How to capture date and time from Mini DV Camcorder?

[dodo]

I am using Sharp VL-WD450U camcorder and MGI Videowave to capture the video. However, I found that I can't capture the date and time on the camcorder. Anyone knows how to capture the date and time? Thanks a lot!

[js1604]

Hi dodo,

my sony camcorder will automatically record date&data, however it will appear during playback only when i press 'data' button of remote controll.

i think it is worth to give it a try.

[dodo]

Hi:

Now I changed my camcorder to Canon ZR25MC. It has a 'data code' button on the remote control. When I push this button the date and time will appear on the screen. However, MGI videowave still can not capture the date and time. I wonder whether it is a problem of the sofeware? I am using Videowave 4. Thanks! :(

[twonabomber]

it's not the software...if the date and time don't show up when the camcorder is hooked up to a TV, then it's not going to show if it's hooked up to the computer.

[jtor]

Date/Time/Data code is written to tape while shooting with a DV/D8 camcorder. This information is included in the video file that you transferred to your PC (thru firewire). Unfortunately, it is not for the purpose that you wanted. The software reads this, and is used to track frames on Batch Capturing, and maybe some other stuff.

You can 'work around' this, by capturing your video from camcorder; meaning you're not going to use the firewire port to transfer, but instead use your camcorder's Video/Audio out, and use an analog capture card. However, this defeats the purpose of firewire, and quality will be a 'little' less.

I would suggest that you stay with firewire as your means of transfer. Just create some sort of title on the video's intro, and put the date on it.

hope this helps.

[dodo]

Hi everybody:

Thank you for you guys to explain this to me. I just called Canon. A CSR said excactly the same. However, she said only one model of Canon can capture date and time and also,as I know, Sony can. So maybe I will switch to Sony. Capturing aate and time is really crucial to me.

Thanks again.

[vcd169]

As matter of fact, Sony Digital8 can't. That's I am here searching for the topic. Please post your findings -if there is one

[pharries]

Try capturing using firewire and the software from the link below
http://www.scenalyzer.com/main.html
It costs only$33 to register and is great for dates on clips etc

[Chi8ng]

Hi pharries, I have been capturing video from my sony dv-cam (DCR-PC120E) with firewire using scenalyzer. However, I couldn't figure out how to get the date & time onto the video. Can you tell me how?

[pharries]

Sorry misunderstood the question.
You want the date and time printed in a corner of the screen - correct?
If that is the case then I do not know how to do this simply
Sorry

[huggie]

I have a Panasonic PVDV601 which does have a "Date/Time" buttion on remote and the data/time footage will show on TV once I press this buttion, however, I can not capture this
data/time in PC via Firewire, I tried UleadStudio, Premier 6.0 and scenalyzer, simply no one can do it. Is there any other software that can do this small task??

[Nolonemo]

This has been discussed periodically in the Vegas Video forums at Sonicfoundry.com. It seems that you have to insert the date by hand using overlay feature of the editing program on PC.

[vcd169]

I searched the whole forum database with "date' and then use "time" to find on every turned page. I found more than 10 threads asking the same question - "how to put on VCD the data/time stored in DV tape transfered via firewire". So far these is NOT a workable answer - no software, no work-arounds, and no manufacturer.

Ulead DV cersion CAN USE the datestamp to split video. This means the date/time information is accessible by the software but not used for this purpose. Now it is up to the software developers to find a way (easy to them). We the users must wait. Or maybe we should yell to them...

My 2 cents.

[dodo]

Hi everybody:

I think I was wrong when I said previously that Sony camcorder can capture the date and time. I have a Sony now and can not find a way to do it. Now I just manually put the date and time in after I capture the video. It is a tedious work. I am still saving the old tapes and hope one day some sofeware can do it automatically. Let's keep searching... ...

[Peka]

Sony Digital8 cameras do record the date/time on the tape. If you want this to appear on your final video, then you can't use firewire to transfer the video to your PC. You will have to use the analogue RCA connections and configure the camera to display it during playback. How you do this will be different depending on model, but mine definately does it. Other brands such as Canon, JVC etc. probably have this capability too. As mentioned already by others, you will loose quality compared to using firewire.

The date/timestamp on DV/Digi8 isn't used for displaying it onscreen in an edited video. As mentioned before, it is used to do frame accurate batch capturing or in camera editing.

I agree that it should be possible for a developer to include this in software, but to date I don't believe anyone has.

[vv]

These two tools can do the job. They extract Recorded Date & Time info from the AVI file and put it on the Video.


http://www.squarebox.co.uk/catdv/products.html. With CatDV, I had some errors to produce an AVI. But it did produce a MOV file with date & Time.



http://dve.nm.ru/rus/downloads.html. This is a Premier Plug-In. Seems to work great.