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SMPTE timecode is a set of cooperating standards to label individual frames of video or film with a timecode defined by the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers. Timecode is also the title of a 2000 film directed by Mike Figgis which was shot in one continuous take. ...
The Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers or SMPTE (pronounced simptee or sometimes sumptee) is an international professional association, based in the United States of America, of engineers working in the motion imaging industries. ...
Timecodes are added to film, video or audio material, and have also been adapted to synchronize music. They provide a time reference for editing, synchronisation and identification. Timecode is a form of media metadata. The invention of timecode made modern videotape editing possible, and led eventually to the creation of non-linear editing systems. Films are produced by recording actual people and objects with cameras, or by creating them using animation techniques and/or special effects. ...
Look up Video in Wiktionary, the free dictionary Video is the technology of capturing, recording, processing, transmitting, and reconstructing moving pictures, typically using celluloid film, electronic signals, or digital media. ...
Audio can mean: Sound that can be heard. ...
Wikibooks Wikiversity has more about this subject: School of Music Look up Music in Wiktionary, the free dictionary Wikisource, as part of the 1911 Encyclopedia Wikiproject, has original text related to this article: Music Meta has a page about this at: Music markup MusicNovatory: the science of music encyclopedia The...
Synchronization is coordination with respect to time. ...
Metadata is data about data. ...
Note: Please see National Latin Examination for the standardized test that is also abbreviated NLE. A non-linear editing system is a video editing or audio editing system that can perform random access on the source material. ...
Basic concepts
SMPTE timecodes contains binary coded decimal hour:minute:second:frame identification and 32 bits for use by users. There are also drop-frame and colour framing flags and three extra 'binary group flag' bits used for defining the use of the user bits. The formats of other forms SMPTE timecodes are derived from that of the longitudinal timecode. Binary-coded decimal (BCD) is a numeral system used in computing and in electronics systems. ...
Time code can have any of a number of frame rates: common ones are Frame rate, or frame frequency, is the measurement of how quickly an imaging device can produce unique consecutive images called frames. ...
- 24 frame/s (film)
- 25 frame/s (PAL colour television)
- 29.97 (30/1.001) frame/s (NTSC color television)
- 30 frame/s (American black-and-white television) (almost obsolete)
In general, SMPTE timecode frame rate information is implicit, known from the rate of arrival of the timecode from the medium, or other metadata encoded in the medium. The interpretation of several bits, including the "colour framing" and "drop frame" bits, depends on the underlying data rate. In particular, the drop frame bit is only valid for a nominal frame rate of 30 frame/s: see below for details. For other meanings of PAL see PAL (disambiguation). ...
NTSC is the analog television system in use in Japan, United States and certain other places, mostly in the Americas (see map). ...
More complex timecodes such as Vertical interval timecode can also include extra information in a variety of encodings. Vertical interval timecode (VITC, pronounced vitsee or sometimes vits) is a form of SMPTE timecode embedded as black-and-white bars in a pair of the normally unseen vertical interval lines in a television signal. ...
Discontinuous timecode, and flywheel processing Timecodes are generated as a continuous stream of sequential data values. In some applications 'wall clock' time is used, in others the time encoded is a notional time. After making a series of recordings, or after crude editing, recorded timecodes may consist of discontinuous segments.
Note that in general you cannot know the current frame's LTC until the frame's already gone by to let you read it, and it's too late to make the edit. Practical systems watch the ascending sequence of the timecode, and infer the current frame's time from that. LTC is also the U.S. Army abbreviation for Lieutenant Colonel. ...
As timecodes in analog systems are prone to bit-errors and drop-outs, most timecode processing devices check for internal consistency in the sequence of timecode values, and use simple error correction schemes to correct for short error bursts. As a result, the boundary between discontinuous timecode ranges cannot be determined exactly until several frames of code have been read after the timecode boundary.
For this reason, most videotape editing attempts to keep the timecode of the recorded material continuous, so that multiple edits may be repeatedly over-recorded onto the same piece of videotape.
Although it would be possible in all-digital systems to eliminate the flywheel algorithm by adding a frame delay to allow the timecode to be decoded prior to the processing of the frame, this is not done in most practical systems as:
- it introduces an unnecessary frame delay in the signal processing path
- there is still a need to compensate for timecode errors in signals derived from analog video or audio systems.
Drop frame timecode Drop frame timecode dates to a compromise invented when color NTSC video was invented. Basically, the NTSC re-designers wanted to retain compatibility with existing monochrome TVs. Unfortunately, the 3.58 MHz (actually 315/88 MHz = 3579545.45 Hz) color subcarrier would absorb common-phase noise from the harmonics of the line scan frequency. Rather than adjust the audio or chroma subcarriers, they adjusted everything else, including the frame rate, which was set to 30/1.001 Hz. NTSC is the analog television system in use in Japan, United States and certain other places, mostly in the Americas (see map). ...
This meant that an "hour of timecode" at a nominal frame rate of 30 frame/s was shorter than an hour of wall-clock time by 3.59 seconds, leading to an error of almost a minute and a half over a day. This caused people to make unnecessary mistakes in the studio.
To correct this, drop frame SMPTE timecode drops frame numbers 0 and 1 of the first second of every minute, and includes them when the number of minutes is divisible by ten. This almost perfectly compensates for the difference in rate, leaving a residual timing error of roughly 86.4 microseconds per day, an error of only 0.001 ppm. Note: only timecode frame numbers are dropped. Video frames continue in sequence.
