Displaying timecode using NSTimer and NSDateFormatter
- by Chris B
Hi. I am very close to completing my first iphone app and it has been a joy. I am trying to add running timecode using the current time via an NSTimer displaying the current time (NSDate) on a UILabel. NSDate is working fine for me, showing hour, minute, second, milliseconds. But instead of milliseconds, I need to show 24 frames per second.
The problem is that I need the frames per second to be synced 100% with the hour, minute and second, so I can't add the frames in a separate timer. I tried that and had it working but the frame timer was not running in sync with the date timer.
Can anyone help me out with this? Is there a way to customize NSDateFormatter so that I can have a date timer formatted with 24 frames per second? Right now I'm limited to formatting just hours, minutes, seconds, and milliseconds.
Here's the code I'm using right now
-(void)runTimer {
// This starts the timer which fires the displayCount method every 0.01 seconds
runTimer = [NSTimer scheduledTimerWithTimeInterval: .01
target: self
selector: @selector(displayCount)
userInfo: nil
repeats: YES];
}
//This formats the timer using the current date and sets text on UILabels
- (void)displayCount; {
NSDateFormatter *formatter =
[[[NSDateFormatter alloc] init] autorelease];
NSDate *date = [NSDate date];
// This will produce a time that looks like "12:15:07:75" using 4 separate labels
// I could also have this on just one label but for now they are separated
// This sets the Hour Label and formats it in hours
[formatter setDateFormat:@"HH"];
[timecodeHourLabel setText:[formatter stringFromDate:date]];
// This sets the Minute Label and formats it in minutes
[formatter setDateFormat:@"mm"];
[timecodeMinuteLabel setText:[formatter stringFromDate:date]];
// This sets the Second Label and formats it in seconds
[formatter setDateFormat:@"ss"];
[timecodeSecondLabel setText:[formatter stringFromDate:date]];
//This sets the Frame Label and formats it in milliseconds
//I need this to be 24 frames per second
[formatter setDateFormat:@"SS"];
[timecodeFrameLabel setText:[formatter stringFromDate:date]];
}
