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 t

Answer 1

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.