From the course: Pro Tools: Audio for Film and Video

Unlock the full course today

Join today to access over 22,400 courses taught by industry experts or purchase this course individually.

Understanding video formats, SMPTE timecode rates, NTSC, and PAL

Understanding video formats, SMPTE timecode rates, NTSC, and PAL - Pro Tools Tutorial

From the course: Pro Tools: Audio for Film and Video

Start my 1-month free trial

Understanding video formats, SMPTE timecode rates, NTSC, and PAL

Before we get into the nitty-gritty of our sound work, let's make sure we fully understand the video formats we are working with. There is a lot to know about video technology, but hey, we're here for sound, not video. So I'll bring things down to the key points that will affect you on the audio side of things. When you are working in Pro Tools with video you're working separately from the master video file, tape, or film. When you finish your work it will have to be re-married to the final visual medium, so it's absolutely essential that we keep everything in frame-accurate sync as lay in our audio. Timecode is the key to making sure everything stays in perfect sync. SMPTE, an acronym for Society of Motion Picture Television Engineers, came up with a way of counting time for visual media called SMPTE timecode. It's laid out the following way. Here up in our main counter, we have it set to timecode, and the fields go like this. We have hours, minutes, seconds, and finally frames…

Contents