How to preserve date information

[Jan Tervo]

Hi All.

How to preserve the original Date & Time information from HDV tape clips?

Tried to capture a clip with HDLink. In FirstLight the metadata display only shows data when it was encoded in Cineform...

[David Newman]

We did add date and time extraction from M2T files, unfortunately the same technique doesn't work for data streamed from the camera. If you capture M2T then convert, you will get time and date.

[Roger Wilson]

Jan, I use HDV Split to capture my HDV (m2t) files. HDV Split will use the date/time shot as part of the filename. If you want a way to set the dateshot XMP metadata, I created a tool for use in Bridge CS4 for more details see: http://www.dvinfo.net/forum/adobe-cr...adata-cs4.html

[Jan Tervo]

"We did add date and time extraction from M2T files, unfortunately the same technique doesn't work for data streamed from the camera. If you capture M2T then convert, you will get time and date."

Well, that gives many extra meta data, but non of them is the date and time that the shot was made. The camera that was used: Sony A1E

[David Newman]

We can't test all camera sources, but under v4.2 there should be "Source Date" and "Source Time" metadata for some HDV files. We still present the Encode Data/Time also.

[Jan Tervo]

David, not seeing them there.

I currently use the trial version of the latest Neoscene. Haven't tested this with other CF products yet.

Kind regards,
Jan

[Jan Tervo]

Originally Posted by Roger Wilson

Jan, I use HDV Split to capture my HDV (m2t) files. HDV Split will use the date/time shot as part of the filename. If you want a way to set the dateshot XMP metadata, I created a tool for use in Bridge CS4 for more details see: http://www.dvinfo.net/forum/adobe-cr...adata-cs4.html

Thanks Roger!

I would like to see that file splitting with Date & Time in file name in Cineform also!

Btw, I could not download the file: AlpineBlueSetDateShot.zip - Windows Live

Kind regards,
Jan

[Roger Wilson]

Originally Posted by Jan Tervo

Btw, I could not download the file: AlpineBlueSetDateShot.zip - Windows Live

Jan, Since you were having download issues, I've attached the Bridge script here. Please see the previous post for instructions on how to use.

[Roger Wilson]

David,

Thanks for fixing the timecode issue! Clips are now showing up in Premiere Pro with the correct timecode values.

I'm not seeing the Source Date and Source Time meta data fields either. I'm using a Canon XH-A1 and capturing using HDSplit 0.77 to m2t files. HDSplit detects the source date/time and I have HDSplit configured to write that to part of the filename. I then use HDLink to convert the m2t files to CFHD avi files. The timecode now appears, staring with HDLink 4.2.0.237, but no source time/date fields.

I see from the tech-blog, Cineform Tech Blog Blog Archive Adding Metadata to your CineForm Files, how to add meta-data properties, nice!

Questions:

1. How does one update the Project #, Camera #, Scene #, Shot #, & Take #? It seems that Take # auto-increments for each converted clip.
2. Is there any way to update this information after the clip is created?
3. How can I read/update the Cineform meta-data from a .NET C# or C++ application?

Thanks,
Roger

[David Newman]

Hi Roger,

1) All the Project #, Camera #, Scene #, Shot #, & Take # info is easily control as it they are registry entries.

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\\Software\\Cineform\\ShotInfo

You will see DWORD entries for
CameraNumber
ProjectNumber
SceneNumber
ShotNumber
TakeNumber

2) Not really easy to change metadata after acquisition, for good reasons. It is intended to be a permanent record of metadata at acquisition time -- remember all on this was designed for SI-2Ks and Wafian recorders 3+ years ago (on set acquisition.) Metadata is stored in every frame, so if you the change it you have to do so in every frame (doable, but not recommended.)

3) Our SDKs allow for capture/encode time metadata inserts, but not changing later.

[Roger Wilson]

David,

Directly editing the registry always scares the beegees out of me! I was hoping there was an easy/safe way to control these values during the batch convert. Since it's just modifying the registry, we can throw some type of application together.

Most of our tools are using the XMP meta-data. We have devised a way to get the original date/time shot via HDV Split. We have some custom tools we run to set some additional fields in the XMP meta-data, like Camera Serial #, Model, Tape ID.

Here's our ingesting workflow:
1. HDV Split to capture from HDV soruces sing date/time shot was the filename.
2. HDLink to convert m2t files to avi.
3. Run custom tool to set the common XMP meta-data (stuff that is the same for all the clips, camera model, location, ownership, copyright, etc.) This stuff does not change from frame to frame; so I don't think it makes sense to write it to the CineForm meta-data.
4. Review the clips add notes, ratings (stuff that varies from clip to clip) to the XMP meta-data.

I was hoping to be able to sync the meta-data between XMP and CF, but based on your last post, the CF meta-data is read-only.

There may be cases where we want to add meta-data to each frame, using the registry values with HDLink would allow us to do this. If I could read these values, then we could also set them in the XMP meta-data block which would flow downstream to some of our other tools. So, do I need the CF SDK to read the CF meta-data? If so, how do I get it? Are there otherways to read the CF meta-data from .NET C# or C/C++?

Also, it would be great if First Light was able to overlay values from the XMP meta-data block in addition to the CF meta-data.

[David Newman]

I don't like XMP, as it not very useful for Active Metadata applications, you can't use it in the overlay engine because is out the scope of the decoder. There are reasons we embed the metadata in the compressed frame, it enables some very powerful features that XMP can't support. CineForm metadata is not read-only, it just doesn't work like XMP, so just just need to rethink you approach, know your metadata just before you encode, not attach later. We also have a mechanism to attach changes through the database, just like the color corrections, but fundamental elements like date/time and camera ID, should not be attached as a changeable field (I think the opposite to your no.3.)

More information about the SDK will need to be off the forum.