SMPTE 12M-2-2008

This standard forms a portion of one of the oldest SMPTE Standards for Television. SMPTE Time Code was developed originally for analog television recording systems and thus dealt only with interlaced television systems operating with frame rates up to 30 frames per second. It is, however, flexible enough in design to be used in digital television systems, both standard definition and high definition. The actual transport of the codewords for digital systems varies significantly from the transport methods defined for analog systems, and is defined in this document (formerly named SMPTE RP 188). The time and control code information is carried as the payload of ancillary packets which are located in the Ancillary data space of a digital television signal. This type of a time and control code transport is applicable to 8-, 10-, or 12-bit television systems.

For television storage systems the time address that forms part of the time code is primarily intended as a label to identify discrete frames.