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I'm writing a program that interprets LTC timestamps from audio channels in video files. The goal is to remove the LTC track and replace it with some kind of native timestamps directly in the video file--in a way that downstream NLEs can interpret correctly e.g. for multi-camera timelines.

I've got the LTC parsing done, so for each frame of the video, I can tell what its timestamp is. How do I encode that in containers like .MP4 and .MOV? It would be simplest if I could do it with ffmpeg.

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  • What's the framerate?
    – Gyan
    Oct 25, 2018 at 4:29
  • LTC is fixed at 24 fps; video frame rate can be anything from 23.9 to 60. Curious how this affects the problem.
    – iter
    Oct 25, 2018 at 16:23
  • As a simplification, and making some assumptions about timebases, I'm only using LTC to calculate the timecode for the first video frame. For every other frame in the file, I simply add the frame's offset from the beginning of the file to the first frame's timecode.
    – iter
    Oct 25, 2018 at 16:26
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    MP4s and MOVs store only the TC of the first frame, as a literal frame count, along with the framerate. The consuming app converts that frame count back to a TC string using the framerate. For drop-frame TC, ffmpeg only supports 30 and 60 fps. I'll add 24/48 when I have time and a SMPTE reference that I can consult. For non-drop TC, any fps is fine. Add -timecode HH:MM:SS:FF to your cmd. Use ; for the final separator if TC is drop frame.
    – Gyan
    Oct 25, 2018 at 16:52
  • Oh, this is cool! At this stage in the project, this is plenty. If you put this as an answer, I'd like to accept it to close out the original question. But your answer brings up more questions :=) 1) I gather from your answer that both MP4 and MOV store DF/NDF flag along with the framerate. 2) I thought DF only existed for 29.98 (and, by extension, for 59.94). I've been using this reference for my LTC code: itu.int/dms_pubrec/itu-r/rec/br/… 3) I gather from your answer that you are an ffmpeg maintainer. Which parts do you work on?
    – iter
    Oct 25, 2018 at 20:24

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@Gyan gives the answer in comments:

MP4s and MOVs store only the TC of the first frame, as a literal frame count, along with the framerate. The consuming app converts that frame count back to a TC string using the framerate. For drop-frame TC, ffmpeg only supports 30 and 60 fps. I'll add 24/48 when I have time and a SMPTE reference that I can consult. For non-drop TC, any fps is fine. Add -timecode HH:MM:SS:FF to your cmd. Use ; for the final separator if TC is drop frame.

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