MP4 and timecodes

[rambo999]

Hi all,

Fairly new to using some of these tools, so I'm sure someone can help me with these questions ;).

I want timecode embedded into my captured MP4 files. I've got a timecode generator hooked into a Sony EX3. The timecode shows on the view port when using the camera, but the MP4 files that I capture don't seem to have the timecode in them. At least not as far as I can tell... which leads to my questions.

I'm not certain how to tell if there's a valid timecode embedded into the MP4. From various posts, people mention using any number of tools which display the header information for the MP4, but could someone tell me what specifically to be looking for in there? I was thinking there'd be a timecodeStartOffset or something.

Alternatively, I used AviSynth with the FFMpegSource2 plugin to try and check the timecode:
FFVideoSource("out.mp4", timecodes="timecodes.txt")

This produces a timecode file that starts with 00:00:00:00. I know that my timecode has an offset for this video (or should). My second question is: am I using FFVideoSource with the timecode argument correctly? Does it normally return correct timecode offsets if such offsets exist in the MP4?

Finally, assuming that I am correct in that the timecode is not in this file based on the FFVideoSource AviSynth call not starting with the offset that should be embedded in, I was wondering if anybody has successfully embedded timecode from an EX3 camera. If it shows up in the camera view port when I'm using it, should it automatically get embedded in the created MP4, or is there something else that needs to be done?

Thanks for reading and I appreciate any responses to any of my questions!

[Chikuzen]

Timecode that FFVideoSource treats is matroska timecode format (http://www.bunkus.org/videotools/mkvtoolnix/doc/mkvmerge.html#mkvmerge.external_timecode_files), and not SMPTE timecode (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SMPTE_time_code).

SMPTE timecode is exists for media such as like tapes and films. And the spec of MP4 doesn't assume this is treated. Though QuickTime format(.mov) seems to be able to treat this.

[rambo999]

Thanks for the response :).

Just confirming: What I'm taking out of it is that MP4 files, then, do not natively support SMTPE timecodes and so any camera that might capture as MP4 as the format more than likely would not have any timecode embedded in it (unless there was some custom change in the header file).

But MOV files do support it, eh? That's at least promising :).

Has anybody out there embedded timecode through the generator with an EX3 camera (or something similar) or should I assume then that its not possible (since the output format to capture is MP4)?

Again, thanks :).