Date Stamp - EXIF??

[JDM34]

Hi,
I've imported a bunch of clips from mini-dv tapes and want to know the date they were shot. I know I can go back and review the tapes and turn on the show data feature on the flip out screen, but I'm trying to avoid watching them again.

Is there a way to review when the clips were shot from within PE 4?

On pictures, the EXIF data would show me the date and other data about how the shot was taken. Is there something comparable on imported video?

Thanks,
James

[babackman]

I followed the advice from a previous thread here (some months back) that recommended the free tool DVIO for importing the clips from tape. It has the ability to assign filenames based on the shooting time. The previous thread noted that the ability to display the shooting time in Premier Elements has been requested for a long time, but its still not there. Since PrEl does show the filename, using the shooting date as the file name gives the same basic effect. Unfortunately, it requires re-imorting all the tapes.

[ATR]

James,

I have not had any hands on work with this issue, so I decided to do some exploring.

To the best of my knowledge Premiere Elements 4 still does not have a feature where you can view within Premiere Elements the Date/Time Stamp established when recording your video in camera. HOWEVER, I believe it is there, but not available for direct viewing.

Premiere Elements 4 is the first version to have an Organizer. Once your video has its thumbnail incorporated into the Organizer, then there are some workaround possibilities:

1. With the Organizer active, you can right click the video thumbnail in the Organizer. When you do, you can select “Show Details” from the drop down list. That will get you the file names under the thumbnails in the Organizer. And, if your file names contain the date/time, you are in business.

2. Here is where I believe that the date/time is there, but unavailable for viewing. With the Organizer active, you will observe an icon to top left “Set Date Range/Media type”. When you click on Set Date Range, there is a Set Date Range dialog that opens into which you can type the date(s) to correspond to the video shooting dates. When you do, the Organizer displays only the video corresponding to the shoot date(s) that you have typed in. So, the Organizer must have access to that type of info in order to be able to carry out that function.

The program that I see mentioned as a workaround more often than not is free DV Date. I have not tried it, but may download it tonight to see what it is all about.


Right now I got distracted by a feature that I found by accident in experimenting with this issue. Did you know that if you right click a single video clip in the Project/Media view, one of the options is Scene Detect? Up to now, I thought that scene detect was only a feature during Capture, using the Timecodes or Content. So I was amazed to find out that, if I clicked that option there, my single video clip was split into scenes according to content (Besides by Video Content Analysis, I could have chosen by Every min/sec or No. of Scenes.)


To be continued….

ATR

[ATR]

I came across some interesting chat at the Adobe Premiere Elements User to User Forum at Adobe:

http://www.adobeforums.com/webx?14@@.3c063ea8/0

ATR

[ATR]

I downloaded the free DV Date software and have yet to appreciate its merits. But, I am working on it....

But, I did want to make this observation. Even if you change the file name of a video to reflect a date (either the shoot date or any other date), the Set Date Range feature in the Organizer only seems to work off the actual shoot date (which we cannot view), independant of any different date you may have put in the file name. So, if you put Jun 2006 in the file name but the actual shoot date was Apr 2007, the Date Range search in the Organizer will bring that video up only when Apr 2007 is included in the Date Range search.

My recollection is fuzzy on this, but I think I recall a thread which raised the issue of point & shoot camera video and camcorder video info behaving differently in matter of gathering camera info after the shoot. I will see if I can find that old thread.

ATR

[ATR]

Forget about DV Date and the like for now, check this out, dud or doable???

Get your video on a drive (such as a jump drive) so that you can use the Adobe Premiere Elements Media Downloader.

1. You insert the jump drive with your video in it into USB port.
2. Open Premiere Elements 4, and in "Get Media" select either "Files & Folders" and browse to the jump drive or the more direct route "DVD, Digital Camera...." Either way you will end up with the Media Downloader. That is one great dialog.
3. In the Media Downloader. Create a subfolder....you have choices of Custom Name, Today's Date, Shot Date in all sorts of formats. Rename Files...you have similar choices like Shot Date, etc. Be sure to check "Preserve Current Filename in XMP" so that you do not lose the original naming and you have your shot dated video in the Organizer.

Even when you close that specific project, the shot dated video will remain in the Organizer. And, Premiere Elements 4 DID put in the ACTUAL SHOOT DATES without you having to type in anything, just select the date format in that Media Downloader.

Check it out and let me know what you think.

ATR

[ATR]

There is rarely anything new in the way of discoveries. That last suggestion of using the Media Downloader and a jump drive as a workaround in this issue was based on my explorations of Premiere Elements 4 tonight. How original, I thought. But.............

After some more searches after posting, I discovered that the concept was proposed by super Premiere Elements guru Robert Johnson at the Premiere Elements User to User Forum at Adobe way back in 2005 - 2006. There he suggested burning the video files to CD or DVD instead of transferring the video files to a jump drive first.

ATR

[JDM34]

ATR - thanks for the updates. I'll give some of these a shot.

[tiresias]

Remember that a captured file on your hard drive does not necessarily have a single date/time of shooting. It could contain multiple scenes shot at different date and times.

DVMP Pro will let you view date and time and all of the exposure details just by opening the files on your hard drive and playing them. Its as easy to use as a media player.

The info is displayed alongside the video as it plays with frame accuracy, so you can see when each "scene" in the file was filmed. You can also jump instantly between scenes, burn-in the date/time or exposure details, or edit the date/time/timecode.

http://www.dvmp.co.uk