how to get a date+time stamp on a DVD file?

[doctorken]

I have a DVD file (recorded from an old VHS camcorder)that I would like to put a continuous date and time stamp on (similar to an DV file from a camcorder)

Any suggestions on the easiest way to go about this? I did wonder about converting to AVI then trying to alter the date/time stream but wasn't sure how to do this

is there any software available to overlay a date and time graphic over the whole file?



cheers

[Midzuki]

http://avisynth.org/mediawiki/ShowTime

http://avisynth.org/mediawiki/Subtitle

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[AlanHK]

I'm not sure what format you have now: DVD (MPEG)?

If so, it's easy to reauthor.
Just add a subtitle track, default on (you could have it forced on, but why not have it switchable).

Easy to generate a subtitle to count time (I'd use Excel, take a few minutes).

This would require no reencoding of the video.

[jman98]

AlanHK's suggestion is good, but there are downsides to it. A small number of DVD players refuse to honor the "subtitles on" switch. It certainly is possible to generate subtitles to have the time as he suggests, but how difficult this task is depends a lot on your computer expertise. I know plenty of people who would have no idea how to do this except via a very time consuming manual process. I could write a Perl program that could generate the correct output but I have no idea at all how to do this in Excel. My Excel skills are very poor as I almost never use it.

Converting to AVI and using the AviSynth stuff might be the easiest way, again depending on how difficult or easy it is for you to try the subtitles suggestion, but it will require you to convert the video to AVI and even if done losslessly, you'd have to re-encode to MPEG-2 which would entail some (at least minor if not worse) quality loss.

[AlanHK]

AlanHK's suggestion is good, but there are downsides to it. A small number of DVD players refuse to honor the "subtitles on" switch. It certainly is possible to generate subtitles to have the time as he suggests, but how difficult this task is depends a lot on your computer expertise. I know plenty of people who would have no idea how to do this except via a very time consuming manual process. I could write a Perl program that could generate the correct output but I have no idea at all how to do this in Excel. My Excel skills are very poor as I almost never use it.

If the OP wants and can specify exactly what he wants displayed, I can do it and attach .

In Excel it would just be two columns, with a simple addition formula. Then save as text in the right format and you have a subtitle.

About 1% of the effort of reencoding to Avi and back again, and no quality loss.

[Midzuki]

CCE, MainConcept, TMPGEnc, etc., are able to read
Avisynth scripts, and Avisynth itself can open MPEG
files via "DirectShowSource" plugin. There really is
no need for generating an intermediate .avi file first.

P.S.: If the OP has a DivX-capable DVD-player,
it will be even better ^_^


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[doctorken]

thanks guys. this is the first time i've used scripts etc so i'm a complete novice

i had a VBO file, and now converted to AVI

i've used "dvinfo" in avisync, but there's no date/time stream with the AVI file, sadly. I also have downloaded "dvtimestampex"

Do you know how to create a new date/time stream (i have to be able to set the date/time it starts)?

unfortunately, I don't have a DV camcorder or I could just reset the time and record a file to steal the date/time stream from!

I could capture a file from my old VHS camcorder with the correct date/time displayed on a blue or black background, would it be possible to convert that to an AVI file and merge it with my video.....(this would be good as the date/time would look the same as my other videos)?

thanks again

ken

[doctorken]

in fact, if you could show me a script that would allow me to merge video "x" in the background, with video "y" in the foreground (where video Y has black as a transparent colour and white as the opaque colour-this is just a black recording with the date/time on)

it looks like avisynth can do it but the manual is a bit confusing

I think that would do the trick?

cheers