Syncing MP4 video files with LTC on CH1, and a BWF WAV containing timecode metadata

["robertlazarski ." <robertlazarski@xxxxxxxxx>]

Hello! I am a long time Linux user and I used to participate in the LAU group many years ago. A while ago, I decided to do my music "out of the box" with mostly analog gear.

I am returning once again to LAU. My goal here is to edit several cameras videos together using different angles, into one video. And use the WAV generated from the F8 as the audio. Actually I plan on having some professional mastering done on the tracks from the F8. But I am doing the video editing part.

I need to sync videos from multiple Android phone cameras that are recording some "live" music instrument performances in my home studio. The videos contain CH1 as LTC audio (sounds nasty!) , and a scratch track on CH2 - both coming from a Zoom F8 outputs. The phone camera inputs are from an Irig DUO over USB. The F8 is recording the performances via its 8 inputs, to a BWF WAV file on a removable SD that contains all 8 tracks.

I can see the timecode metadata of the WAV using bwftool. I can see all the tracks in Ardour when importing the WAV (compiled latest release from source on OpenSuse LEAP 42.2) and also Audacity.

About the LTC and timecode: Lots of people use "Plural Eyes" and closed source software to sync audio and video. I believe LAU will understand why that is not an option for me. Really though I have a personal interest in timecode, and some equipment that uses it. I want to try it.

Nice cameras like REDD can accept timecode on a BNC input, or generate it. Phone cameras and even many Cannon cameras AFAIK do not have that capability. While not ideal, it is common I believe to record the timecode as LTC audio on one of the stereo tracks on the camera. These performances are mostly under 5 minutes and I don't expect drift to be an issue - if so I will need a better camera later on.

My idea was to startup XJadeo with the "-l" (LTC) option, and receive events via "mplayer -ao jack F8.WAV"  .

I have it backwards though: The MP4 loaded into Xjadeo has the LTC audio track. The WAV has the timecode metadata. And I have several MP4 files with LTC. Ardour doesn't read MP4 files. I am stuck on the next step here. I am a little weak in my video skills, I am trying to use this project to learn more.

Any advice? Well, besides skipping timecode ... I got that a lot already on the "gearslutz" forum :-) .

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