Time code and frame per frame

[schaferob]

Just like to add my voice to the folks wishing for SMPTE time code display. We too, need to view video on Windows computers and display the time code. We DON'T need frame accuracy. Just hours, minute and seconds would be FINE for us!

Our favorite flavor of video is a very popular HD format that comes from Sony. It's XDCAM EX 35 second generation (called "HQ" by Adobe). That's 1920x1080i in a .mov wrapper.

Much thanks for your consideration!
Rob Schafer

[Jean-Baptiste Kempf]

Just like to add my voice to the folks wishing for SMPTE time code display. We too, need to view video on Windows computers and display the time code. We DON'T need frame accuracy. Just hours, minute and seconds would be FINE for us!

You already have that in VLC.

[bmacwilliams]

I would like to also request this. I would add that having an option to display either overall frames (as QuickTime does) or HH:MM:SS.xx format should be implemented. We use video to estimate velocity and only having the time code to the nearest second does not provide sufficient accuracy, tenths and hundreths would be sufficient.

[mederi]

VLC extension: Time
For miliseconds and frames features just read comments on that page.
Developers just could help to improve this script if it is possible and easier than a built-in VLC feature.

[strangeyes]

Hi,

You should really attempt to add this ability into VLC , it would make a loooooot of people's lives a tiny bit easier, which is always great!

But seriously, I need this.


Strange Eyes

[Jean-Baptiste Kempf]

Use the extension then.

[chuckingit]

i concur ... meaning anything that can help us editors look at video on an hours:minutes:seconds:frames basis would be AWESOME ... as fyi, i'm working with VLC 2.0.4 and tried for hours tonight following the various threads and implementing the extenstions ... yes, i got some results but none were satisfactory ... what i really want is for the progress bar to have the additional frame inclusion ... sure, the extensions i got to work could show the time in the window but this did not correspond to the progress bar ... maybe it is called the time bar ... but as the circle dot moves from left to right as the video plays, it shows hours:seconds but not hours:seconds:frames ... thus no way to stop / pause on a particular frame ... as fyi, i've been editing a 30 second spot that has a lot of movement ... thus to compare VLC players of different compressed copies of said footage, there was no way to ensure that video-A was on same 00:01 spot as video-B ...yes, both VLC players showed 00:01, but there was no way to dial in and know which frame within that 00:01 each incident of the player was on ... thus was IMPOSSIBLE for me to compare and made VLC USELESS as a pro tool to get compare renders ... lastly i should note that i was compare different compressions of the same video file and wanted to see how a media player, like VLC, showed / displayed each rendered file ... yet without being able to do frame to frame comparison = no good ... that is also why the extension method bombed ... sure they could show the frames but no way to move the sliders so that i could end up on a particular frame ... not the end of the world as i will use other pro tools i have but VLC is SO AWESOME in so many ways and it is a shame it misses out in this frame display and frame jump to option ... cordially, chuck scott

ps - here is image of screenshot i uploaded as fyi

[Jean-Baptiste Kempf]

Not surprised, but this requires some code/time...

[jonadem]

Hello,

I subscribe to this feature request.
Is it any bugtracker where we can vote for this ?

Thanks,

Jonathan

[Jean-Baptiste Kempf]

No, people cannot vote for features

[LenoT]

We also would need to display the "hh:mm:ss.ff" format (could also be *.ms instead of *.ff)!

We record behavioral (scientific) videos with a new Sony recorder (don't have the recorder type here on holidays) and need to see the RECORDING TIME in the video to be able to compare the animals' behavior with other measured parameters (temperature, respiratory events, etc.) recorded with separate equipment.
With the Sony file format I discovered that such a time information can be displayed as a subtitle.
However, going back some frames (and this is often necessary) does not update the subtitle display (I think this problem was posted somewhere above). So one has to press the play button again but the update of the subtitle window still needs some time and makes it not easy to get the exact time of a behavioral event.

Though it seems not possible I would like to vote for this feature...
Many thanks in advance...

LenoT

[phistakis]

hey,
i'm also interested in such accuracy for scientific purposes..
any chance there was some progress on this?

[masturbaker]

there's not a lot of excuses for VLC lacking such a basic feature.

essentially, I'm working on editing a clip I recorded from TV. it's in ts format. I thought VLC was the most powerful video app for basic editing, clipping, and conversion. but then I come to find out it doesn't have ability to either go back a frame in video, or to at least display the frame count so that a person can "frame by frame advance" and once past the point they need, at least use a frame counter to go back and make sure not to advance past a frame of desire.

this is making it difficult to get the exact frame I need or to otherwise clip the video accurately.

on top of this, the time code is possibly borked. because I played the video and realized the video between 47m:59s and 48m:48s was what I wanted. But I plugged those same time parameters into HandBrake and it cut nearly 10 seconds into the video and then went 10 seconds over what it was supposed to be. ;D

so it made me wonder if time codes didn't mean --please stay polite-- in VLC and it didn't have a way to accurately read or track time or frames.

then again HandBrake might be the issue there.

also it's not hard for VLC to keep track of frames. if you got so many frames in a video file then you can count it up and divide it by the amount of FPS. then you have accurately track time and also do frame by frame. why's this so --please stay polite-- hard? at the very least add a feature to display the current frame, because it's impossible that frames can't be counted within a file and kept track of (after all, video content stays the same no matter what, and it should be the same inbetween apps ..)..

[Jean-Baptiste Kempf]

there's not a lot of excuses for VLC lacking such a basic feature.

Yes, there are. Mostly because it's hard to be totally frame-accurate and because all formats behave differently.

