Transferring HDV tapes with PMB

PeterDuke wrote on 10/5/2011, 7:30 PM
I normally use HDVSplit to transfer HDV tapes because I can label each clip file automatically with tape number and shooting date and time.

I normally use PMB to transfer AVCHD because it labels each clip file according to shooting date and time and it concatenates long clips that have been split.

The subject of displaying shooting time and date with HDV comes up from time to time so I tried using PMB with HDV for the first time. To my surprise, the clip files get labelled not with shooting date/time but transfer date/time. However, shooting date/time is still visible inside PMB. Even clips transferred with HDVSplit show the shooting date/time in PMB, so the shooting date/time is definitely embedded in the .M2T file somewhere.

What a pity that Vegas and at least some other editors don't display it directly. I missed this feature, so far as DV was concerned, when I left Pinnacle Studio 9 to go to Premiere Elements. I don't know whether or not Studio shows date/time for HDV or AVCHD.

Comments

PeterDuke wrote on 10/5/2011, 7:43 PM
Maybe DVMP Pro is the way to go. You can apparently export the metadata as subtitles, which could then be switched on or off at will.

http://www.dvmp.co.uk/
NickHope wrote on 10/6/2011, 6:23 AM
I agree completely Peter. It's a shame more programs don't show that data.

Paviko, the guy who wrote HDVSplit, wrote an AviSynth filter to extract that information. Played with it a while ago and don't recall it being a great success. It's not on my PC now.

If you find a program that can display the aperture/shutter/gain info of files that were captured with HDVSplit, please let us know. I'm definitely in the market for that. I'd really like to know what exposure settings my camera used when I was shooting on auto. Time of shooting would be really useful too.
PeterDuke wrote on 10/6/2011, 8:21 AM
"If you find a program that can display the aperture/shutter/gain info of files that were captured with HDVSplit, please let us know"

Yes DVMP Pro will do that. In fact I think even the crippled demo version will. Its not particularly cheap though - $80 US.
NickHope wrote on 12/19/2011, 10:31 AM
I've now finally done some testing with the DVMP Pro demo. I wanted to see what shutter/iris/gain some old DV was shot at.

It displays the metadata exposure info of my DV avi files, even after capturing with Scenalyzer and trimming/rendering in Vegas.

It also displays the metadata exposure info of HDV .m2t files as captured with HDVSplit. So that's good.

However unfortunately, after trimming HDV files and smart-rendering from Vegas, the metadata exposure info is no longer shown. So I can't check the exposure info of my HDV archive with it.

Apparently it does AVCHD too, so some might find that useful.

I don't think the demo expires, it's just impaired/feature-limited.
PeterDuke wrote on 12/19/2011, 7:39 PM
"I don't think the demo expires"

Signs of the times. I have no recollection of DVMP Pro or posting about it, but it is installed on my computer! :(

I tried running it but nothing happens. I presume it has expired but gives no message. Naughty.