Can't get date and time stamp over capturing video

[jelir]

I was trying to capture video from Sony DCR-PC101 Mini DV Camcorder using the bundle software (ImageMixer) which comes with the camcorder. I connected the camcorder to the computer via USB port using the provided cable. FYI i'm working on XP machine. Somehow I cannot get the time and date stamp on the clip eventhough it is displayed on the LCD.

[pixel]

What you may have to do is use a program like adobe premiere to and the date and time stamp manually, unless you can find a setting in the software you are using to set the date and time stamp to be added to the video as it is being transferred to your pc.

FYI i'm working on XP machine. Somehow I cannot get the time and date stamp on the clip eventhough it is displayed on the LCD.

The OS shouldn't matter and the date and time stamp is probably displayed on the lcd screen and not when it is transferred to your pc because the camera is probably set so that the stamps aren't transferred in case you want to make a semi-professional movie with it.

[jelir]

I'll try play around with the setting tomorow morning.
If the result doesn't seem right, I might agree with your suggestion... switch to other software most probably adobe premiere... but it will cost me something... well I'll see what I can do.
thanks for your help.

[mkelley]

Yes -- it's almost certainly *not* recorded on the tape.

What usually happens with mini-DV is the chip in the tape itself keeps the timestamp (indeed, there used to be the "higher" priced tape that had the chip and the lower priced that did not -- I'm not sure if this is true anymore). In any case, it will *not* be available to you to transfer via firewire -- you could obviously just use the composite or S-Video outs and record it if it shows up there (it might) but you'll be losing a lot of quality on the video itself.

[jelir]

you could obviously just use the composite or S-Video outs and record it if it shows up there (it might) but you'll be losing a lot of quality on the video itself.

yup.............. this is another option but I was thinking since this is a DVcam it must be some other way to get the time stamped using firewire.

[MpegEncoder]

Yes -- it's almost certainly *not* recorded on the tape.

I would have to disagree. I've transferred mini-DV taped videos to my computer via firewire and then transferred back to digital-8 tape via firewire. The resulting video had the original date and time. This seems to indicate that the date and time is embedded in the DV stream.

[dodo]

Certainly the captured avi file contains date and time information. The only problem is sofewares won't extract it out. There are some previous discussion in this forum about this problem. Some people found some ways to solve the problem but these tools are not very satisfying. I am waiting to see if someone can tell us some information more useful. Before that, I still need to add in date and time manually.