Date/time in video?

[Tim Ribich]

After a number of searches, I'm still a bit confused as to whether date/time stamps are a part of captured video (Canon XH A1) and if there's any way to access this information.

We're used to georeferencing still images from aerial photo flights, but just starting to get up to speed with video. Not clear whether utils like DVDate and such could help, or whether one would have to use proprietary (expensive) gear from an outfit like Red Hen.

With stills we typically run programs that can read the date/time exif info and compare that to the same info in our GPS track log. Result is an accurate time line of where & when photos were taken. Any way to do this type of thing with video?

[John Miller]

Our Enosoft DV Processor can do exactly that (on Windows).

You can capture to disk and add the time/date etc onto the video as it is captured. i.e., no post-processing.

Alternatively, you can use it to create a list of time/date information without adding information onto the video itself.

It can be interfaced with Microsoft Office applications so that you can read the time/date info and process it as needed. An example Excel add-in comes with the software to show what can be achieved.

If you think this might be useful, please PM me and we can work out exactly what is needed.

John.

[A. J. deLange]

I'm not familiar with the XH A1 in particular but all the recent Canon cameras I've owned record meta data on the tape which can be viewed when the tape is played back on the camera. On the XL-H1 one can either set up display of "Data Code" from a menu or by pressing a button on the remote controller. Look for similar capability on your camera.

Certainly tapes produced with your camera contain time code which any NLE should be able to read.

[Ben Eldredge]

I'm curious about displaying the time as a counter so that I can demonstrate a product and show the time ticking away for about 3 minutes. Can I do this in camera and then capture the footage with the time displayed or is there a way to do this in post with Final Cut Pro Express?

[A. J. deLange]

I'm not sure about Express but I believe I stumbled across a description of how to do this in full up FCP. Check the manual for the phrase "burn-in time code".

[Frank Simpson]

In Final Cut look up TCG (time code generator) which allows you to start numbers at whatever count you like, or TCR (time code reader) which reads the time code from the orignal capture.