Despite using Shotcut for some time and producing a number of videos I’ve a question I feel I should know the answer to but it’s flummoxed me. 
At the start of a clip the video timeline count is showing 01:01:57;20
At the start of the next clip, the play head is at 01:02:49;06
If I right click and chose the properties of the clip in between those two it shows Duration 00:05:20;20.
Why is the duration not just the result of subtracting the previous two timeline counts? What am I missing?
Just to be sure, when you say video timeline count you do mean mean the counter located under the Preview panel, right?
This counter shows two things:
When you select a clip, any clip, and go to the Properties panel, the Duration value is the actual length of that selected clip.
The result of subtracting the previous two timeline counts gives you the time between the Start of clip A and the Start of clip C
If you select clip B (that is between clips A and C), the Duration value shown in Properties is the length of clip B
So to sum up, The Duration of Clip B in Properties can’t be the same value as the distance between the starting points of A and C
I hope I understood your question correctly and that I didn’t confuse you with my answer 
Thank you for taking the time to explain that in such detail @MusicalBox. And all that makes perfect sense (and confirms what I thought I should be seeing).
It’s just that’s not what I think my example is telling me.
So yes, by video timeline count I meant the play head location.
So it’s at 01:01:57;20 (why does mine show a semi-colon and yours doesn’t? I assume that’s the frame count?) So my play head is a 1hr 1min 57s and 20 frames. Correct?
I then press ‘next’ in the player and that takes me to the next clip (in this case). Which is also the end of the clip that I was previously at the start of. Correct?
The play head location is now showing 01:02:49;06. Ignoring the frame counts if I do the math the difference between the two positions is 52s. Agree?
Actually, in typing that out I think I’ve just realised where I’m going wrong!
All my clips are 5m 20s long. They are imported from a GoPro which chunks up its recording into 5m 20s files. That value in the clip properties is not the data I need though. It’s the manual calculation between the two play head positions.
Maybe I should have asked my question a different way!
I tie my videos up to a GPX file. So if I take 52s out of the video, I have to take 52s out of the GPX file - importantly at the corresponding point in time.
I cannot see anywhere where I can get the time of day for the start of the clip I’ve just deleted. All I can do is say it was 1hr 1min 57s from the start of the gpx file / start of the video. Is that correct?
Thanks for your help.
Malcolm
Not sure about that. Probably depends on what version of Shotcut we use. I’m on v23.06.14
If what you need is to know the exact duration between 2 points in the timeline, I think the solution is to use a Marker.
You can create a marker at the START position end extend it to the END position.
To extend a marker to the right: Grab the right half of the marker, press and hold Ctrl and drag to the right.
Then position your mouse cursor anywhere ON the marker and the length (duration) of the marker will appear on the screen.
I’m on v23.06.14 too. Strange. I’m guessing it’s a Windows config difference…
Whilst using Markers is useful and provides the time length on the screen I don’t think that will help whilst executing the editing I’m carrying out as it requires an additional step. Also clicking and dragging doesn’t seem particularly accurate either.
Reading back my previous two posts I can see that perhaps I’ve not explained myself as well as I could and have probably caused further confusion.
I’ll use Split at Playhead (S) to mark the beginning and the end of the section in the clip I want to (Ripple) Delete. I need to know the length of the clip between those two splits. Whilst I see I could add a Marker (M) and then Ctrl drag to the next split, trying this out it doesn’t always land exactly on the split.
Now that I understand the play head location times I can manually calculate the section to be deleted before I press delete.
Thanks for your help.
The semi colon is due to your the frame rate and drop-frame timecode. There are two places to get a timeline clip duration without other steps: clip tooltip and timeline duration in properties.
There are two duration values in properties for a timeline clip. One is source and the other is the possibly shorter if trimmed (split is a form of trimming) on a timeline clip.
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