[Ignasi Rius]

Hi Susan,

Long time ago since last post in this thread!

So the answer is yes: we finally built a small tool for generating frame_number, SMPTE time-code pairs. It consists of a command-line tool with the following parameters:

TCGenerator v.1.0
Usage: TCGenerator [options] [outFile.csv]
Options
-h --help Prints this help
-t0 --start_tc [H]H:[M]M:[S]S[.FF]
Initial SMPTE Timecode
-t1 --end_tc [H]H:[M]M:[S]S[.FF]
Final SMPTE Timecode
-f0 --start_frame 0
Initial Frame Number
-f1 --end_frame 0
Final Frame Number
-fps {25|24|30}
Frames per second setting (default: 25)
-df --drop_frame {0|1}
Drop Frame Setting for NTSC fps(default: 0(Non_drop_frame))
-1 --base1
Set initial frame as number 1 (default: 0)
outFile.csv
Output File for generated TimeCodes

Here’s a usage example for generating timecodes between frames 12032 and 12065 in NTSC (30 fps) DropFrame.

TCGenerator.exe -f0 12032 -f1 12065 -fps 30 -df 1 sampleOut.csv

The output is written to a CSV file with the following contents:

0,12032,00:06:41.14
1,12033,00:06:41.15
2,12034,00:06:41.16
3,12035,00:06:41.17
4,12036,00:06:41.18
5,12037,00:06:41.19
6,12038,00:06:41.20
7,12039,00:06:41.21
8,12040,00:06:41.22
9,12041,00:06:41.23
10,12042,00:06:41.24
11,12043,00:06:41.25
12,12044,00:06:41.26
13,12045,00:06:41.27
14,12046,00:06:41.28
15,12047,00:06:41.29
16,12048,00:06:42
17,12049,00:06:42.01
18,12050,00:06:42.02
19,12051,00:06:42.03
20,12052,00:06:42.04
21,12053,00:06:42.05
22,12054,00:06:42.06
23,12055,00:06:42.07
24,12056,00:06:42.08
25,12057,00:06:42.09
26,12058,00:06:42.10
27,12059,00:06:42.11
28,12060,00:06:42.12
29,12061,00:06:42.13
30,12062,00:06:42.14
31,12063,00:06:42.15
32,12064,00:06:42.16


The exact format of the Timecode (such as using “:” instead of “.” after the “second” part) could be easily tweaked by me to fulfill your needs.

Are you interested in a binary instance of the tool, or do you need it’s source code?

Just for your information, the tool is written in C++ (Visual Studio) and the class which handles TimeCode operations supports addition and subtraction of TimeCodes of different formats among other common operations.

Please, contact me at i g n a s i e t AT g m a i l . c o m for further discussion.

Best,
Ignasi.

[Ignasi Rius]

Dear Susan,
Trying to solve the exact same problem that you mention I ended up reading your message. Finally, I decided to implement it by my own (I am a research developer) since I couldn’t find any free alternatives to do everything I needed.

I was wondering if you were still interested in hiring a developer to solve this task? In case you are, my program can generate frame-Timecode pairs given a starting timecode or framenumber in 3 Timecode formats (NTSC with/without DropFrame, PAL_25 and 24 FPS).
I’ve also implemented an script that automatically generates a CSV file with framenumber-timecode pairs given an input MXF file. (However, I haven’t tested this one thoroughly.)
Anyway, I could adapt it to your specific needs in case you are still interested.

Yours sincerely,
Ignasi Rius.