0001597: Add time/date metadata output to video

Notes
(0005299) pez4brian (developer) 2010-06-21 15:14	I'd like to add my support for this feature. Dan Dennedy added a similar feature to Kino a couple of years ago: 0003030">http://www.kinodv.org/dcforum?az=show_topic&forum=101&topic_id=2491&mesg_id=2491&page=0003030 [0003030" target="_blank">^] My life has never been the same and Dan will forever be my hero. Now, I've purchased an HD camcorder. So Kino will no longer meet my needs. That's why I'm here. My use case is the same, but my equipment is different. I would also suggest that if this feature is implemented in some form, it should not be exclusive to DV content. If a file does not have "date" metadata, a user may want to burn in the creation date of the media file. If anyone start on this, please let me know. I'd be glad to help test/debug.

(0005300) ddennedy (developer) 2010-06-22 09:32	We use ffmpeg libs to decode, and it does not provide access to this data for DV. Someone would have to implement a libdv-based filter and then change the avformat producer to attach the raw bitstream to the frames for the filter to process. Then, a separate filter would be needed for MPEG-2 HDV. There is code in dvgrab that parses this - different cameras do it differently and some may not work. Then, it needs to be plugged into a titling filter (there is some work already done here in MLT). This is quite a lot of work, and I am already committed to some things I have placed at a higher priority.

(0005303) pez4brian (developer) 2010-06-23 19:43	Hi Dan, nice to talk to you again. I understand completely about "higher priorities". I wouldn't expect you to drop everything and work on this. But, looking through the forums, it looks like there are plenty of people looking for timecode, BITC or date overlays. So I expect this feature will be addressed by someone eventually. I did some research on ffmpeg, libdv and datecodes. I have the following observations to offer: 1) Unlike in Kino, the feature would have to be general in nature and support multiple formats. For anyone wanting BITC and using DV, MP2 or MP4, they should be covered - because all standards have some way to carry timecode. But, unlike DV, MP2 and MP4 do not have a standard way to carry a date code (that I know of). So overlaying the date the footage was recorded will be difficult for non-DV formats. The best idea I can think of is to use the file creation date for the date to be overlayed. 2) You mentioned that ffmpeg does not support date/timecode access for DV and that libdv could be used for that. Would it be desirable to mix in libdv, or would the preference to be add the necessary features to ffmpeg? 3) It appears that ffmpeg does not have support for timecode extraction for any formats (DV, MPEG2, MPEG4, etc). Is that your understanding also? If that's the case, someone will have to implement timecode extraction in ffmpeg for all formats. And, as I mentioned in #1, that won't help for datecode.

Issue History
Date Modified	Username	Field	Change
2010-05-15 01:09	SixString	New Issue
2010-06-04 20:53	ttill	Status	new => acknowledged
2010-06-04 20:53	ttill	Target Version	=> future version
2010-06-04 21:11	ttill	Relationship added	duplicate of 0001588
2010-06-21 15:14	pez4brian	Note Added: 0005299
2010-06-22 09:32	ddennedy	Note Added: 0005300
2010-06-23 19:43	pez4brian	Note Added: 0005303
2010-07-18 14:32	Granjow	Relationship added	related to 0000643