You might also think about timecode in film terms as edge numbers. Timecode is just the camera’s way of assigning every frame its own number. A Timecode is a sequence of numeric codes generated at specific intervals by a timing system. Timecode uses military or 24 hour clock time, that means that after 12 o’clock the numbers do not reset to 1 (1:00), the next hour is 13:00. Timecode is expressed as "hh:mm:ss:ff", where 'hh' stands for 'hours', 'mm' stands for 'minutes', 'ss' for 'seconds', and 'ff' for 'frames'. In film 24 frames, while it is 25 or 30 for video in PAL and NTSC (National Television System Committee) systems respectively. The last couple of numbers ('ff') runs only up to either 23 or 24 / 29, as per the format the camera is set for, and refreshes to '00' to resume counting. Timecodes are used for synchronization, and for logging in recorded media. Timecode runs from 00:00:00:00 to 23:59:59:29, at 30fps. With 24 frames of video this number would be 23:59:59:23. Timecode comes in 2 systems: Drop Frame and Non-drop Frame. Drop frame timecode is a compromise invented when color NTSC video was invented. The NTSC wanted to maintain compatibility with existing monochrome TVs. Drop frame SMPTE (Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers) timecode was invented. In spite of what the name implies, no video frames are dropped (skipped) using drop-frame timecode, only numbers.