[videomitch]

Help needed by a new boy!
Is it possible to transfer Mini DV camcorder footage to a DVD disc without losing the Data codes ( i.e. the date and time of filming) which are hidden on the tape but can be viewed at any time by pressing the appropriate button on the remote when watching footage using the camera as the player?

I would like to know this before I buy my new DVDrecorder

Many thanks in advance!

[laser]

It isn't possible. You will loose all original dv timecode information.

[melliott1963]

Just a thought, which might be total rubbish, but I wonder if there is any program available that will allow you to save the data code as 'subtitles' on a DVD, so allowing you to turn them on and off when you like?

Personally, I hate seeing the date and time on video footage, and prefer to just have a title screen, which includes the date, prior to the footage being shown.

[vonhosen]

In your video editing program you can of course add the date yourself as a text layer, or if you are talking about running timcode (includin hrs, mins, secs & frames) editing programs like Sony Vegas, you can add timecode by just applying it from the videoFX library.

It is NOT true that your date and time are lost when you transfer your video to a PC - it can be retrieved at any time - certainly in Ulead VideoStudio which I use (then make your own subtitle to match it) - or if your application does not show it you can use a programme like this :-
http://www.dts8888.com/vDTS/vdts.htm
once you have transferred it to your PC to put the date and time of filming as a subtitle on your video .

[videomitch]

Many thanks for speedy replies. I don't want to use an editting prog, just a simple copy to a disc using a DVD recorder, so it looks as if Laser's answer is the one I was hoping not to read!
However,if do I use Beejaycee's vdts , does this mean that the date and time would be displayed the whole time? If not how would I bring it up on screen when I wanted to see it?

Originally Posted by melliott1963

Just a thought, which might be total rubbish, but I wonder if there is any program available that will allow you to save the data code as 'subtitles' on a DVD, so allowing you to turn them on and off when you like?

Personally, I hate seeing the date and time on video footage, and prefer to just have a title screen, which includes the date, prior to the footage being shown.

Although limited to Hi8 tapes only at this time, there is a tool called Hi8DateTime at http://www.octochron.com that extracts dates and times from Hi8 tapes made by Hi8 camcorders with the DATA CODE feature and produces a SAMI subtitle file that can be turned on and off when viewed with the Window Media Player.

To get to DVD subtitles that you can turn on and off you would then need to convert the SAMI text file to the 4 color-coded bitmap stream to be multiplexed with the DVD's video and audio streams.

[redsox_mark]

While capture of DV to a PC doesn't lose the timecode, recording it on a "set top" DVD recorder does (except for some Phillips models). If the DVD recorder as DV-input the data is sent to the recorder, but generally thrown away at that stage.

If you use a S-video transfer from the DV camcorder to the DVDR rather than the obvious firewire or possibly USB then any time/date displayed during playback is recorded on the DVD. The purists may scream but IMHO the transfer of DV to DVD means a loss in quality due to the mpeg2 rendering and equally as good results can be obtained with an s-video input. Remember that for best results use 1 DVD per hour of DV video.

[redsox_mark]

Originally Posted by Analogue

If you use a S-video transfer from the DV camcorder to the DVDR rather than the obvious firewire or possibly USB then any time/date displayed during playback is recorded on the DVD. The purists may scream but IMHO the transfer of DV to DVD means a loss in quality due to the mpeg2 rendering and equally as good results can be obtained with an s-video input. Remember that for best results use 1 DVD per hour of DV video.

True, if you have the camcorder displaying the date it will be copied to DVD on an analogue recording... but what the original poster was asking for was that the date be "viewed at any time by pressing the appropriate button on the remote when watching footage". This can't be done unless the DVD recorder supports this (and only some Phillips models do).