Show both current and end times in VirtualDub’s status bar

By default, VirtualDub shows only the current time in its status bar.

VirtualDub’s status bar can be configured using a format string.  You can set it to show the end time of the video as well. It can also show where the current frame lies in the full uncut source video. This becomes relevant only after you have cut out some portions of the video. Otherwise, both the current time and the source time would be the same. VirtualDub calls this feature timeline format.

Go to Options > Preferences > Timeline

Most of the formatting options are explained in the window itself.

• All the formatting characters related to the current play head position are lowercase letters.
• The capitalized versions will give us the corresponding source values. That is where the play head is in relation to the complete unedited video.
• Similarly adding a > between the % and the format character will give us info relating to the end time of the video. End time will reduce as we make edits to the video.

For example:

• %m extracts minutes from the current time.
• %>m extracts minutes from the end time of the timeline.
• %M extracts minutes from the source time.

The numbers between the % and the format character are for specifying padding. The first number, o in the default format string, represents the padding character. VirtualDub supports padding with zeros and spaces. The second number represents the padding width. For example, if you use %02m as the format string, 8 minutes will be shown as 08 since 8 has only one digit and we had asked for a width of 2. However, 18 minutes will be shown as 18 itself since it has two digits, the same as the width.

In the end, I ended up using this format stringFrame %f <%h:%02m:%02s> <%>h:%>02m:%>02s> [%c] <%H:%02M:%02S>. Here is the result.

1. Current Time
2. Total Video Length
3. Current Frame in Source