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We are providing a video file to a video editor (person, not program) for use in Adobe Premiere Pro. The video is an extract from a sequence, so the first frame of the file is considered frame 0, even though it is frame 100 of the sequence.

The relative frame number (100) is typically burned into the frame like a subtitle, so that the editor can see it.

We'd like to also provide the relative frame number in the file itself, so that Premiere is aware of it. This way the first frame of the file will actually be enumerated as frame 100.

Is there a video format that supports frame numbering in this way?

lofidevops
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1 Answers1

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There might be a way but I cannot test it as I don't own Adobe Premiere.

Adobe created a standard for metadata exchange called the Extensible Metadata Platform (XMP). For serialization it commonly uses a subset of RDF/XML.

XMP can be embedded in formats such as MP4 and MOV and in fact ffmpeg can embed in the latter:

ffmpeg ... -metadata xmp=[xmp_data] output.mov

Check it with:

ffprobe output.mov -show_format -export_xmp 1

If the input file does not support XMP embedding, or if it's read-only, Adobe Premiere should create a sidecar XML file containing the XMP data.

Of course you need to see if the starting frame number is exposed as an XMP property. If it's not, ie. it's saved at the project level, then it won't work. I think you can easily test this by making a file read-only, setting the Start Frame in the GUI and then by checking the sidecar file.

If it is exposed then there's a good chance it will read it on open/import from the embedded data or sidecar file.

aergistal
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  • I can verify that Premiere exports XMP (and EDL), but my use case has changed slightly, so I can't verify that embedded/sidecar XMP values are honored - if/when I am able to test, or someone else can confirm, I'll accept this answer - it was very helpful, thanks! – lofidevops Jan 07 '16 at 10:24