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About this tool
Convert between SMPTE timecode, total frames and real seconds at any frame rate, with correct drop-frame handling.
This converter moves between SMPTE timecode, an absolute frame number and real elapsed seconds at any frame rate from 23.976 to 120 fps. It implements the SMPTE ST 12-1 drop-frame rule exactly: at 29.97 fps the frame labels :00 and :01 are skipped at the start of every minute except minutes divisible by ten, which removes 108 labels an hour and keeps timecode aligned with the wall clock. Non-drop timecode at 29.97 runs 3.6 seconds slow per hour, and the tool reports that drift alongside every conversion so you can see exactly where a session, an EDL or a delivery spec will disagree.
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Rejects labels that do not exist and converts both directions with the canonical SMPTE algorithm.
Uses the exact 1000/1001 rates, so 29.97 is 30000/1001 rather than a rounded decimal.
Every result reports how far non-drop timecode has wandered from the wall clock at that point.
Multiply out the hours, minutes and seconds by the nominal frame rate and add the frame field: frames = (3600×h + 60×m + s) × fps + ff. At 25 fps, 00:01:00:00 is 1,500 frames. For drop-frame timecode you then subtract 2 frames for every minute that is not a multiple of ten.
Drop frame skips frame *labels*, not pictures, so that timecode keeps pace with real time at 29.97 fps. Non-drop counts every label in order and therefore falls behind the wall clock by 3.6 seconds every hour — over a one-hour programme that is 108 frames. Drop frame is written with a semicolon before the frames, as 01:00:00;00.
107,892 frames of real picture, which is exactly what a drop-frame reading of 01:00:00;00 represents. A non-drop reading of 01:00:00:00 counts 108,000 frames, which takes 3,603.6 real seconds — one hour plus 3.6 seconds.
No. Drop frame exists only for the 29.97 fps family — 29.97, 59.94 and 119.88 — where skipping 2, 4 or 8 labels a minute makes timecode match the clock. At 23.976 the arithmetic does not work out to a whole number of skipped labels, so the format is always non-drop and simply runs slow against real time.
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