• Apple Final Cut Pro Legacy

  how to get real time from timecode

  Posted by Secil Cornick on August 21, 2007 at 7:44 pm

  Hi,

  I’m trying to find a simple way to convert/calculate what the timecode of a Final Cut sequence translates to in real time, very precisely (in milliseconds). This is for a scientific experiment that needs the durations in milliseconds. Is there a plug-in or widget or something for this? Or alternatively, is there any editing software that would allow me to add video to a seconds-based audio track?

  Thanks very much

  Secil

  Secil Cornick replied 19 years ago 4 Members · 4 Replies
• 4 Replies

• 

  Jeremy Garchow

  August 21, 2007 at 9:11 pm

  Or bring it in to Soundtrack pro and check the timing there.

  Jeremy
• 

  Michael Gissing

  August 21, 2007 at 9:28 pm

  Timecode actually deals with sub frame. In PAL land there are 80 data bits per frame. Not sure about NTSC.

  If you are timing something from the audio, then Jeremy’s idea of looking at the sound track in a separate program would be far more accurate. My dSP DAWs allow me to step in samples so a PAL frame has 2000 samples. This is much finer measurement than milliseconds which are 40 per PAL frame or 20 per field.
• 

  Steven Gonzales

  August 22, 2007 at 1:58 am

  You could set the display in the viewer or canvas to frames instead of timecode, and go to the location you want to calculate milliseconds for.

  Then look up item properties for the video element, and get the frame rate for the video.

  Then your calculation could be [(1 / frame rate) * frame number] * 1000 (milliseconds).

  So frame number 2997, with a frame rate of 29.97 frames per second, would be (1 / 29.97) * 2997 * 1000 = .0333667 * 2997 * 1000 or 100,000 milliseconds (100 seconds).
• 

  Secil Cornick

  August 22, 2007 at 2:30 pm

  Thanks very much all for the suggestions. I thought about Soundtrack too but not so clear how I would integrate it into the workflow b/c when I put the audio back in FCP it will still need to be measured in frames or fields, no? What we’re trying to accomplish is measure lags between video and audio tracks in sequences with deliberately manipulated synch (or, rather, un-synch). So whatever I come up with has to be repeatable and consistent over many administrations of the experiment. As long as the formula or scale or whatever we use remains the same and is in milliseconds, it will serve the purpose.

  Dave, what is the special gear that you mention?

  Again, thanks and I will try your suggestions and post back if I have more questions.

  Secil

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