Video Timecode Field

[airship]

For video editing purposes, how can I input timecode into a field? The format could be either:

H:MM:SS (hours:minutes:seconds)
MM:SS (minutes:seconds)

In the article Supported format specifiers for DATETIME_FORMAT I found “Preset timestamp format”, but that’s a timestamp. My desired format is time duration, similar to a stopwatch.

Thanks!

[W_Vann_Hall]

At the moment, you’ll have to accept it as a text entry and perform the necessary conversions and calculations yourself. I’ve put together a quick demonstration of some possible routines to do so here. The Duration field accepts a timestamp in either ‘HH:MM’ or ‘HH:MM:SS’ format; breaks out Hours, Minutes, and Seconds; converts Hours, Minutes, and Seconds to TotalSeconds; extracts GetHours, GetMinutes, and GetSeconds from TotalSeconds; and, finally, returns GetHours, GetMinutes, and GetSeconds to NewDuration in ‘HH:MM:SS’ format. (Alternate formulas are also provided that convert Duration directly to TotalSeconds2 and TotalSeconds directly to NewDuration2.)

The parsing routine will correctly interpret timestamps with either 1- or 2-digit unit sections, in any combination (e.g., ‘HH:MM:SS’, ‘H:MM’, ‘HH:M:SS’, ‘H:M:S’, and so on).

Note: These routines support only to 1-second granularity, but could easily be enhanced to support fractional-second or per-frame timing.

I realize this wasn’t what you were hoping to find, but I hope it’s an acceptable substitute…

[airship]

Wow @W_Vann_Hall, you’ve gone above and beyond! Talk about workaround! To be honest, mildly disappointed that Airtable doesn’t support duration for now. I’ll use your template you’ve created, and possibly just resort to Google Sheets if that becomes too annoying. Thank you!!!

[Paul_Murray]

Hello I am new to Airtable and really like it so far. I am particularly interested in using it in the world of video/digital asset management. Is there a road map to introduce some kind of time code calculator?

[Morgan_Giddings]

I am a new user of Airtable, and this is one of the most important features to me. I signed up for Airtable to keep track of audio/video assets and timecodes. I am sad that it can’t do this yet. I hope you will incorporate it soon so that I don’t have to keep looking for another solution. I like everything else about Airtable I’ve seen so far.

If you will incorporate this feature, can you give us an approximate timeline?

[Susan_Johnson]

Just wanted to add my vote for this feature- I would love to be able to use Airtable for film production, but without timecode support, it’s a no-go :frowning: Otherwise, love this product!

[Matt_Bush]

Airtable now offers a Duration field type that is available in beta. A duration field can be used for video timecodes measured in seconds or milliseconds, as well as for event lengths in hours and minutes. To sign up for early access to the Duration field type, please visit our beta signup form.

[airship]

Fantastic news @Matt_Bush! I just applied for the Beta program. To clarify, is the timecode format HH:MM:SS:MsMs (hours:minutes:seconds:milliseconds)?

[Andre_Zijlstra]

@W_Vann_Hall
That’s a great solution!

[airship · Accepted solution]

Duration field type is out of Beta since 2018-02-21! :grinning:

Duration field type Announcements

The latest field type, duration, is now live! It’s designed to store time durations measured in hours, minutes, seconds, or milliseconds. There are five different formatting options: h:mm - for hours and minutes, e.g. 1:23 h:mm:ss - for minutes and seconds, e.g. 3:45, or hours, minutes, and seconds, such as 1:23:40 h:mm:ss.s - for minutes, seconds, and deciseconds, e.g. 3:45.6, or hours, minutes, seconds, and deciseconds, such as 1:23:40.0 h:mm:ss.ss - for minutes, seconds, and centisecond…

Airtable Support

Duration field type

The duration field type is a numeric field type intended for use with time durations measured in hours, minutes, seconds, or milliseconds. Depending on the format of the duration field, the values ...