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BITC on MP4 Files
Hi there,
I am looking for a solution to a rather tricky problem! To begin with I’ve come to learn that MP4 cannot hold timecode data (as I’ve tried using QT change to timestamp) so I was wondering if it was possible to burn in artificial timecode on screen?
I have a huge amount of multiple frame rate footage all as MP4 and QT’s, ideally I’d like to be able to run a program or script that would look at the frame rate of the MP4, then burn in TC in picture related to the frame rate that file actually is.
It doesn’t even matter if they all start at the same start TC of 00:00:00:00, just as long as it has it in picture and is counting up at the correct frame rate.
Is this manageable in ffmpeg as I have read somewhere that you can burn in TC in batch?
I hope someone can help as this is fairly urgent!
Many Thanks
Ben
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3 Replies
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Yes, you can use the drawtext filter. https://ffmpeg.org/libavfilter.html#drawtext
Even though MP4 does not support timecode tracks, you can still embed timecode by adding an audio track. LTC timecode is basically timecode information modulated into an audio signal. You can create and LTC audio file and add it as an alternative audio stream within the MP4. Of course, that may not be of much use for your situation, and the person / software using the MP4 file would have to know what to do with an LTC track.
The LTCSMPTE library comes with a little tool that can generate LTC audio in case your interested. https://ltcsmpte.sourceforge.net/index.html
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Sounds good thanks Reuben,
I’m guessing ffmpeg is command line input only? WHich I am no good with, an suggestions of how to ffmpeg running and be able to batch apply timecodes to mp4s?
Thanks
Ben
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That would require write a shell script if you want to do batch operations. (Or for something more sane, perhaps a ruby, python, or perl script)
But if you are not comfortable with running programs from a shell terminal, you will probably not be too keen on writing a script either.
There are two examples given here of burning timecode: https://ffmpeg.org/trac/ffmpeg/wiki/FilteringGuide
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