Aired Date - US date format only?

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Level 1

127 points

Aired Date - US date format only?

Is there a way of showing +Aired Date+ in a date format other than the US one?

US date formats are very confusing and catch you out if you are used to the eminently more sensible DD/MM/YYYY format.

This is particularly annoying when tagging content for the Apple TV with Meta X or Subler, as you have to remember to put the first to two parts of the date in backwards.

I've never understood the US date format as it doesn't flow properly - ie. smallest/bigger/biggest -(the US one is oddly bigger/smallest/biggest)!

iMac 24" 2.8 GHz, Mac OS X (10.6), Time Capsule 1TB; AppleTV 160GB; iPod Touch 2nd Gen 32GB; iMac G5; iMac G3 DV

Posted on Sep 26, 2009 1:18 AM

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Answer 1

Alley_Cat

Level 7

20,548 points

Sep 26, 2009 1:28 AM in response to Easybourne

I share your confusion when dealing with US date formats, but that's regional differences for you.

If you think about it their method isn't that illogical as verbally we're quite comfortable saying November 26th 2009 or 26th November 2009, and verbally I prefer the former style.

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Answer 2

Easybourne Author

Level 1

127 points

Sep 26, 2009 2:04 AM in response to Alley_Cat

If the date had the word 'November' in it rather than '11', then it wouldn't be a problem.

The problem is that the date format is WRONG for the region in which it is being displayed.

I still stand by my statement that the US date system is illogical (not so much when expressed in words, but most definitely when expressed numerically).

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Answer 3

Chenks

Level 5

7,435 points

Sep 26, 2009 2:12 AM in response to Easybourne

not sure which version of metax you are using, but with the current mac version you enter the date like this

2009-09-26

that is neither US or UK as far as i understand.

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Answer 4

Alley_Cat

Level 7

20,548 points

Sep 26, 2009 2:39 AM in response to Easybourne

Easybourne wrote:
This is particularly annoying when tagging content for the Apple TV with Meta X

Have you tried sending some feedback to the developer? You can do so from the Help menu.

Also, remember being a freeware app, the developer has given us a great tool, but may not have the time to fully develop localisation features, even if the date issue occurred to him.

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Answer 5

Chenks

Level 5

7,435 points

Sep 26, 2009 2:40 AM in response to Alley_Cat

Alley_Cat wrote:

Easybourne wrote:
This is particularly annoying when tagging content for the Apple TV with Meta X

Have you tried sending some feedback to the developer? You can do so from the Help menu.

Also, remember being a freeware app, the developer has given us a great tool, but may not have the time to fully develop localisation features, even if the date issue occurred to him.

i don't see this being a MetaX issue.

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Answer 6

Alley_Cat

Level 7

20,548 points

Sep 26, 2009 2:48 AM in response to Chenks

I wasn't entirely clear if the OP's issue was with AppleTV, MetaX or both.

Not used MetaX for a few weeks, but being a bit lazy I often don't put much in the date fields anyway, so can't confirm what the current behaviour is.

Are we saying the issue is with dates being incorrectly displayed on AppleTV then, or that they're wrong because they were entered in UK format in a program expecting US date format? The fact that I'm not sure probably reflects how rarely I look at this metadata anyway!

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Answer 7

Chenks

Level 5

7,435 points

Sep 26, 2009 3:01 AM in response to Alley_Cat

i believe the OPs issue is that the appletv displays the date in US format.

for me, this a non-issue as i am able to train my brain to know that any date shown on the appletv is in the US format.

out of interest, how many countries other than UK use the "UK format" for dates? it's probably the UK that is being different to everyone else (just like driving on the left)?

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Answer 8

Chenks

Level 5

7,435 points

Sep 26, 2009 3:01 AM in response to Chenks

should also add that MetaX is using the standardise universal format for date (ISO 8601) which is 2009-09-26.

so as far as MetaX is concerned, it is formatting date correctly.
if AppleTV wishes to display that universal date in US format, then that is another matter.

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Answer 9

Easybourne Author

Level 1

127 points

Sep 26, 2009 3:08 AM in response to Chenks

I've said from the start that this is an issue with how Apple TV displays date info.

The part about Meta X was more of a rant about the ridiculous date formatting that is used in the colonies. 🙂 Anyway, I understand that the date needs to be entered in a particular way, so I shouldn't really have mentioned Meta X as it muddied the issue.

It's a bit odd that there isn't a country setting on the Apple TV apart from the one that relates to the iTunes Store. - Even then I suppose the Apple TV could pick up on this?

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Answer 10

Alley_Cat

Level 7

20,548 points

Sep 26, 2009 3:16 AM in response to Easybourne

Easybourne wrote:
It's a bit odd that there isn't a country setting on the Apple TV apart from the one that relates to the iTunes Store. - Even then I suppose the Apple TV could pick up on this?

That would be the logical assumption.