[Thomas131]

Hello!
I just had the same problem, so I changed this addon to do, what I wants it to do. Just change the last few lines to:

Code: Select all

function input_events_handler(var, old, new, data) local secounds = vlc.var.get(vlc.object.input(), "time") local ftwofour = math.floor(secounds*24) local ftwofive = math.floor(secounds*25) local frames = string.format("%d(24fps); %d(25fps)\n%2d(24fps); %2d(25fps)\n", ftwofour, ftwofive, ftwofive % 24, ftwofive % 25) vlc.osd.message(frames) -- displays time on the screen in a video end

and you have it. The first line shows the total frames, the last the fps after a full secound. It shows 2 values every time, once for 24 fps and once for 25 fps (It can't detect the right value itself).

Feel free to do with my code whatever you want, with or without attribution.

Thomas131

[stokestack]

Hi all.

Anything ever happen with this? I'm editing a movie and the director is looking at clips in QuickTime Player and sending me notes based on the times it shows. Those are worthless, because the editor (Premiere) only shows the real timecode embedded by the camera in the file. Is there still no way to get VLC to show the embedded timecode?

Thanks!

[Jean-Baptiste Kempf]

Please share the files.

Why doesn't QT player show the real timecode?

[Coeur Noir]

Hello, I add my little voice to that needed feature…

https://forum.videolan.org/viewtopic.ph ... er#p336664

Well could there be an option to display timecode hh:mm;ss,ff whenever the input file clearly handles it ?

[dhugal]

I am trying to use the http API to get framegrabs with frame level accuracy but it is not accurate to frame level (ie one sixthiest of a second or less). I have timecode embedded in the Apple ProRes 4:2:2 .mov files so could conceivably extract that except that VLC doesn't have that functionality that I can find.
I also would really appreciate timecode info to the frame level or HHMMSS.ddd or third decimal place for seconds being both displayed and extractable.
It looks like it is possible to jog both forward and backwards one frame at a time now? That is a really welcome development! Thankyou if it is true!

Dhugal

[dhugal]

I am trying to use the http API to get framegrabs with frame level accuracy but it is not accurate to frame level (ie one sixthiest of a second or less). I have timecode embedded in the Apple ProRes 4:2:2 .mov files so could conceivably extract that except that VLC doesn't have that functionality that I can find.
I also would really appreciate timecode info to the frame level or HHMMSS.ddd or third decimal place for seconds being both displayed and extractable.
It looks like it is possible to jog both forward and backwards one frame at a time now? That is a really welcome development! Thankyou if it is true!

Dhugal

[EodiV]

Official ticket created. ticket 19115

[RobinSchmidt]

I am new to VLC and this topic but I see several common questions. In machine safety there was a technique developed to video events and determine precise stopping times by (1) determining the frame rate of the camera - 240fps where 1 frame = approx. 4.xxxx ms and (2) counting the frames from an action like pressing a Stop button with very deliberate action to be able to see the "Start" of the timed event and then going Frame by Frame to see the motion of the machine stop.
QuickTime was the tool I used in the past and worked well. My IT guy said I should switch to VLC for security reasons. But I cant seem to find the functionality.

1. Can the forum tell me if this frame counting method is possible with VLC?
2. If different frame rates are used does the time element adjust to be accurate? With Windows Media Player my 45 second video clip at 240fps runs very slow as if it will only play back at 30fps.

Thank you for your assistance to a new user..

[zimba]

VLC
In playback mode, video/audio length is displayed at end of progress bar. Elapsed time is displayed at beginning of the bar.

To mark a time(code), select Playback menu, then Custom Bookmarks, then Manage (Ctrl + B). While video/audio is playing, click on Create to mark timecode at current scene.
You may optionally enter a description of the current scene.
When finished marking all the scenes, you may close the window. To go to one of the scenes (book)marked, open the same window, and double click on the scene timecode.
The scenes may also be selected from Custom Bookmarks submenu. See image attached.
To view a scene not bookmarked, press Ctrl + T to Jump to a Specific Time from Playback menu.

To view video frame by frame, select View, then Advanced Controls. BTW, I'm on VLC 2.2.6
Click on the Frame by Frame button (below progress bar) to view next frame.

https://f1tlkq.by.files.1drv.com/y4m48c ... SA/VLC.png

[zimba]

PS: I'm using the bookmarks to get timecodes for a subtitle file.

[AMaraklov]

To Clarify:
The issue seems to be that Timecode does not necessarily start at 00:00:00:00, and that some containers like .mov have metadata embedded that has timecode in it per frame. In a bunch of studios that I know of, timecode is set to time of day, so you'll get clips with 13:23:12:09 and then there's drop frame signified by a ";" at the end instead of a ":" and all kinds of fun idiosyncrasies, which makes timecode display not trivial, but since it's a basic underlying foundation of frame based accuracy in editing, and a legacy held over from Tape, which had its own issues with time. It's something that should be accessible to the people that need / want it.

Quicktime only displays Timecode in it's Time window on the bottom left if a proper meta stream is detected, but I have to admit timecode in the modern age of Video files isn't easy to support, it's a lot of hit/miss if a format supports it, and then transcoding from format to format also depends on the platform, and the codec / container if it will preserve the metadata. The safest is of course to embedded it in the video image, which is not always what is practical depending on the content, or delivery mechanism.

For me being on Linux Quicktime doesn't seem to be an option, so I'm looking for support on Linux for Timecode, through whatever means I can to verify that the metadata in in tact from my ffmpeg conversion. At this time my only recourse seems to be ffprobe.