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Vegas 8 and record time/date in DV (again)
I asked a few weeks ago about how to access the date & time a digital video recording was made when I am editing my DV in Vegas 8. I was surprised to be told you cant get to that in Vegas. I talked to my “mac” friend, and he said even the most basic imovie software lets you get to the time information in digital video. He was shocked to hear Vegas does not support that.
So I thought I would try once again and confirm that Vegas, with all its great features, does not provide the editor with the time information that is in the video for the time when the video was recorded. I find it amazing that anyone who records much digital video can work without knowing the time and date a recording was made. That is like editing digital photos where you cant see thee EXIF information. I searched the web for some way to get the time, and all the software I could find is made to work on AVI formatted files. But Vegas captured video is MT2 and I cant imagine having to create intermediate AVI files just to get the date/time a recording was made.
Can someone confirm that Vegas does not let you get to the time and can someone provide an answer I can give for why not?
Everything I use my video for depends on the specific hour and time when the video was recorded. I cannot understand how anyone who edits video can work without this information.Bryan Wells
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14 Replies
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If you right-click it, go to Properties, and then go to the “General” tab, the date/time the footage was recorded is shown in the “Capture” section. So… the information *IS* there.
Edward Troxel
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I have a very similar problem to Brian Wells’s, and I have been struggling to find the correct answer.
Indeed, following Edward Troxel’s instructions, from either the Explorer Tab or the Media Manager, when I examine the properties of the file, There are three apparent date codes:
Created:
Modified:
Accessed:For Quicktime .MOV files generated by firewire capture using iMovie HD on a MacBook Pro, the CLIP INFO accurately reflects the camera’s DATE/TIME stamp recorded to tape (regardless of camera brand). When I view the properties of these same exact files on the PC, I can see that Mac stores the camera’s DATE/TIME stamp information in the MODIFIED field, while the CREATED field is the date the .MOV file was generated during the firewire capture process.
However, for those .M2T files captured by Sony Vegas’s Capture video tool, this information is NOT apparent. The CREATED and MODIFIED fields yield the same (approximate) information: the date the .M2T file was generated on the PC’s hard drive during the Firewire capture.
What I do not know is: is this a bug with the Sony Vegas video capture “m2tsplug.dll”, is this a design oversight, or am I doing something wrong?
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Sounds like you did it from WINDOWS Explorer. Instead, right-click it in the Explorer window INSIDE VEGAS.
Edward Troxel
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I appreciate the quick response, but the problem I’m having is far more serious than understanding the UI. 🙁
On my systems, the times and dates provided from Windows Explorer and within Sony Vegas’s Properties>General tab are precisely the same. It is also the same information that is displayed by the Media Manager SQL database’s Properties pane.
Can you clarify that on your system, when you transfer video from tape, your .M2T files’ properties indicate the camera’s DATE/TIME Data Code from day the event was recorded to tape?
Also on your systems, are the Windows Explorer properties different from the Properties found within Vegas? (Aside from the extra metadata such as Streams, ACID Information, etc)
If you are capturing the correct DATE/TIME Data code, can you clarify your method of video capture? Do you use the native Vegas Video Capture tool?
Please provide details, thanks!
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I have a file on my hard drive that I taped on January 13, 2007 at 4:48 pm. From Windows Explorer properties, the “Created” reads “Saturday December 29, 2007” and “Modified” reads “Saturday January 13 2007” which seems to bear out what you’re saying. That file was captured with Scenalyzer Live.
I have another file that was captured with the Vegas capture program recorded the same day that reads “Created” Saturday December 29, 2007 and “Modified” Thursday August 2, 2007.
From inside Vegas, the “General” section reads the same on both of those files as above. However, in the “Capture” section, I see this on the second file:
Capture
Tape Name: AG
Recorded: Saturday, January 13, 2007 5:05:14 PMAnd this on the first file above:
Capture
Tape Name: sclive
Recorded: Saturday, January 13, 2007 4:48:26 PMSo in both cases I’m getting the actual date/time info from the tape in the “Capture” section of the properties from within Vegas.
