Re: [Cellar] matroska and side data vs timecode

[Tobias Rapp <[e-mail]>]

On 30.10.2019 16:39, Kieran O Leary wrote:
> Kind of, but all tape capture software that I've encountered just stores 
> the starting timecode value along with framerate and all other timecodes 
> are based on this starting value. So it won't represent the source 
> videotape if there's a timecode jump or reset.

Our NOA FrameLector software stores timecode start offset and jumps 
during the capturing process. It is using VITC and/or LTC as sources, 
depending on what is available. The timecode values are stored in an XML 
alongside the media file. When exporting the media file into other 
systems currently only the initial timecode offset is embedded into the 
MXF/MOV output file.

The method of storing timecode as side-data for each frame has the 
disadvantage that all frame side-data must be read when building a 
timecode-to-playtime seeking table in players. Also the timecode 
information is lost when writing an audio-only variant of the file. Thus 
I think it would be better to store timecode data as a separate track, 
similar to how it could be done in MOV.

Best regards,
Tobias