Display Running Date and Time?

fuss wrote on 5/19/2013, 3:48 PM

I can't find anything on this when I search past posts and maybe not using the correct search terms.

First, I am completely new to Magix. Not a pro user by any means.

I have Magix Movie Edit Pro 11.0.1.4.

Here's my situation:

I am a private investigator. My old video camera had a feature that would imprint the running date and time on downloaded videos. So when a client viewed the surveillance video, the running date & time showed right there on the video.

My new camera has no such feature (and it appears none of the consumer camcorders come with this feature any longer). So now, I have to figure out how to get the video's actual running date and time to display on our surveillance videos, which is our work product and what client's want to see.

I was on a forum for Sony Vegas Movie Pro and someone there said Magix actually have this capability built into the program. However, I can't find it and, being a complete novice and new to the program, have no clue where to find it or how to use it.

Can someone point me in the right direction and maybe some quick instructions?

Many thanks!

Comments

terrypin wrote on 5/19/2013, 4:28 PM

Hi,

I no longer have MEP 11 installed (it must be about a decade since I used it) but in MEP 2013 Premium Plus and all the preceding recent versions there's an option to show the Time on the current video clip, like this:

Or for better quality: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/4019461/MEP-ShowTime-1.jpg

Assuming that MEP 11 did have that same feature (right click in the preview monitor to check) and If you were to add a title in another track showing the start time (and date) then I reckon this would be as close as you could get to your requirement.

BTW, are you sure that "...none of the consumer camcorders come with this feature"? I'm pretty sure that my digicam (Canon Ixus 220 HS) can embed Date/Time.

--
Terry, East Grinstead, UK

fuss wrote on 5/19/2013, 5:45 PM

Thanks, Terrypin.

So, just to clarify, that running time will display the date and time the video was actually recorded? For example, if the video was recorded on 4/15/13 starting at 11:33pm, that's what the date and time will start with?

Also, in your image example, it just says show time, but we need to display the date as well. Like in my example above, say a surveillance starts on 4/15/13 at 11:33 pm and goes until 2:00 a.m. the next time. That's why both the date and time must be running.

So, can the embedded running date be displayed as well?

johnebaker wrote on 5/19/2013, 6:42 PM

You can fade in the Date and time as a title by right clicking the video and selecting the Fade in date as title.

However there are a couple of gotchas :-

1. It is a static date/time it is not the running date/time index which is what you are wanting.

2. The date/time may not be displayed correctly - on video I have shot in another time zone, the time is offset by the zone time difference eg for a clip shot in mainland Europe the time is offset by the 1 hour difference to the UK. My video camera has GPS built in and is time zone aware.

For legal purposes I would expect the above method to be inadmissable as evidence ie that there is a requirement for the actual date time indexes to be embedded / imprinted in the original video, at the time of recording, so that they are tamper proof.

The date and time stamps added to the video files properties ie when a file is created, modified or accessed, can be changed very easily and MEP appears to use the Modified date timestamp.

@ Terry - by Movie Edit Pro 11.0.1.4. I presume fuss means Movie Edit Pro MX. Also the option you have shown is the actual running time from the start of the movie in MEP and is not exported with the video.

HTH

John

fuss wrote on 5/19/2013, 6:44 PM

(Oh, by the way, thanks for the info on the the Canon Ixus 220 HS. I see that is a camera, however, rather than a camcorder, and it doesn't have all the capabilities and features that investigators need in the field for professional level work product.)

fuss wrote on 5/19/2013, 6:48 PM

Hi

You can fade in the Date and time as a title by right clicking the video and selecting the Fade in date as title.

However there are a couple of gotchas :-

   1.   It is a static date/time it is not the running date/time index which is what you are wanting.

   2.   The date/time may not be displayed correctly - on video I have shot in another time zone, the time is offset by the zone time difference eg for a clip shot in mainland Europe the time is offset by the 1 hour difference to the UK. My video camera has GPS built in and is time zone aware.

For legal purposes I would expect the above method to be inadmissable as evidence ie that there is a requirement for the actual date time indexes to be embedded / imprinted in the original video, at the time of recording, so that they are tamper proof.

The date and time stamps added to the video files properties ie when a file is created, modified or accessed, can be changed very easily and MEP appears to use the Modified date timestamp.

@ Terry - by Movie Edit Pro 11.0.1.4.   I presume fuss means Movie Edit Pro MX. Also the option you have shown is the actual running time from the start of the movie in MEP and is not exported with the video.

HTH

John

Yeah, I can't use a static date. It has to be dynamic because a lot of our work is at night that starts on one date and ends on the next.