Drop-frame timecode is not used at any frame rate other than 30/1.001 Hz. - (i think this means Drop-frame is ONLY used when frame rate is 30/1.001 Hz)
Colour framing and timecode - to be written
Studio operations and master clocks In studio operations, longitudinal timecode is generated by the studio master sync generator, and distributed from a central point. Central sync generators usually derive their timing from an atomic clock, either using network time, or GPS. Studios usually maintain two or three clocks, and automatically switch over if one fails. Atomic clock Chip-Scale Atomic Clock Unveiled by NIST An atomic clock is a type of clock that uses an atomic resonance frequency standard as its counter. ...
Over fifty GPS satellites such as this NAVSTAR have been launched since 1978. ...
A recent development is to mount small GPS-synchronized SMPTE timecode generators on each camera, which eliminates the distribution network for portable set-ups and shooting on location.
Longitudinal SMPTE timecode is widely used to synchronise music. The frame rate used for audio sync is arbitrary, and can be chosen to suit the needs of the production. A frame rate of 24 frame/s is popular because it reduces synchronisation problems with 48 kHz digital audio. SMPTE timecodes are often time code not specified by SMPTE. The Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers or SMPTE (pronounced simptee or sometimes sumptee) is a US professional association of engineers. ...
Timecode media The timecode has four media: - Linear timecode - (a.k.a LONGITUDINAL) suitable to be recorded on an audio channel, or by audio wires. This is how it is distributed within a studio to synchronise recorders and cameras.
- Vertical interval timecode (VITC, pronounced "vitsee") recorded directly into the VBI (vertical blanking interval) of the video signal on each frame of video.
- Visible Time Code (BITC, pronounced "bit-see") - the numbers are burnt into the video image so that humans can easily read the time code. Videotapes that are duplicated with these time code numbers "burnt-in" to the video are known as window dubs. Burnt-in timecode
- Film labels, such as Keykode
LTC is also the U.S. Army abbreviation for Lieutenant Colonel. ...
Vertical interval timecode (VITC, pronounced vitsee or sometimes vits) is a form of SMPTE timecode embedded as black-and-white bars in a pair of the normally unseen vertical interval lines in a television signal. ...
The vertical blanking interval (VBI) is an interval in a television or VDU signal that temporarily suspends transmission of the signal for the electron gun to move back up to the first line of the television screen to trace the next screen field. ...
Color bars with burnt-in timecode Burnt-in timecode (often abbreviated to BITC by analogy to VITC) is a human-readable on-screen version of the timecode information for a piece of material superimposed on a video image. ...
Keykode is a specialised timecode designed to uniquely identify frames in film stock. ...
Longitudinal timecode data format The basic format is an 80-bit code that gives the time of day to the second, and the frame number within the second.
The bits of the longitudinal SMPTE code:
- 0..3: Frame units
- 4..7: user-bits field 1
- 8..9: Frame tens
- 10: 1=drop frame format (frame 0 and 1 omitted from first second of each minute, but included when minutes divides by ten; approximates 29.97 frame/s)
- 11: 1="color frame", i.e. the time code is intentionally synchronised with a color TV field sequence.
- 12..15: user-bits field 2
- 16..19: seconds units
- 20..23: user bits field 3
- 24..26: second tens
- 27: Bi-phase mark-correction bit; set or cleared so every 80-bit word has an even number of zeros. This can be used to assure that there is no net current flow in the time code system. It also allows a technician to read the bi-phase coding timing with an oscilloscope, without the signal inverting itself continually. Modern equipment regenerates the time code to a fixed timing in the video vertical interval, so this is far less needed than before.
- 28..31: user bits field 4
- 32..35: minutes unit digit
- 36..39: user bits field 5
- 40..42: minutes tens digit
- 43: binary group flag bit (with bit 59, 43,59 = 00 = no format for user bits, 10 = eight bit format, 01, 11 are unassigned and reserved).
- 44..47: user bits field 6
- 48..51: hours units
- 52..55: user bits field 7
- 56..57: hours tens
- 58: unused, reserved, should transmit zero and ignore on receive for compatibility
- 59: binary group flag bit (see bit 43 for encoding)
- 60..63: user bits field 8
- 64..79: sync word, should be 0011 1111 1111 1101
There are thirty-two bits of user data. These are usually used for a reel number and date. They can be anything at all, as long as bits 43 and 59 are set to zero.
The bits are encoded as "biphase". A zero bit has a single transition at the start of the bit period. A one bit has two transitions, at the beginning and middle of the period. This encoding is self-clocking.
Longitudinal SMPTE timecode should be played back at a middle-level when recorded on an audio track. Too high or too low will both cause distortion.
History Longitudinal and vertical-interval timecodes were developed in 1967 by EECO, an electronics company that developed video recorders, and later video production systems. EECO assigned its intellectual property to permit public use.
References - Timecode: A user's guide, second edition by John Ratcliff, [Focal Press]
- A Technical Introduction to Digital Video by Charles Poynton
See also LTC is also the U.S. Army abbreviation for Lieutenant Colonel. ...
Vertical interval timecode (VITC, pronounced vitsee or sometimes vits) is a form of SMPTE timecode embedded as black-and-white bars in a pair of the normally unseen vertical interval lines in a television signal. ...
Color bars with burnt-in timecode Burnt-in timecode (often abbreviated to BITC by analogy to VITC) is a human-readable on-screen version of the timecode information for a piece of material superimposed on a video image. ...
MIDI time code embeds the same timing information as standard SMPTE time code as a series of small quarter-frame MIDI messages. ...
X is the twenty-fourth letter of the Latin alphabet. ...
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