Adobe Premiere Pro CC: The New Timecode Panel

Posted on April 21, 2018 by Larry

With the April, 2018, release of Adobe Premiere Pro CC comes a new Timecode panel, which makes it a lot easier to see Ins, Outs and Durations for our clips.

This new panel is a surprisingly flexible tool, allowing us to track the timecode of a variety of elements in either the Source Monitor or the Timeline.

All images courtesy of John Putch “Route 30, Too!” (www.route30trilogy.com)

Hidden by default, you can display this new panel by selecting Window > Timecode. Here, for instance, I’ve dragged the panel on top of the Source Monitor to make it easier to understand what the display is showing.

Master: The timecode at the current position of the playhead for the clip or sequence.
Duration: The total length of the clip, without considering the In or Out.
In to Out: The total duration between the In and Out for the clip.

This is the full-size version of the display

To save space, right-click (or Control-click) anywhere in the panel and switch to Compact…

…and you’ll see the same information in a smaller space.

BUT WAIT, THERE’S MORE!

When you right-click the panel itself, you’ll access a wealth of additional options.

For example, the Display menu allows us to choose what each line displays. Sequence allows us to choose different timecode measurements from the sequence itself.

While Source Tracks displays timing elements from different tracks within the clip or sequence.

These options become especially relevant when selecting the Timeline, instead of the Source Monitor. Here, for example, I stacked two video and audio clips and put the playhead in the middle of them.

NOTE: All timecode displays are based on the position of the playhead and which panel is selected.

I added three lines to the panel, using this menu option, then stretched the vertical height of the display. (The panel does not resize automatically.)

Next, I changed the display for each line to show the timecode at the position of the playhead for each clip, plus the remaining time left in the sequence. If you’ve ever needed to align two clips based on timecode, you’ll understand how really helpful this display can be.

This is SO cool!

We can also display different timecode formats, as well as save or recall custom layouts.

Working with timecode is essential in any edit. I’ve never seen a more complete and flexible timecode display than what Adobe provided in this update.

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