MiniDV2AVI/Todo/Extract milliseconds timestampt from DV capture

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Revision as of 21:02, 17 September 2012 by StasFomin (Talk | contribs)

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In most known DV format description: http://dvswitch.alioth.debian.org/wiki/DV_format/ written:

Audio/video recording time

byte 0
pack type = 0x53 (audio), 0x63 (DV video) or 0x93 (MPEG-2 video)
byte 1
bits 0-5: frames past second, BCD, or 0x3f = unknown
byte 2
bits 0-6: seconds past minute, BCD
byte 3
bits 0-6: minutes past hour, BCD
byte 4
bits 0-5: hours past start of recording, BCD

But actually, in my experience, this byte 1 is always FF.

60 FF FF 00 FF 61 3F 80 FC FF 62 FF F0 E8 12 63 FF 87 C9 E3 FF

Using «LTC TimeCode» for guessing «actual milliseconds» is not an option, because LTC is different for each cassette.

Time code (TC)

This is based on LTC but without the sync word. The user bits may be encoded in a binary group pack.


Appears as pack 3 in each subcode block, and also as pack 5 in subcode blocks in the first half of each frame.

byte 0
pack type = 0x13
byte 1
  • bits 0-5: frames past second, binary-coded decimal (BCD)
  • bit 6: drop-frame timecode flag
  • bit 7: colour frame synchronisation flag (irrelevant for DV?)
byte 2
  • bits 0-6: seconds past minute, BCD
byte 3
  • bits 0-6: minutes past hour, BCD
  • bit 7: binary group flag 0
byte 4
  • bits 0-5: hours past midnight, BCD
  • bits 6-7: binary group flags 1-2

Is there any hack to guess real milliseconds (or frames after second) for timecode?