Timecode/Footage Calculator
by Michael D. Most

This is a handy Windows utility to correlate film footage and video timecode. It can calculate properly using either drop frame or non drop frame code, at the user's choice. After identifying a "sync point" for the film footage, i.e., a timecode number at which the footage will equal 0+0 (feet+frames), the proper footage for any time code can be calculated. In addition, the footage can be entered and the equivalent time code calculated.

When the program is started, the sync point defaults to 1:00:00:00 (one hour of non-drop frame time code). The time code display shows "01:00:00:00" and the footage display shows "0+0". The following controls are available:

Buttons:
Enter Timecode
A dialog box will be displayed that allows entry of a new timecode number. Enter the timecode number directly (no colons), i.e. "1000000" for one hour. Clicking on OK enters the new timecode and recalculates the film footage. Clicking on Cancel leaves the old timecode in place. Note: Double clicking on the timecode display will also display the timecode entry dialog box.

Enter Footage
A dialog box will be displayed that allows entry of film footage. The footage MUST be entered in the form "x+xx", where the first x represents the feet (up to 9999), the '+' represents the plus sign, and the second xx represents the frames (up to 15). For the moment, the frames must be entered as '01', '02', '03', etc., up to 15. The feet can be any number, including 0. Clicking on OK enters the new film footage and recalculates the time code. Clicking on Cancel leaves the old footage in place. Note: Double clicking on the footage display will also display the footage entry dialog box.

Sync
A dialog box will be displayed that asks for a timecode entry that will determine the equivalent timecode for 0+0 feet. Enter the timecode number directly, as in the timecode entry dialog box. Clicking on OK recalculates the footage based on the current timecode display. Clicking on Cancel cancels the operation and leaves the old sync point active.

Check Box:
Drop Frame Time Code
Clicking on this check box changes the mode to Drop Frame. In order for the changes to be accurate, the sync point must be re-entered (while in Drop Frame mode) and either the footage or timecode re-entered (entering either one will cause the other to be recalculated as well). Note that in drop frame mode, the timecode will be displayed with semicolons instead of colons, as in non-drop mode.


This is a first version of the calculator, and does not support field accuracy. The calculated footage is based on the first field of the video frame indicated. A future version might support true field accuracy, but I felt that this was not really needed for the calculator to be useful. Of course, the Frame Master hand held calculator does essentially the same thing (although it costs $99), but doesn't just about everyone have a 386 PC on their desk running Windows at all times now? Of course they do....

Thanks to Microsoft for Visual Basic, which allowed development of this project in about 2 hours.

Note: This program requires VBRUN100.DLL, available separately on this forum, to run.

Enjoy!

						Michael D. Most
						Valencia, California
						August 18,1991
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