Date and Time Text not there

[Greg33]

Ok I assume this has been brought up many times before. I would be surprised if it had not. Point me to the answers please.

Mini DV to DVD.
I am capturing the DV file from the camera which has the Time and Date etc on the picture when played back.
However when I play the AVI file on the PC all this on screen text is invisible.
And of course when I burn it to the DVD it is also not to be seen.

I have read that this Data is stored in the AVI file when I capture it so why does it vanish and is there any way of resurrecting it (easily preferably!).

I am going through this process because I am trying ot archive my original DV tapes to DVD for posterity and I really want them to be as 'original' as possible. I want to store on DVD as I am aware that the mini DV tapes will deteriorate over time.

Any help and advice as always will be gratefully received.

G

[benbryant]

Hi Greg33,

When videos recorded on a DV camcorder tape are captured into DV AVI files on a PC, the time codes (date/time when the tape was recorded) are transferred along with the video/audio data to the files. But the time codes are not visible when you view the DV AVI files. When you use DVD author tools to convert the DV AVI files to DVD files, the time codes get lost. By using Visual DV Time Stamp (vDTS), the time codes are extracted from the DV AVI files and superimposed onto the videos. This way the date/time will be visible when you view the DV AVI file, consequently the DVD you make from the DV AVI files will have date/time displayed. Unfortunately, I haven't had any free version of this type of program to recommend to you.

Regards

[Greg33]

Date and Time

Hello Ben

Whether the SW is free or not does not matter. If you could just recommend something. I am currently capturing the avi with Sony and editing the sound with the same and then burning the DVD with Nero so any additional SW is not a problem as long as I can add the date time etc.

Regards

Greg

[benbryant]

Hello Greg33,

I've tried to look for a freeware for you without success. Below the link for you to try the software called "Visual DV Time Stamp (vDTS) 2.0. Please try patiently the trial version first to see how you like it. If you are satisfied with the result, you can go for that. Good luck

http://www.dts8888.com/vDTS/vdts.htm

Regards

[benbryant]

Hello Greg33 again,
In search od a free DV Time Stamp tool, I bumped into an interesting site with the free tool called "Exsate DV Capture Live". Please check the link for more infomation:

http://www.exsate.com/products/dvcapture/

Regards

[Greg33]

Hello Ben

Thankyou for the links. I came across the first one and was put off due to its limitations. I have downloaded the second Freeware application and will experiment with it. I am quite surprised that more people do not raise this issue and that there is not more bumpf and SW out there to sort this out.

FYI as I mentioned at the start I am simply trying to save my DV tapes in another format (DVD) and to keep them as close to original as possible.
I am also cleaning up the noise along the way. I have terrible camera motor hum on most of them so I am using Sony Sound Forge Noise Reduction to clean this up before I burn the final DVD. So I may now have another process along the way, that of re-adding the Time and Date.

Process will be:

1. Original Mini-DV
2. Capture to AVI. (SONY or Exsate)
4. Add Time and Date to AVI. (Exsate)
3. Split AVI and edit (clean) sound WAV file. (SONY)
4. Render AVI. (SONY)
5. Burn DVD. (Nero)

From your experience do you see any problems with this process.
will the finished item be as good as the riginal or am I likely to introduced artifacts into the finished film by going through so many processes?

Any advice and input is useful to me.

Regards

Greg

[benbryant]

Hello Greg33,

Posting the Visual DV Time Stamp (vDTS) 2.0, I also realized its limitations to try out. Therefore, I continued to look for a freeware for you. Fortunately I found the Exsate DV Capture Live and immediately rush to post it for you to see because I was afraid that you would go ahead and pay for the Visual DV Time Stamp (vDTS) 2.0. So far I haven't had time to test this software yet. You outlined procedure in fact looks outstanding though. Please just try to render small or short clip first and check it instead of rendering the whole movie, waste your time. Also you can convert WAV to AC3 to reduce size though

Regards

[Greg33]

Useful

Hello Ben

I downloaded and tried your linked SW. I did not work too well and required that I used it to capture the AVI which it then went on to continuously drop numerous frames.
However I have just found - http://paul.glagla.free.fr/dvdate_en.htm
It allows you to use previously captured AVI files.
It also has to useful options and features.
I have only just started exploring its capabilities but it does seem to be just what I was looking for.
Maybe it will be useful to you.

Regards

Greg