Hey there,
   I've been working with a client who's been sending me MP4 clips out of Premiere to score to, and I've got a timecode issue that doesn't make much sense to me. My video codec knowledge isn't the greatest, so maybe one of you might have an idea?
 
   The problem is that I can't get Sonar's SMPTE readout to agree with timecode that's burnt into the videos without doing something weird. If I click on any random place on the timeline, there seems to be an offset of about 3 frames. But then if I set the offset to that using "Set timecode at now", my timecode no longer matches at the beginning of the video, which is starting at 0:00:00:00. So then for the first few frames they don't agree and then at frame 4 they do. I suppose I can just ignore that and/or be more of a hardass about making sure clients are slating the stuff they send me, but it's got me paranoid that there might be something going on that's throwing off sync in work I'm sending out. If I watch the same videos in Quicktime, I don't see any obvious problems.
 
These videos are all at 23.976, and I'm using the Media Foundation engine. Anyone else seen this? Is there something about MP4 playback that somehow messes with the first few frames of a video, thus Sonar's SMPTE timeline to disagree with its own?
 
Thanks,
Mike
 
 
 EDIT: Should've said before - Win7x64, Sonar Platinum Dorchester
 

Check out the K-Lite Codec Pack mentioned in this post. I installed that and the installation scours the registry for "known bad" codecs as it goes... I had 5 or so it removed, along with 20ish registry entries calling them (my post is a bit lower in that same thread). IIRC, the "mega" download is only around 11MB, which I ran an advanced (highest level) install with.

The only way I've been able to get timecode/frame counts to match is to use MP4 and (this is the trick) have the VideoEngine flag set to 0 in your AUD.INI file
 
[Video]
VideoEngine=0
 
Here's the KB article on how to change the video engine:
https://www.cakewalk.com/Documentation?product=SONAR&language=3&help=Troubleshooting.10.html
 
If I don't do this and have Sonar show the frame number and load a MP4 that is just frame numbers rendered out (I used After Effects) the two numbers never match.  With the Media Foundation engine I can never get the frame number Sonar displays to match the video.  But the old DirectShow engine does work (but only for MP4 videos).
 
Try this test, render out a test video with visible frame count and time code only.  Load it into Sonar and set Sonar to show the frame number on the video and see if you can make it match the video (it should of course).  With the Media Foundation Engine if I rewind Sonar will show frame 4, even though the video is showing something else (2 or 3).  Then if I hit the rewind button again (and yes this makes no sense) Sonar will show frame 2 and the video will go to frame 1.  Forward jumping is even worse.  And just plain play and then stop the numbers never match.  After a bunch of tests I've given up on the Media Foundation Engine, it just doesn't work.
 
The only combo that comes close to working is DirectShow and MP4 videos.  Any other combination is just full of fail.
 
 

Time Code is a tricky thing.  It use to be a number burned into each frame,  but guess what?  We don't use actual frames anymore. 
 
Maybe your TC is not 23 fps.  Try other formats.  If your TC starts out correct and then drifts farther and farther away over time, there is a mismatch in TC.  If it is off 2-3 frames at a random point, then back to correct latter on...and so forth,  that is normal and just 2 systems not agreeing where a frame starts and stops...cause there really are no frames.   If TC starts correct and then at some point becomes 3 frames off everywhere it is most likely that those 3 frames where skipped by the system when generating the TC.  I use to seen that a lot.
 
I work with a lot of TV and starting @ 00:00:00;00 is something we all avoid 'cause it causes a host of problems.  I always burn my own TC to look at along with what the editor sent, so when I'm scoring to pic I can see the Editors TC,  TC generated from Sony Vegas and Sonar's own TC.  I generate an AVI file to work with cause you never know what is going to be up with Quicktime or .mp4 files.  If there is a TC conflict I just keep working and use Sonar's TC to guide my edits (Rarely does Sony Vegas and Sonar's TC conflict) and then have a conversation with the editor and the sound mixer just to avoid any issues.  Computers hold time very well and any sync issues are easily fixed.    
 
 
 

The above is a must. BITC all the way. Cuts out any insecurities on sync.

Hey guys,
   Thanks for all the recommendations. 
 
I ran the K-lite installer (thanks!) and I did indeed have a few crappy codecs on my machine. My .ini had already been set to use DirectShow, but because of some issue with an aforementioned crappy codec, it was failing and going to MediaFoundation instead. Post K-lite, it's now correctly using DirectShow, and the TC oddness seems to be mostly corrected. There's still a slight discrepancy, but it appears to be less than a frame and may have as much to do with the files they sent as Sonar being weird.
 
Thanks!
Mike