Timecode Converter and Calculator

This free timecode converter turns timecode into frames and seconds, adds and subtracts timecodes, and moves timecode between frame rates, all in your browser.

How this works

Timecode counts frames as hours:minutes:seconds:frames. At whole-number rates such as 24, 25 and 30 fps the count matches real time exactly. At 23.976, 29.97 and 59.94 fps the real frame rate is 1000/1001 of the whole number, so the count slowly drifts from the wall clock, by about 3.6 seconds per hour.

Drop-frame timecode fixes that drift for 29.97 and 59.94 fps by skipping frame numbers, not real frames. At 29.97 it skips frames 00 and 01 at the start of every minute except every tenth minute. At 59.94 it skips four. A semicolon before the frames, as in 01:00:00;00, shows drop-frame. No picture or sound is lost.

Which "keep the same" should I use?

Real time answers "what is the timecode at this same moment in the other frame rate", useful for matching a cue to a stopwatch. Frame count answers "what does frame number N read as in the other rate", useful when the same frames are relabelled, for example a 24 fps sequence that will play at 25.

Questions

What are the valid frame values?

Frames run from 0 up to one less than the timecode base, so 0 to 23 at 24 fps and 0 to 29 at 29.97 fps. Drop-frame also has no frames 00 and 01 at the start of most minutes at 29.97.

How many samples is that?

The first calculator also shows the position in samples at 44.1, 48 and 96 kHz. The result is the real-time position, rounded to the nearest sample.

Is anything uploaded?

No. All of the maths runs in your browser and nothing you type is sent to the site.