Timecode Reader For Mac

The LTCReader is a linear timecode reader according to SMPTE television standard (SMPTE 12M-1-2008) displaying the timecode with ability to JAM sync. Requirements: The LTC audio signal is connected to the line audio input of the device (a dock adapter with a line input or general mic and line adapter, or adapter cable using the headset micro. SMPTE Reader turns your Mac into a synchronizer without any extra hardware. What's New in SMPTE Reader Version 1.02: Fixed a bug where the generated MIDI Timecode was incorrect for other framerates then 25fps.

Sup Sup,
I've been helping out on a film project that's just been sent over to the Sound Designer and, in preparing materials for him, I think I've come across some weird bug with the Timecode Reader / Timecode Generator and rendering.

Here's what I did:

I set up an Anamorphic 23.98 fps DVCPro50 sequence to be output, with timecode starting at 00:59:50:00 in the Sequence Settings so that I could have a 6 sec slate and 4 seconds of black, with a sync beep & flash at 59:58:00 and the program starting at the 1 hour mark.
That sequence was then nested in another sequence (with an identical timecode start), with the Timecode Reader filter applied to the nest.
In the Motion tab of the nested sequence, I then adjusted the Start point (with the thin black line at the top of the Keyframe graph) so that the filter would start at 00:59:56:00, after the slate.
This played back fine in realtime. However, after exporting the unrendered timeline directly to Compressor, the timecode came out all wrong! Instead of starting at 00:59:56:00, the Timecode Reader started at 00:59:50:00! Needless to say that was unacceptable.
Thinking that Compressor was the culprit, I then rendered out in FCP. But the timecode was still wrong!
Finally, I just put a cut in the nest after the slate and it worked.

I've now tried this on a variety of codecs and frame rates and, sure enough, if the Timecode Reader or Timecode Generator doesn't start at the head of the clip (or cut), rendering or exporting causes it to default to the clip's In point timecode (in the case of the Reader) or 00:00:00:00 for the Generator.

I'm sure this is not a common workflow, but if someone else can confirm this on their system, I'm going to submit a bug report. I'm curious if this is related to the Paste Content bug that first appeared in FCP 5.0 (and which still isn't fixed in FCP 6. Ugh.)
For what it's worth, I'm on 10.4.10 and FCP 6.0.1 (and Compressor 3.0.1) with QT 7.1.6 and the 4.0.1 Pro Apps Support update.

3.0 Ghz 8-Core Mac Pro w/ X1900 XT & 8 GB RAM, Mac OS X (10.4.10), Final Cut Studio 2.0.1

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Category
Category	Desktop Enhancements
Subcategory	Alarms & Clock Software

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