Description

Converts an SMPTE timecode string into a frame number, taking into account the SMPTE_Offset value of the active clip.

The SMPTE_Offset value of the active clip specifies the timecode start for the data on the clip. It is there so that frame 1 of your data corresponds to the starting timecode of your take. Without it, your frame numbers would end up large and cumbersome.

If you want to ignore the SMPTE_Offset in the computation, specify the -ignoreOffset flag. You may wish to do this when computing a SMPTE_Offset of your own, for instance. In that situation, you wouldn't want the existing offset value in the computation.

The frames (FF) portion of the timecode string should go from 0 to 24, 25, or 30 depending on the current timecode standard (Film, PAL, and NTSC respectively). As your scene rate may be at a frame rate that is a higher multiple of those standard rates (e.g. 120 fps for NTSC), the sub-frame portion indicates the "in between frame" of the frame passed in.

Functional area

System

Command syntax

Syntax

smpteToFrame "smpteStr"[-ignoreOffset]

Arguments

Name	Type	Required	Comments
`smpteStr`	string	yes	The timecode value to convert to a frame number.

Flags

Name	Flag arguments	Argument type	Exclusive to	Comments
`ignoreOffset`	0	—	—	By default, the active clip's SMPTE_Offset value is removed from the timecode argument to produce a final frame value. This flag causes the offset to be ignored causing a straight timecode-to-frames conversion.

Return value

integer

Examples

// Set the timecode offset of the active clip
setProperty "SMPTE_Offset" "01:23:45:12(2)" -onMod "TheActiveClip";
 
// Now convert a the value at exactly the one hour mark into a frame
// number. 
int $frameNumber = `smpteToFrame "01:00:00:00(0)"`;
print $frameNumber;

Additional information

Related commands

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