Can someone explain the Timecode effect to me?

Does it ever truly read TC? When I put it on a transparent video clip to burn in my sequence master TC, I set it to "generate" and manually type in the start timecode and set the fps. Is there no way to have it display sequence TC automatically (read it instead of generate it)? Also, what is the difference between "Media" and "Clip"? In addition to sequence timecode, I use this effect often to display clips' TC. Since my clips often are resized/repo-ed, I apply it to a transparent video layer and select the source track in the effect controls. This never displays the correct TC of the clip. I did read about a workaround, which is setting the renderer to "software" only, then it displays the correct TC of each clip. This doesn't make sense to me, but it is does work. Can anyone give me an rundown of the Timecode effect and it's settings, or at least a confirmation that is it a bit jacked.