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  1. My apologies if this has been answered already, but I've been searching for hours all over the internet, and cannot find an answer.

    I have dozens of home camcorder-recorded Mini DVD-R discs that I would like to import and edit. I intend on organizing these hundreds of files chronologically, having the recorded timestamp as the title of the file.

    When I load the disc into my computer, VLC can detect the different titles and chapters for playback, and uses the camcorders recorded-timestamp as the title.This is valuable, as it indicates to me that the vob file (or another file on the DVD-R disc) is providing this critical metadata. Oddly enough though, I cannot find this proper date anywhere else within the Disc's explorer folder. The date does not match the "created" or "modified" dates within the Properties window of the VOB file.

    When I rip the DVD using Sony Vegas however, I can no longer access this information, either the correct or the incorrect date metadata. Instead the Created and Modified show the date of the extraction.


    Is there ANY way, method, or software that can find and access this hidden and correct Recorded timestamp metadata, and then apply it as the "created" or "modified" properties of the ripped .mpg file?

    Surely many others who intend to digitize their home footage and organize them chronologically have faced this issue before, and yet I can't find any proper solution online...
    I hope my inquiry is clear enough. Thank you ahead of time for any who are kind enough to provide some help.
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  2. Member Cornucopia's Avatar
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    Doesn't answer the Q of using metadata to touch the file, but backup...

    Yeah, don't rip the files, rip the disc as a whole & save the disc images as ISOs. Mount them to work with them.
    That way, they will always have proper structure, and original datestamps.

    Scott
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  3. Thank you for your reply, Scott, but yes, simply having a backup doesn't exactly help my cause. I'll need to eventually create .mpg files from either the Disc itself, or an .iso copy so that I can edit accordingly with Premiere Pro.

    So am I correct in assuming that VLC is able to detect the correct timestamp because of additional files within the Disc Video Header or .iso file?
    Is there no program that can not only read this same metadata information, but also append it to a created .mpg after ripping/extracting/copying the VOB files?
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  4. aBigMeanie aedipuss's Avatar
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    probably not as when you convert the vobs to mpeg-2 you are going to create a new file and the creation date will be the current one. but you could change the date of file creation yourself with 3rd party tools like this - https://sourceforge.net/projects/stefanstools/files/SKTimeStamp/
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  5. Member Cornucopia's Avatar
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    That is NOT the recommended method with which to edit DVDs in Premiere. Even according to Adobe & their manual. Most recent versions of PP can directly open Vobs.

    So do what I suggested and that way you still have your original media, you have a faster edit storage medium, you have proper timestamps, and ultimately less extra work to do.

    Edit> oh sorry, you said Vegas, not premiere. It's been a while since I last used Vegas but I thought it had the same capability.

    Edit2> yea, looked it up "edit vob vegas", it might have been undocumented, but seems to have had that feature at least from 2012.

    Scott
    Last edited by Cornucopia; 31st Jan 2019 at 19:40.
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  6. aBigMeanie aedipuss's Avatar
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    3rd party software to go from vob to mpeg might be something to at least try. see what happens if you use vob2mpg .
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    Check out this thread. May do exactly what you want.
    https://forum.videohelp.com/threads/386012-Date-time-change-program
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  8. Thank you everyone for your input. I appreciate your willingness to help solve my woes. However I'm still a bit at a loss to understanding how to proceed. For greater context, here is my current approach:

    - I load the mini DVD-R disc, and can see the following files (notice the date data all being 2003-12-31. Not sure where this date is coming from):
    Image
    [Attachment 47982 - Click to enlarge]

    Image
    [Attachment 47983 - Click to enlarge]


    - I also notice that when I play the disc (or an ISO copy on my harddrive) in VLC, there is a rudimentary menu screen with a different date, 2005-12-25:
    Image
    [Attachment 47984 - Click to enlarge]


    - I know for a certainty that this date as shown in the menu screen is the correct date I'm after. It's also the displayed date when the mini DVD-R disc is played in its camcorder. THESE are the dates I wish to have access to for my editing purposes, but which I cannot seem to be able to retrieve, either in explorer, or using other software.

