Set Timestamp for Video Files

[WebEngel]

Hi

I learned in this great thread
https://www.photools.com/community/index.php?topic=6849.new;topicseen#new
how to set metadata for the timestamp in order to use it for renaming video (M2TS) files.

My problem: It does not seem to work anymore; probably one minor change I did which causes it to fail.  And I get completely confused by the timestamp metadata variants, about error messages about "structured or complex tag".  I am also confused because metadata fields change their name between selecting and the display.

What I have in my metadata template can best be seen in the attached screenshot.  Well, this configuration does not work!

So can anybody help me:
Which metadata field do I need to populate to put a file onto the timeline and rename it data-driven?

Don't answer "Created Date", I would need to know which "Created Date", I mean how to find it in the "Tag Selector"!

I have searched the help file and the forum for half an hour without success, so any help is appreciated.

Thanks
Martin

[Mario]

Just set "created date" and "Date Subject Created" in the metadata panel. IMatch stores these in the XMP record and also use them for the time line.
The are named exactly the same in the Tag Selector "Created Date" and "Date Subject Created".

[jch2103]

The 'long' versions are, in case you need them:

Date Subject Created = XMP Photoshop\Date Subject Created - i.e., Original date/time

Created Date = XMP xmp\Created Date - i.e., Digitized date/time

For videos, these would normally have the same values, but for digitized material, having both available is useful.

As you've seen, the names for all these date/time fields are very confusing and not particularly logical. It's helpful to set the Caption field in the metadata template to help keep them straight when you're using the metadata template to enter data.

[WebEngel]

Thanks, guys!

OK, I select
XMP Photoshop\Date Subject Created         which turns into
XMP::Photoshop\DateCreated

and
XMP xmp\Created Date                       which turns into
XMP::xmp\CreateDate

For both, I get the error messages about "structured or complex tag" (see screenshot "error").  Why that?

When I then apply my metadata expression in the "Fill the tag from this data" field (which according to Var Toy gives me "2017-07-24 18:23:35") to the file, it still seems to succeed.  See screenshot "panel".

Still, the renaming does not seem to pickup the data.  It still uses the file modified timestamp.

Also, when I enter the timestamps in the metadata panel with the picker (Current date&time), the same occurs.  So my metadata expression is not the problem.

What's going wrong?

Martin

[Mario]

You can ignore that message box. It is shown by accident. I have fixed that for the next release.

[jch2103]

Still, the renaming does not seem to pickup the data.  It still uses the file modified timestamp.

Also, when I enter the timestamps in the metadata panel with the picker (Current date&time), the same occurs.  So my metadata expression is not the problem.

What's going wrong?

I assume you applied the pending 'save' back to the database?
Also, a file may not appear properly in the Timeline until Categories have been refreshed, although I don't know if that's the issue here.

[WebEngel]

I assume you applied the pending 'save' back to the database?

That solved it!  Thanks a lot!

However, that generates a lot of unnecessary XMP files on my machine.  Since I do not need the metadata for movies outside of Imatch, I do not need these XMP files.

Any way to avoid that?

When I delete the XMP files, the renaming still works, so I guess it is not the XMP file that is needed.  Instead, any other change that happens during saving the metadata actually does the trick.  Can I do this "change" without creating the XMP file?

In the Metadata2 settings, I could set Imatch to embed data for M2TS file format, but I do not think that should happen.

Martin

[Mario]

The XMP file contains the metadata. It is needed. Else you will loose all XMP data when you re-import the file.

IMatch has created the XMP file while writing back, which also involved mapping between different XMP fields, propagating timestamps, digest data etc.
If you delete the XMP file and IMatch has to re-import the file for any reason, all your changes will be lost. Unless you explicitly protect all metadata in the database during import, which is a global settings and has many side effects. You definitely don't want that.

So, keep the XMP. IMatch does not create useless files.
The XMP files usually don't get in the way, don't need much disk space and are not visible in IMatch.

if you are unsure why XMP files are created, needed or why you should not work against the system by deleting seem, please refer to the extensive IMatch help which covers it all.