How to retain original file date/time stamps on converted files?

[mingle]

Hi,

I'm using VirtualDub to batch process a large number of video files (converting movie clips from my digicam from MJPEG to MP4) and I'd like to keep the original date/time stamps from the original files.

I can't see any way to do this in VirtualDub and it would be next to impossible to do it manually (far too many files to individually relabel).

Do anyone know of a util (or better still an add-on for VirtualDub!) that will let me keep the original dates/times on my converted vids?

Cheers,

Mike.

[setarip_old]

Hi!

How many actual different dates (not files) are involved?

[mingle]

Hi there,

Oh boy, it would be in the hundreds (500-600?)

Cheers,

Mike.

[jeffy]

Could you please post 1-2 file names of the original and of the converted files?
Do the converted files have the exactly same name as the original files and do they differ in the extension only?

[mingle]

Hi,

The file names do not change - they are originally MJPEG-in-AVI clips and I'm converting them to MP4/XViD-in-AVI). They're from a Canon IXUS camera...

Example file names are:

IMG_4253.avi
IMG_0207.avi

All I need to do is transfer the original created/modified/accessed date & time stamps to the converted files somehow...

Cheers,

Mike.

[setarip_old]

@mingle

If it would serve your purpose , I believe you could use the following shareware program to automatically modify the names of your ORIGINAL files to have the ORIGINAL date and timestamps included in their filenames - and would then flow through to the names of the VirtualDub batch-processed files:

http://www.attributemagic.com/amp/rename-files.html

Rename files and folders with AttributeMagic Pro
AttributeMagic Pro offers flexible way to batch rename a selected group of files and folders. With mechanism of custom expressions you can construct various renamig schemes.
Examples
1. Adding the file creation date to the file name
expression: File.Name + " " + DateToStr(File.Created)

[jeffy]

Hi,

The file names do not change - they are originally MJPEG-in-AVI clips and I'm converting them to MP4/XViD-in-AVI). They're from a Canon IXUS camera...

Example file names are:

IMG_4253.avi
IMG_0207.avi

All I need to do is transfer the original created/modified/accessed date & time stamps to the converted files somehow...

Cheers,

Mike.

So do they have exactly the same names and even the extensions? Example:
Before -> After
IMG_4253.avi -> IMG_4253.avi
IMG_0207.avi -> IMG_0207.avi

[dat720]

If i were doing this i would use a vbs script to loop through all the files, during the loop they would be encoded with a predefined mencoder command, then in the same loop fetch all the file properties and apply them to the new file, way too much effort for me tho! file date's arent that important to retain, maybe you should use a batch file renamer to name the AVI's after the date and time they were recorded, this would be more useful as you could find more easily what you want from the title rather than the date, basiclly what setarip_old has already suggested.

For example a filename could be:
"Snow Trip 19-08-08 11:00pm.avi"

A nice little utility that makes it's way onto all of my systems that can acheive this is called Batch File Renamer (http://cerebralsynergy.com/download.php?list.10), the name sounds dodgy but its really good and works well.

[RunningSkittle]

@dat: You can do this easily with a simple dos batch script. All of those hokey "renaming" applications are comparatively useless.

Unfortunately I dont think there is anyway to read (or write) time stamps using only batch script. You can do renaming with the creation date, however. Or if you have another application that can be called from the command line and can read and write time stamps, then you could also call that from a batch script.

[dat720]

There are allot of dodgy rename scripts but beleave me Batch File Renamer is actually useful.