    - I then import the disc into Sony Vegas (or Movie Studio Platinum) so that it produces individual editable mpeg files that I will then use for Premiere Pro. Each file is an instance where the camera user pressed record (very handy for separating clips for editing purposes):
    Image
    [Attachment 47985 - Click to enlarge]


    - Unfortunately at this point I no longer have access to those accurate recorded dates, since I've essentially created new files. Yes, I could manually change them using batch-property-editing programs, but that still is an involved manual process.

    I'm hoping that there exists a software that can not only extract these individual mpeg files from the Disc or ISO copy, but also include it somewhere accessible (be it the name of the new file, or one of its date properties in explorer). Am I missing something obvious?
    Last edited by DG-INC; 13th Feb 2019 at 10:42.
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  10. Member Cornucopia's Avatar
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    Yes you completely ignored what I wrote about the proper way to access dvd files directly without having to convert.
    Also happens to be what is recommended by Adobe & Sony.

    On the bit about your date: looks like your clips were recorded at one date (2003) but disc didn't get menu nor was finalized until 2005, hence the disparity. But those earlier dates do not appear out of nowhere. That should be their original record date.

    Scott
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  11. Originally Posted by JVRaines View Post
    Yes, thank you, however the program doesn't seem to be able to help my cause. His motivation for creating the program seems to be very similar to my situation. But when I load the source files, I'm only met with errors. I'm not sure if this is an issue with the files themselves, or if his program cannot read the needed metadata.

    The same thread mentioned the MediaInfo program which I also tried without success. It cannot pull the correct date metadata from any of the filetypes of this Mini DVD-R, either the .IFO, .BUP, .VOB, .ISO copies of the whole disc, not even .MPG or .AVI files when I manually rename the .VOB file. And from what I understand, this makes sense because all of these files have to communicate with each other to display the correct dates in VLC, right? (Pardon my ignorance, I'm still new to this)
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  12. Originally Posted by Cornucopia View Post
    Yes you completely ignored what I wrote about the proper way to access dvd files directly without having to convert.
    Also happens to be what is recommended by Adobe & Sony.

    On the bit about your date: looks like your clips were recorded at one date (2003) but disc didn't get menu nor was finalized until 2005, hence the disparity. But those earlier dates do not appear out of nowhere. That should be their original record date.

    Scott
    Thanks for your continued help Scott. Here's some more of my findings and context:

    Yes I'm able to copy the files directly from the Mini DVD-R onto my HDD for faster access, and then I'm able to drag and drop the .VOB file into a Premiere Pro timeline. However this isn't particularly helpful for me because it's still a single video file, instead of several scenes, like those produced by importing via Sony Vegas (as seen in my previous post). Having those individual instances where the camcorder stopped and started is invaluable. Further, Premiere Pro isn't able to reveal any helpful metadata when analyzing the single .VOB file. There doesn't seem to be any entry for tagged or recorded date, or anything close to the correct date of 2005-12-25

    Image
    [Attachment 48057 - Click to enlarge]


    In regards to the date, it's still unknown to me where the 2003-12-31 originated from. For an absolute certainty though the date on which these scenes were recorded was 2005-12-25, Christmas Day. That tells me that the camcorder had the correct programmed time and date on this instance. However the disc was never finalized until a month ago, when I started archiving and editing the footage on these discs.


    So from what I understand, when VLC autoplays the disc or .ISO copy, it's loading a rudimentary title screen that the camcorder created on the disc (VLC labels it as "UDF Volume"). And the title of this footage is the correct date I'm after. I have yet to find another program that can source this correct date. Any idea where this date is buried among the files, and how it can be easily accessed?
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  13. Or am I approaching this from an entirely wrong angle?
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  14. Still unable to find a solution. Any help would be tremendously appreciated
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  15. Member
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    Two more metadata readers to try:

    FFinfo (part of the FFmpeg suite)
    Exiftool
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  16. It might be the same I encountered before.

    In my case, the information was stored as a subtitle within the VOB file.
    Can you check in VLC or MediaInfo if there's subtitle information stored in the VOB file?

    If there is you can try SubRip to extract it.
    Last edited by Quantumleap; 5th Mar 2019 at 00:45.
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