Doh!!!
This is great - One of those "It is a bit too obvious so no one will really get it at first" moments. And you know what? I see there is a newer version ( .06) of the program as well, released "today" (November 9, 2003 - but today is November 8, 2003) So I downloaded it and tried it - tossed all the files I tossed at it that wouldn't work in version .05 - and they all read fine. So I read the changelog and this is in there: "Bug detected with DV AVI capture files from Vegas Video 4" LOL!!!

So hey - groovy. Thanks.

And need I say "DOH!!!" again? :)

Ok - so I did it - and hey...coooooollll.

But (there is always a but) the date is there, the time is there..sort of. It starts at 1:03:13 and it just sits there - for 5 minutes, at 1:03:13. Does not seem to follow the ssa script. here is a sample from the script -

======
Dialogue:
Marked=0,0:00:00.96,0:00:00.99,MainB,,0000,0000,0000,!Effect,{\q1}08/19/2003\N01:03:13
Dialogue: Marked=0,0:00:01.00,0:00:01.03,MainB,,0000,0000,0000,!Effect,{\q1}08/19/2003\N01:03:14
Dialogue: Marked=0,0:00:01.03,0:00:01.06,MainB,,0000,0000,0000,!Effect,{\q1}08/19/2003\N01:03:14
Dialogue: Marked=0,0:00:01.06,0:00:01.09,MainB,,0000,0000,0000,!Effect,{\q1}08/19/2003\N01:03:14

>>>Last entry in SSA script:
Dialogue: Marked=0,0:04:59.59,0:04:59.62,MainB,,0000,0000,0000,!Effect,{\q1}08/19/2003\N01:08:12
======

So the time is changing, just the way it is reading doesn't pick up. Or am I missing something in the VV settings? I loaded up the same file and the same SSA script in both VDub and Subtitle Workshop and it plays fine, so it is seems to be either Satish's plug-in or VV. Ideas? (And yes i rendered to see if that was it - time will not change)

Mmh, strange. Don't know what it is.

Marco

The Adapter plugin requires the user to manually enter the frames/sec of the input video in the plugin settings dialog. Did you give the correct value there?

Satish, that's right it. I got the Adapter Plugin configured the wrong way. I corrected it and now the burnt-in datacode works like it should - counting the seconds too.
Thanks for the hint!

Marco

Ahhhh....

Ok. Sort of.

it is a bit hard to get at first. You set keyframes for the first frame and the last frame right? So I go to frame "0" and click on "Sequence Start" and set a keyframe there. Now I go to the last frame - in my test that is frame "8979" and set a keyframe there. Now I also manually type in "8979" under "Frame number" and click on "Sequence End". Now I get the running time. Except the datetime code now ends at frame "8,690" I try to manually set the frame rate at both "23.976" (It will automaticly go to '23' so you need to set it at 24) and "30" but the same thing happens.

UPDATE: Ok, so I added one frame at the end under "sequence Start" (8,979 > 8,980) and I set the frame rate at "30" and now the datecode goes all the way to the last frame. I guess it doesn't do 23.976/24p very well.

Can not get the time to work, what do I change and where please? I am PAL land

TIA

See what filmy wrote just a minute ago. But set the frame rate to 25. That should work.

Marco

Thanks for that got it now,

How do you get the date/time to display in a location other than the lower left corner?

Not sure about it. There is a Cascading Style Sheet in the README-folder. I think this is meant for format changes. So you would have to edit that CSS. Complicated - I know. But that's probably the way to go.

Marco

Forget about my last post - I was completely wrong. Just looking for the way ...

Marco

O.k. - I got it. It's in the .ssa-file itself. Before the datacodes are counted there are lines defining the style. And one of the last values mentioned there are MarginLeft, MarginRight and MarginV. Now if you open that .ssa-file with an editor, change the value of MarginLeft to 600 und MarginV to 500, then the burnt-in datacode would appear in the upper right corner.

Complicated anyway, but it works. I should ask Stefan, the developer of the datacode-tool, if there might be a more easy way in future versions.

Marco

Okay, I'm a little thick-headed here.

I figured out I get the frame number of the last frame from the bottom-right corner of Vegas when the cursor is on the last frame on the timeline. Right?

How do I change the appearance of the datecode on the video? Also, the datecode does not show up on every frame--it seems to skip a few each second.

Finally, does it make a difference that I can only enter "30" for the display rate rather than the more-accurate 29.97?

This is better than not having the datecode visible, but it's still a pretty clunky method. Maybe Vegas v5 will have an FX for burned datecode?

taliesin,

Thanks for the info on how to change placement. It is clunky, but so is this way of dealing with the issue. (Don't get me wrong; I am thrilled to finally have a way of doing this).

If Sony does include date/code in a future release, here is what I'd like:

1. Make it a Timecode fX option.

2. Have render option that permits maintaining the date/time. This one is complicated, since when multiple clips on different timelines are combined, which datecode should be used? Perhaps there could be a "master track" and any clip on that track would have its date/time code used when multiple clips are combined.

3. Permit reading VBI closed-caption, and any other VBI-related data. Basically, if there is data on the tape, we should be able to read it; display it; modify it; and include it in the render back to AVI.

I completely second that.

Marco

well i applied this effect one a 1hr DV as outlined above and i have a couple of problems:

1. very 3-4 minutes or so the datacode starts flickering for about 5 seconds.
2. at about the 30 min mark, it disappears all together.

1 problem on my part that might account for this is that i constantly get dropped frames during capture (average 1 per minute). ive played with all sorts of settings and remove non-essential apps from memory but still can never get a perfect capture. can this cause the flickering? any other suggestions for improving capture?

overall though, i love having the datacode on the vid. saves me a lot of time dating everything..!!!

kibo

If Sony had put this directly into Vegas, as has been requested by many people for years, it would be MUCH simpler.

Sony, PLEASE! There is an obvious need.