[time-nuts] Time Code generator

[jimlux]

Chris Albertson wrote:
> Adding time code to video would be redundant.  All video is already time coded.
All *digital* video is timecoded..
Record that video on an analog 1/2" or 3/4" deck and you need the 
timecode on the longitudinal audio track. Yes, primarily as you say, to 
support editing.
It's been 12 years since I sat in an edit bay, so I'll bet that analog 
gear is pretty much out of the picture by now, though.


> 
> But many consumer level cameras "fake" it by defining time = zero at
> the start of a
> tape or the first frame in memory.  If absolute time needs to be record on a
> consumer level camera then I'd shoot a few frames of a digital clock and then
> later in a video editor adjust the time code

That would work..(e.g. it's just like slating at the beginning of a film 
take) Sometimes it would be more convenient to just record an audio 
timecode on the audio track.

Where I could see timecode being handy is when you're trying to do 
automated processing.  I worked on a system 15 years ago where we had 
100 cameras, and we did the alignment by hand, and it was pretty 
painful.  What's easy when syncing A and B roll gets tedious when 
there's 100 takes you're essentially cutting together.

I think there's also a lot of utility in figuring a way to do it in the 
"consumer electronics" space.  Say I was doing a radio interferometer 
kind of experiment and just wanted to do a poor man's VLBI, using a 
GPSDO at each station for time sync.

> 
> OK, all that said there is a group of people who routinely record WWV
> audio on their
> video.  Amateur occultation timers do this.  These people use video
> cameras through
> telescopes to record when a asteroid passes in front of a star and
> blocks its light.
> This can produce very acuate orbital data for the asteroid and if enough people
> all over the world record it you can even deduce the shape of the asteroid.
> 
>
>