Timecode Converter (Frames, Seconds, SMPTE)

What timecode is

SMPTE timecode labels every frame of a video with hours, minutes, seconds and frames, written HH:MM:SS:FF. Editors, subtitle files, broadcast logs and review notes all use it to point at exact moments. At 25 fps, 00:00:01:00 is frame 25; at 30 fps it is frame 30. Change any of the three boxes above and the others update.

Drop-frame vs non-drop-frame

NTSC-derived rates of 29.97 and 59.94 fps run slightly slower than a whole number of frames per second. If you count frames as if the rate were exactly 30, timecode drifts behind the real clock by about 3.6 seconds per hour. Drop-frame timecode fixes this by skipping two frame numbers (four at 59.94) at the start of every minute, except every tenth minute. No actual frames are removed; only the labels change. It is written with a semicolon: 00:01:00;02.

Use drop-frame when timecode must match real time, such as broadcast schedules. Many editing and streaming workflows use non-drop-frame for simplicity. The important thing is to be consistent across a project, or subtitle files and edit decisions will drift. If your subtitles are already out of step, the subtitle converter can shift them.

Frame rate and streaming

Frame rate also shapes your encoding settings. A 2-second keyframe interval is 48 frames at 24 fps, 50 at 25 and 60 at 30, as explained in our guide to keyframes. Check your source's real frame rate with the video metadata viewer before setting up an encode.