Edward Troxel
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Ahh, this is helpful. You have cited things that I do not see…my gut is telling I’ve done something incorrectly.
To insure clarity, let me describe the “obvious” details:
I am using Sony Vegas Pro 8.0b in Windows XPSP2 on an VAIO laptop. All videos were recently recaptured from the original camera (Sony HDR-HC7) by firewire to the VAIO via the Vegas internal Capture Video tool (File>Capture Video…)
The transfers captured on the MacBook Pro that had the correct DATE/TIME annotation were done with the same camera, so I believe it’s not the camera.
From within Vegas’s view tabs “Explorer” or “Project Media”, I can Right-click on a file to give me the following Properties:
General
Name: TapeSix 122.m2t
Folder: F:\Video\Galapagos\16Dec08Interview
Type: MPEG-2 Transport Stream
Size: 1.47 GB (1,506,953,728 bytes)
Created: Monday, April 28, 2008, 7:40:12 PM
Modified: Monday, April 28, 2008, 7:47:58 PM
Accessed: Sunday, May 04, 2008, 12:00:00 AM
Attributes: ArchiveStreams
Video: 00:07:41.161, 29.970 fps interlaced, 1440x1080x32, MPEG-2
Audio: 00:07:41.161, 48,000 Hz, Stereo, MPEG Layer 2ACID information
ACID chunk: no
Stretch chunk: no
Stretch list: no
Stretch info2: no
Beat markers: no
Detected beats: noOther metadata
Regions/markers: no
Command markers: noMedia manager
Media tags: noPlug-In
Name: m2tsplug.dll
Folder: C:\Program Files\Sony\Vegas Pro 8.0\FileIO Plug-Ins\m2tsplug
Format: Sony M2TS
Version: Version 1.0 (Build 908)
Company: Sony Creative Software Inc.
From the “Media Manager” view tab, although the display is different in the Properties Pane, the pertinent data is identical. I cannot copy these fields altogether or attach a screen grab to this post…but take my word for it.
In your response, you cite a “Capture” section with “Tape Name” and “Recorded” fields. Tell me, where did you see this section with those fields? I do not see even a blank field in the “Media Manager” section, even though there are other blank fields such as “Camera Make”, “Camera Model” etc.
Also, when using Vegas, did you use the internal Capture Video tool (File>Capture Video…)?
In the process of troubleshooting, I’ve also discovered that there is an External Video Capture tool that comes with Vegas. From Options>Preferences…>Video tab there is a check box that allows for the capture to be managed from an external application, for which the greyed out default is:
C:\Program Files\Sony\Vegas Pro 8.0\VidCap60.EXE
I confess I have not tried this program, and will do so ASAP to see if the results are different. In the meantime, some additional data from you will be helpful!
Lastly, I am very appreciative of your time and attention. THANK YOU for helping solve this very frustrating problem. Hopefully the original poster is finding this useful.
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Previously I noticed this:
In the process of troubleshooting, I’ve also discovered that there is an External Video Capture tool that comes with Vegas. From Options>Preferences…>Video tab there is a check box that allows for the capture to be managed from an external application, for which the greyed out default is:
C:Program FilesSonyVegas Pro 8.0VidCap60.EXE
Apparently this utility does not capture HDV, but DV.
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Correct. External is for DV. Internal is for HDV. My test clips were DV.
Edward Troxel
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Ahh, but does Vegas save DV video files as M2T?
I know the title of the thread suggested DV, but it seems the topic of the discussion surrounded M2T files, which in my experience implied HDV files.
Perhaps this is an issue HDV .M2T format? Is there not there not the metaspace to store the DATE/TIME data code as there in the Quicktime .MOV?
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[Matthew Reyes] “Ahh, but does Vegas save DV video files as M2T?”
No. DV is saved as an AVI file type. HDV is saved as m2t.
Edward Troxel
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