Apple Final Cut Pro 5 - Manual (Page 775)

440 Part III Fine-Tuning Your Edit
Displaying Timecode in Final Cut Pro
By default, when Final Cut Pro displays a clip’s timecode, it reads the timecode from the
timecode track of the clip’s media file. This timecode is permanently stored in the
media file, not in the clip, and it is referred to as the source timecode because it is the
same as the timecode from the original source tape. When you display source
timecode, you see the timecode directly from the media file timecode track.
Note: It is possible to permanently modify the timecode in a media file’s timecode
track, but in most cases this is not recommended, because the whole point of the
timecode track is that it allows you to refer back to the original videotape when
necessary. If you change the timecode in the media file, the timecode no longer
corresponds to the timecode on the original tape, making recapture difficult and
project interchange files (such as EDL and OMF files) inaccurate.
Choosing a Timecode Display Option
Final Cut Pro has the following timecode display options, although not all options are
available for all frame rates:
 Non-Drop Frame: The timecode counter counts at a consistent rate without dropping
any numbers from the count. Non-drop frame timecode is available as a display
option for every frame rate.
 Drop Frame: Frames 0 and 1 are skipped the first second of every minute, unless
the minute number is exactly divisible by 10. The dropped numbers do not appear
in the Final Cut Pro timecode fields because they’ve been dropped and are not on
your tape. Drop frame timecode is only available as a display option for 29.97 fps
(NTSC) media files.
Frame Rate Versus Timecode
The frame rate of film, videotape, or media files determines how quickly frames are
recorded or played back. Timecode (or edge code in the case of film) is a unique
address for each frame, providing easy navigation, logging, recapturing, and final Edit
Decision Lists (EDLs) that accurately refer back to original camera reels. In most cases,
the frame rate and the timecode rate are the same, but film-to-video and 24p
workflows often use media files with differing video and timecode rates.
For more information about frame rate and timecode, see Volume IV, Appendix B,
“Frame Rate and Timecode.”