. In Premiere's logic imagine that it makes faster the whole video included in your clip and now its 2,5 minutes long. So your InPoint and OutPoint become divided by 2. Duration doesn't change by the way.

Similar logic used when reversing clip. 0 becomes the end of the video and 300 becomes start of it. 🙂

Speed and reverse can be mixed and you have to keep in mind, that this coordinate modifiers apply sumultaneously.

Sorry for my bad English and I'm glad if I was able to help anybody. 🙂

[Indigo128]

By the way, key frames somehow aren't affected by the speed and/or reverse modifiers the way InPoint and OutPoint do... 🙂