tictacsync 0.1a6

command for syncing audio video recordings

tictacsync

Warning: this is at pre-alpha stage

Unfinished sloppy code ahead, but should run without errors. Some functionalities are still missing. Don't run the code without parental supervision. Suggestions and enquiries are welcome via the lists hosted on sourcehut.

Description

tictacsync is a python script to sync audio and video files shot with dual system sound using a specific hardware timecode generator called Tic Tac Sync. The timecode is named YaLTC for yet another longitudinal time code and should be recorded on a scratch track on each device for the syncing to be performed, later in postprod before editing.

Status

tictacsync scans for audio video files and displays their starting time and then merges overlapping audio and video recordings. Multicam syncing with one stereo audio recorder has been tested (spring 2023, see demo). Multi audio recorders coming soon...

Installation

First, you need running ffmpeg and sox installations accessible through your PATH system environment variable. Then pip install the program:

pip install tictacsync

This should install python dependencies and the tictacsync command.

Usage

Download some sample files here, unzip and run

tictacsync sampleFiles

The resulting synced videos will be in a subfolder tictacsynced. For a very verbose output add the -v flag:

tictacsync -v sampleFiles

When the argument is an unique media file (not a directory) two zoomable plots will be produced for diagnostic purpose (close the plotting window for the 2nd one) and the decoded starting time will be output to stdin:

tictacsync sampleFiles/canon24fps01.MOV

Typical first plot produced :

Typical second plot produced (note the 34 FSK encoded bits 0010111101001111100110000110010000):

and the stdout output:

recording started at 2022-03-01 19:57:28.796803+00:00
true sample rate 44099.353 Hz
first sync at 53060 samples