Preserving Time / Date metadata in capture files

[jlaymon]

I'm sure I haven't looked deep enough for the answer, but I am trying to keep the date/time data in my SD and HD digital videos when I transfer them to disk. I'm copying over Digital 8 tape as well as HD DV tape using Pinnacle Studio and saving them as AVI.

Is there a file format that supports the original date/time stuff that's on the tape?

Thanks, very much

Jim

[2Bdecided]

DV-AVI (as captured by WinDV and most other software) can preserve the time+date metadata (as well as copying it into the filenames).
.m2t (as captured by HDVsplit and other software) can preserve the time+date metadata (as well as copying it into the filenames).

It is equally possible that other capturing software will strip the metadata when using these same file formats.

I think, in data format respects, Digital8 is identical to DV, so the above advice applies.

Cheers,
David.

[Cornucopia]

Yes, 2Bdecided is correct. I don't know how respectful of the metadata your Pinnacle software is, however. That's one reason those other apps were mentioned (the others probably being freeware, consistent quality experience & low overhead).

Scott

[fvisagie]

In addition to comments above, one thing to avoid is re-encoding. Transcoding to another format will definitely destroy D8/DV TCs and DCs. Even when using an editor for capturing you have to be careful that no re-encoding, even to the same format, takes place. I'm not familiar with Pinnacle Studio, but generally you want to look for something called smart or direct rendering and ensure that's enabled. That passes otherwise unmodified frames to the output intact..

A quick way of testing for datecodes in your output file is to open them in something like DVDate. I seem to recall that EnoSoft DV Processor also provides timecode information.

I recently evaluated most DV capture utilities in the Tools section here and I have no hesitation recommending ScenAlyzerLive. If you do end up using WinDV, be on the lookout for unexpected audio sample rate conversion. I've had 48 kHz audio resampled to 32 kHz on occasion (never got to the bottom of any pattern) and I've seen others report that, too.

Cheers,
Francois

[jlaymon]

Thank you Everyone. Looks like I should be able to do what I want to do. I will give this a try as soon as I get a free minute.