Thanks for checking in Matt,
Unfortunately, in my 2.41 the interface isn't quite as you describe. Until a clip is placed and selected on the time line, the red cursor line, with the IN/OUT markers, does not appear. The "frames" button - yellow star - never shows up. I HAVE seen it in other versions. And in 3.0 I believe that the markers do appear just as you indicate, without the need to first place the clip on the timeline. 3.0/.01, however, have problems...
As you appear to be THE man here (NCH employee?) perhaps you can shed some light on progress in solving the 3.0 transition problem mentioned in another thread. "Support" will not communicate. I've also seen a freeze woe with 3.0 in Windows 8, where a gap is created on the timeline, then scrolled past (to timeline end) with the cursor. Program sometimes becomes non-responsive and must be closed. "Phantom" instances must be killed via taskmanager.
For a look at what 3.0 does to transitions see http://hevanet.com/hb/freeze.mov You will note FROM video freezes during the effect, and that the FROM image jumps when the effect begins. A killer.