How to get correct (actual - not import) date/time stamp to a clip in iMovie.

In Final Cut Pro X, there may be a way. Seems to work. You can make a timecode reader using a Motion 5 effect. The "timecode" effect in FCPX only generates, but if you use the "timecode" effect in Motion and publish it to FCPX, it will read the original timecode and you can make a timecode burn-in movie.

I can't seem to do the connect clip trick, but I can select all clips in the project, and then double click the effect and it will apply to all.

Thanks for that extra bit of information Robert.

Yes, as I referred to in an earlier post here, Final Cut Pro X and Motion 5 working together seems to offer an appropriate solution. The generators in Motion 5 sound good. I'll have to have a closer look at that on the App Store (it's only $51.99 on the Australian Store), but I hear that it has a fairly steep learning curve. And I'm still grappling with Final Cut Pro X. 😕

John

Just an FYI, if you change the Time Zone in the System Preferences, this will impact the time stamped when adding a Time/Date Title. Had to make my Mac think it was in Siam but at least the stamp is now correct.

Confirming that this issue has not been fixed in iMovie 9.0.9. Horrible that they let it persist this long.

I found this:

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3140540?start=0&tstart=0

Seems to work without using any third party app.

BTW, when editing a iPhone video clip, you need to deduct the clip's lenght from the time originaly shown because the iPhone stamps the file when it finishes recording instead of when it starts.

John Cogdell, could you please upload a screen capture of the final video with the timestamp.

Thanks

Hi Jean Paul,

Below is a screenshot of a test project showing the Date/Time Title plus the playhead information. The playhead shows the actual time recorded (5:25 PM on 31 March 2013). The Date/Time Title shows a time 10.5 hours earlier (6:55 AM on 31 March 2013).

The clip was recorded while we were in Daylight Saving Time, which is 10.5 hours ahead of GMT. Coincidental perhaps? At present we are in Standard Time, which is 9.5 hours ahead of GMT. See here:

http://wwp.greenwichmeantime.com/time-zone/australia/south-australia/adelaide/ti me-adelaide/

(I deleted the screenshot and will replace it in my next post)

John

Message was edited by: John Cogdell - deleted screenshot

Here's the screenshot (I deleted my first attempt as it showed some superfluous/personal information):

John

Jean Paul Muller wrote:

I found this:

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3140540?start=0&tstart=0

Seems to work without using any third party app.

Hi again Jean Paul,

What was your reason in posting that link? Just curious because it's simply explaining how to add a title in Final Cut Pro X. Daniel was demonstrating that the title has to be "stacked" above the thumbnails, unlike iMovie where the title is dragged and dropped on top of the thumbnails (it then appears above the thumbnails, of course).

Unfortunately, in iMovie the Date/Time Title simply gets it wrong.

Sorry if I'm misunderstanding what you were intending to show. Your comment "Seems to work without using any third party app" threw me a bit. 😕

Could you explain further please?

John

Hi John,

I was requesting a screenshot of your project using FCPX and Motion 5.

I'm currently using iMovie 9.0 to avoid the timezone bug but it is only 32bits and too slow.

I need to upgrade to FCPX and get the Date/Time Title working ASAP.

Thank you.

Hi Jean Paul,

Sorry about the misunderstanding. I had a feeling you were referring to Final Cut Pro X, given my post you referenced.

I actually haven't tried it using FCP X and Motion 5 (don't have Motion). See this earlier post where I responded to Robert Vancouver about the possibility of using these 2 apps in conjunction with one another:

"I've had a look at Final Cut Pro X and it appears that there is no date/time stamp function, unlike iMovie (but I could be mistaken).

I've also done some googling and it seems that using Motion 5 in conjunction with FCP X will allow you to use a generator for showing the date and time that clips were recorded. Although a year and a half old, this thread provides some information on how to get the job done:

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3320986?start=0&tstart=0

Of course, if you don't have FCP X and Motion, this will be of no help."

Hope this helps to clarify things for you. Sorry I can't help further at the moment (about to go out for the day).

John

I also have 9.0.9 and its still an issue as someone pointed out a few months ago. For me, when I added the date/time title to my project, the time was 4 hours later than when I actually shot it. The play head info showed the correct time it was shot, but the stamp on the movie showed a time of exactly 4 hours ahead. I guess the length of hours discrepancy depends on what time zone you are in?? Anyway,I wanted to say that per another poster's suggestion, I changed the time zone in my computer and it fixed it. HOWEVER, it also changed the time in the play head info to 4 hours earlier. So for example, let's say I shot video at 9 am. Before changing my time zone, the playhead info would show 9 am, but the date/time in the movie would show 1 pm. After adjusting my time zone to Alaska time (I am on east coast time), the date/time in the movie would show 9 am, but the time in the playhead info callout thing would show 5 am.

This is HIGHLY annoying. I cannot believe Apple has not fixed this issue!

This is for iMovie 11 only. The new iMovie is a little jacked-up and i haven't had the time to play with it.

First, set your camera's "home" time zone to GMT. iMovie reads the metadata as GMT and that is why you are seeing a timeshift. It does have a tendancy to get a little jacked up during DST and you may have to change the "home" time zone to GMT -1 depending on the camera.

Stu, make sure you are covered as far as keeping an "original" for court purposes. I do this by recoding my video on SD cards. At the end of the day, or case, I lock the card and image it through Disk Utility (read only) label the image file and keep it in my archives. When I'm ready to import the video into iMovie, just open iMovie, double click the DMG image that I just made and begin the import process.

Once you have your clips imported, strip the audio from them and bring them into your project.

The playhead info will show GMT on the clips that were just imported but don't worry about that because once you add the Time Date, it will display the proper time.

Imaging the SD cards works great when you are using remote investigators since they can just upload the DMG to your local server every night (BT Sync works great for this) and they don't have to stop by to drop off their video all the time.

When you need to "produce original" video for court, burn the DMG to a clean SD card and you're all set.

Once you have a sytem that works good for you, write it down and call it a "company policy" which will help you in court.