How can I get the original capture timestamp from my home movie files:: AVI and MPG4?

Question

I have over a TB of home movies with horrible file names. Finding what you want is impossible. I would like to rename all files to the time they were originally recorded (not the file time they were placed on my computer). Some applications (like Ulead Video Studio) can access this information, which I believe is embedded in the CODEC.

I would LOVE to find how how either I can write a .Net app to extract this information to rename my files so I can easily organize them OR find an application that will do this for me. Thank you very much in advanced.

additional information:: home movies were captured on miniDV and DVD camcorders.

Answer 1

Here is a bit of code that i found a while back that should get you started.

http://www.developerfusion.com/code/3435/a-convenient-wrapper-class-to-get-file-info/

Answer 2

Please note that I'm not looking for the file's time/date, I'm looking for the timestamp the video itself has. Video's are different from pictures in that you cannot simply get this information from the fileInfo obj or extended file properties.

Answer 3

There's a good chance you're out of luck unless the original capture used absolute timestamps. In my experience, most capture applications use time 0 for the first frame, not a universal time. To check this out, get GraphStudio, load the file in it, then look at the start time in the properties for the first output pin.

You might look at using GSpot to see if the metadata you're looking for is even present in the files. For your AVI files, you might also look into VirtualDub's RIFF features in its hex editor. Unless your capture application was nice to you, that data was probably never recorded.

Assuming that the original timestamps are available somehow, I'd suggest looking at the source of whichever application helped you find it.

For my videos, I've taken to grabbing the metadata at capture time, storing it in an XML file and having my transcoding / post-processing apps keep the last modified timestamp fixed as the original timestamps.

Answer 4

Thank you Mr. Fooz. I will try these at home. I know that some of the files, at least the once from my miniDv's have the universal time because I saw it appear when reviewing the .avi's through uLead. The timestamp appeared on the screen in a different format from how it was originally captured, so I have a strong suspicion that the "real" time is in there someplace. If bad comes to worse I wouldn't be opposed to re-capturing all of the videos just to ensure that I could preserve it as you mentioned. Thank you again. Your feedback is highly appreciated (even if my response is horribly delayed).