Setting the DateShot metadata in CS4
 

When capturing HD footage from my Canon XH-A1 camcorder using Adobe Premiere Pro CS4, the original date and time the footage was shot does not get stored with the video's metadata. Personally, I want this piece of information so that I can sort, filter, etc. based on when the video was shot.

Adobe has done a great job with the XMP metadata capabilities in CS4, but they have missed a few key scenarios. Add to that the facts that Premiere Pro doesn't store the original timecode or scene detection when working with HDV assets, I've decided to abandon capturing with it.

Instead, I've started using HDV Split to capture video. This is a simple utility application provides automatic scene detection and allows me to name the files using the original date/time the video was shot. So I'm using the following naming convention: TTTT YYYY-MM-DD hh.mm.ss, where TTTT is the tape number and the rest represents a date/time. This gets me closer to my goal of having the date/time stored with the video, but what I really want is for this to be included in the XMP metadata.

So, this evening, I wrote a script for Adobe Bridge which will parse out the date/time from the clip's name and set the Video/dateShot and IPTC Core/Date Created properties.

To use this script:

1. Download the ZIP file
2. Unpack the zip file to your Adobe Bridge Startup Scripts directory. In Adobe Bridge, select "Preferences..." from the Edit menu, then navigate to the Start Up scripts section, click the "Revel Scripts" button.
3. Restart Adobe Bridge
4. You'll be prompted asking you to confirm that you'd like to activate the script.
5. On an AVI file which has a date/time in the format YYYY-MM-DD hh.mm.ss in the name, right click, and choose the "Set Date Shot/Created based on Name" option. (You may also select several files.)
6. You'll notice in the Metadata Window that Date Created and Date Shot properties are now set to the same value as the date/time in the name.

Note: This script will only add to files which already have some type of metadata, for example the tape name.

Within Adobe Bridge, you can now sort and filter using the Date Created field.

Great work, thanks!

try this awesome free program
 

TMPGEnc - Products: TMPGEnc KARMA.. Product Information


A free Bridge-like program that shows original time/date stamp of CanonA1 files, and other mpeg2 format files.... I use it daily.

Nice, too bad it`s Windows-only.

It only seems to be showing the file system's modified and created dates, not the actual date the video was recorded.

It's a handy little app. You might be interested to know that DVMP Pro can add the recording date and time to the filename of DV, Raw DV, HDV, MOD and AVCHD (mts/m2ts) files.

Alternatively it can change the file's "Date Modified" property to the recording date and time, which avoids the need to have longer file names.

http://www.dvmp.co.uk

Thanks for the pointer to the DVMP application. I downloaded the trial, but I could not get it to recognize my Canon XH-A1; looks like it may only capture from DV sources, not HDV. Or did I miss something?

You're right Roger. The "Capture DV" module is just that. There's no HDV capture facility as yet, but it should capture with the camera in DV mode. See

DVMP Pro 3 - DV Capture

The HDV facilities that are available at present are summarised in a table on the home page

DVMP Pro 3 - view and edit date/time stamp, datacode/datecode, timecode, and camera exposure details in HDV and DV AVI files