Early in my career, I needed to learn about timecode, especially the differences between PAL, NTSC, drop frame, and non-drop frame. For some reason, I simply couldn’t grasp the difference between drop-frame and non-drop-frame. I couldn’t even find the reason why there was a difference. Eventually, after many questions and many hours of reading, I discovered that the key to understanding the difference was in learning the reason why both flavors exist.
That was over twenty years ago, and if you’re anything like I was and would like some clarification, keep reading.