Right now, I'm not concerned with what what's legally admissable. We do a lot of insurance work, but I'm just going to have a find a different camcorder for those cases because this editing stuff is for the birds. The main thing I'm worred about now if for our other clients where the courts are not concerned. We just need to be able to get the running date/time displayed on those in the meantime.

johnebaker wrote on 5/19/2013, 6:55 PM

. . . . I'm just going to have a find a different camcorder for those cases . . . .

I agree that this would be the best option - you need one that embeds the 'timecode' in the video.

I will check out my camera in the morning - I think it embeds the date time onto the video - and get back to you - it is also good for night work as it has a very low light and Infra Red capability.

Good luck with your search.

John

fuss wrote on 5/19/2013, 7:24 PM

Hi

. . . . I'm just going to have a find a different camcorder for those cases . . . .

I agree that this would be the best option - you need one that embeds the 'timecode' in the video.

I will check out my camera in the morning - I think it embeds the date time onto the video - and get back to you - it is also good for night work as it has a very low light and Infra Red capability.

Good luck with your search.

John

One of the problems I've been having with finding camcorders good enough to use for professional investigative work is they just don't have enough optical zoom (among other things). It's a real problem. Companies just aren't making pro level recorders anymore because there's not enough money in them so they cheap out on the ones they do have (if they still have them) and focus all their attention on the consumer market. And the pricing on the pro levels ones, if you can find those that have the capabilities you need, are priced through the roof. And I can't find any local to even look at them, test them out. Everything is on line and I'm sorry, but I'm just not going to tie up thousands of dollars to order one online and only HOPE it's good enough. Sorry, just venting, lol. It's a really sore subject, lol.

johnebaker wrote on 5/20/2013, 2:07 AM

I have checked my Sony XR520EV and it does record the time datacode and display it on the cameras screen and output it direct for TV playback from the camera.

There are many cameras which record the timecode/datacode when recording, high end, ie prosumer Sony and Canon models.

The problem is getting the timecode to overlay the video for editing / playback. AFAICS without spending huge amounts of money or using a third party software to extract the code and overlay it on the video it is as you have rightly said going o be a real problem.

John

terrypin wrote on 5/20/2013, 2:13 AM

@ Terry - by Movie Edit Pro 11.0.1.4. I presume fuss means Movie Edit Pro MX. Also the option you have shown is the actual running time from the start of the movie in MEP and is not exported with the video.

Thanks John - another feature I've never used!

BTW, Fade in date as title seems an odd choice of name as I have to add the fades myself.

More important, on my test with a mixture of JPG photos and MOV movie clips from my Canon Ixus 220 HS, MEP is showing the photos with their GMT/UTC times as I would expect (an hour behind local time, as I have recently adopted the discipline of keeping the camera set to GMT). But the MOV clips are strangely two hours behind local! Any thoughts?

Keeping track of local times v GMT v Camera time is always a problem for me, especially as I often include material from my son's and daughter-in-law's cameras, as well as from me and my wife, all with varying time settings. I find it handy to photograph my watch occasionally!

--
Terry, East Grinstead, UK

johnebaker wrote on 5/20/2013, 4:10 AM

Hi Terry

. . . . But the MOV clips are strangely two hours behind local! Any thoughts? . . .

While digging around for information for fuss I cam across an article which stated that the timecode and timestamps actual values vary with some movie formats.

With my Sony camera with inbuilt GPS it uses

1. UTC

2. UTC + local offset

3. UTC + local offset + summertime

When the camera time and timezone is updated by GPS - in the case of my camera it appears to use any one of them depending on whether I have local time and summertime set and GPS turned on.

Using the manual camera time is the least accurate as the camera clock can run fast/slow or be incorrectly set.

I like your idea of taking a shot of your watch at times .

John

terrypin wrote on 5/20/2013, 7:13 AM

Thanks John.

On reflection the inconsistency is hardly surprising, as I sometimes have to enter different settings in my file renaming program, Bulk Rename Utility, for JPG and MOV respectively to get the correct local time. With my Canon Ixus 220 HS a single setting, Modified (Current), works OK, but imports from other cameras often need different settings, found only after trial/error.

Maybe I'll ensure my next camera has GPS! At present I use my HTC Touch Pro 2 smartphone with Memory-Map to capture that, and pinpoint camera locations visually from the date-time data.

As you may recall I always rename all my material so that it's in the form 20130512-110124-Bluebells.JPG etc. So, prompted by this thread, I'll capitalise on that. Although I'm not going to use Fade in date as title because of these variations, I'll write a macro to create a track of date-time titles, one for every photo or movie clip, by copying it from Object Properties. That will prove quite handy as I often find I need to know that info. Currently I either have to use Ctrl+Shift+F2 to get Size/Position (which displays it) or zoom in until I can read it in the timeline itself. This new way will let me simply temporarily show the automatically created track.

--
Terry, East Grinstead, UK