@Vincent-Mesman Hi, That is what i do as @set suggests, add an Empty event then apply the Timecode to that, the Empty event will snap to the length of your clip in the timeline or you can drag that to any length you want & it's a bit easier to move around the screen to the position you want or add fx's like colour .

My question wasn't so much about a temporary solution. I often do that, but in this case it causes too much hassle because of the number of clips, the larger differences, distributed animation activities, and having a clean production administration. In short: a more professional workflow.

I have no problem reading the media's embedded timecode. Both AVI and image sequence never contain embedded timecode as far as I know.
Therefore, the displayed TC always starts at 0 by default. That's exactly why I want to use the Custom TC.
For now it seems that this default method is the only valid method.

Additional question: is there a situation or procedure where the Custom TC is actually functional?

Less relevant to my question: I did switch between EBU (25 fps) and Absolute Frames (in animation we're working with frames). No difference: still not obeying the Custom TC.

I'm not really sure I understand the issue, but if you put the Timecode plug-in as:

• an Event FX, you'll get the timecode of that event where 0:0:0 equals the beginning of the event
• a Media FX, you'll get the timecode of the media where 0:0:0 equals the beginning of the media (which could be different than the start of the event that holds it)
• a Track FX, you'll get the timecode of the project timeline where 0:0:0 equals the beginning of the project, but only visible where an event exists on that track
• a Video Output FX, same result as track level, but visible regardless of where an event exists or not

@Vincent-Mesman

Does this help?

Gary and John, you are both right.
I never thought of choosing the MediaFX over the EventFX.

It looks much more logical now.
Thanks everyone!

BTW I'd like to ask one more question about the Absolute Frames format:
why does it display "159,000" at frame 159 with three zeros after the decimal point?
It's not a floating point value is it? A frame # is integer.

@Vincent-Mesman @gary-rebholz

I tend to think there should not be a decimal in Absolute Frames display. I really don't care how it's handled internally.

@Vincent-Mesman, @john_dennis, what if you have "quantize to frames" turned off and you are actually between frames? Perhaps you're working with audio...

@jetdv

I understand that audio has samples that occur more frequently than the frame rate of video. But, audio doesn't have frames. The display option Absolute Frames implies to me that it is a video only display option.

That's just me...

@Vincent-Mesman, @john_dennis, what if you have "quantize to frames" turned off and you are actually between frames? Perhaps you're working with audio...

It's only used that way by the Timeline TC, with Quantize to Frames turned off.
Regardless of the Quantize setting, it seems that the Video TC always ends with ",000".

It would make sense to remove the zeros when Quantize to Frames is turned on, and
actually use the three digits when Quantize to Frames is turned off. Because it takes unnecessary screen space.

An additional slider for transparency, and a more flexible size/positioning method, would not hurt either.

There is no Timecode format that explicitly deals with samples.

There is a display option that allows one to see samples for cursor position, selection start, etc. when working inside Vegas Pro.

I don't see the need to get those all mixed up.

@gary-rebholz @jetdv @Vincent-Mesman