If you haven't already:

http://www.apple.com/feedback/appletv.html

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Answer 11

Easybourne Author

Level 1

127 points

Sep 26, 2009 3:29 AM in response to Chenks

{quote:title=Chenks wrote:}
out of interest, how many countries other than UK use the "UK format" for dates? it's probably the UK that is being different to everyone else (just like driving on the left)?{quote}

FYI here is a list of countries using DD/MM/YY formatting for dates:

Albania
Algeria
Argentina
Armenia
Australia
Austria (using dots (which denote ordinal numbering)
Azerbaijan
Bahrain
Bangladesh
Barbados
Belarus
Belgium
Bolivia
Brazil
Bulgaria
Canada
Chile
Colombia
Costa Rica
Croatia
Cyprus
Czech Republic
Denmark
Dominica
Dominican Republic
Ecuador
Egypt
El Salvador
Estonia
Finland
France
Georgia
Germany (using dots (which denote ordinal numbering)
Greece
Greenland
Grenada
Guatemala
Guyana
Hong Kong (in English)
Honduras
Iceland
India (dd.mm.yyyy in Bengali; dd-mm-yyyy in Gujarati, Hindi, Marathi, Punjabi, Tamil; d-m-yyyy in Telugu, no leading zeroes used)
Indonesia
Iraq (dd/mm/yyyy)
Ireland (dd-mm-yyyy)
Israel (dd/mm/yyyy)
Italy
Jamaica
Jordan
Kazakhstan (dd.mm.(yy)yy)
Kenya (dd/mm/yyyy)
Kuwait
Kyrgyzstan (dd.mm.yyyy)
Latvia
Lebanon
Libya
Luxembourg(dd/mm/yyyy in French, d.m.yyyy in German)
Macau (in Portuguese & English)
Macedonia (dd.mm.yyyy)
Malaysia
Mexico
Montenegro (d.m.yyyy)
Morocco
Netherlands (using hyphens as in “dd-mm-(yy) yy”, very often "d month (yy)yy")
New Zealand
Nicaragua
Norway (d.m.y; the fraction form d/m-y is common, but incorrect)
Oman
Pakistan (dd/mm/(yy)yy)
Panama
Paraguay
Peru
Philippines (in Filipino)
Poland (dd.mm.yyyy, often with dots as separators; more official is d <month in genitive> yyyy, or, less frequently, d <month in Roman numerals> yyyy)
Portugal
Qatar
Romania (dd.mm.yyyy)
Russia (dd.mm.(yy)yy)
Saint Kitts and Nevis
Saint Lucia
Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
Saudi Arabia (dd/mm/yyyy in Islamic and Gregorian calendar systems, except for major companies, which conventionally use the American mm/dd/yyyy format)
Serbia (d.m.yyyy)
Singapore (English)
Slovakia (d.m.yyyy, some use of dd-mm-yyyy)
Slovenia (d.m.yyyy or d. mmmm yyyy)
Spain
Sri Lanka
Sweden (as d/m yyyy, although the yyyy-mm-dd form is more common and the national standard.)
Switzerland (dd.mm.yyyy)
Syria
Tajikistan (dd.mm.yyyy)
Thailand (with Buddhist Era years instead of Common Era)
Trinidad and Tobago
Tunisia
Turkey
Turkmenistan (dd.mm.(yy)yy)
Ukraine (dd.mm.yyyy; some cases of dd/mm/yyyy
United Arab Emirates
United Kingdom - YAY! 🙂
Uruguay
Uzbekistan (dd.mm.yyyy Cyrillic, dd/mm yyyy Latin)
Venezuela
Vietnam
Yemen

Here is a list of countries that use MM/DD/YY:

Belize
Canada (Although most official government documents use the yyyy-mm-dd format, the mm/dd/yy format is also understood due to influences from the United States.)
Federated States of Micronesia
Palau
Philippines (when written in English)
United States (civilian vernacular: mm/dd/yy or mm/dd/yyyy; other formats, including dd Month yyyy and yyyy-mm-dd, are common or prescribed—particularly in military, academic, scientific, computing, industrial, or governmental contexts.)

I always find it interesting just how the US proscribe something as being a 'Standard' when what they really mean is that it is way the US does it. In the same way as English is referred to as 'International English' and American English is just called English by American corporations

/rant

Message was edited by: Easybourne

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Answer 12

Sep 26, 2009 5:45 AM in response to Easybourne

On the format issue generally, there is only one recognised international standard and it's neither 26/9/09 nor 9/26/09, it is as Chenks points out which is 2009/09/26, which commences with the largest unit of time and ends with the smallest, and includes preceding zeros where they are needed.

This has actually been my preferred method for writing the date ever since I used my first computer many years ago. I do get asked questions when writing cheques etc and most often the question is' why do you write the American way', to which my response is 'Well actually I don't.....'

When it comes to the tv, since the start of 2009 or thereabouts it actually reflects the international standard in the list view (which I believe is where one would actually use the date), although this may simply be coincidence. The tv has now dropped the year from the date displayed in that list and simply shows the mm/dd.

As I say this now reflects the ISO format (although as I say I suspect it's really the US format with the year removed) which I think is the best solution for a device that has international software.

There isn't a way to change it, so if you are one of those that doesn't like it, all you can do is send feedback to Apple about their product.

Winston 2009.09.26:13.45.07

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Answer 13

Chenks

Level 5

7,435 points

Sep 26, 2009 5:46 AM in response to Winston Churchill

Winston Churchill wrote:
The tv has now dropped the year from the date displayed in that list and simply shows the mm/dd.

only on certain things (ie content from the current year). for older content, the year is still shown.

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Answer 14

Sep 26, 2009 5:53 AM in response to Chenks

Chenks wrote:

Winston Churchill wrote:
The tv has now dropped the year from the date displayed in that list and simply shows the mm/dd.

only on certain things (ie content from the current year). for older content, the year is still shown.

I honestly cannot remember whether it did this in 2008, so I can't be certain whether it's that it has dropped the current year or whether it has dropped the year since the beginning of 2009.

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Answer 15

Sep 26, 2009 5:54 AM in response to Winston Churchill

Actually the more I think about it I think it may be the former.

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