Very unusual request! - Date of MPEG was encoding? - Is my friend a p0rnstar?

[ktan]

[To the Mod]
Ive just read thru the forum rules, and im pretty sure this doesnt break ony of them.
[/To the Mod]

WELL, here's an interesting problem....

My friend (female if ur asking) recently downloaded a video clip from the net.

The clip shows, in poor light, at dusk, a couple getting 'very friendly' in some woods.
She’s convinced its of her and her boyf. I’m telling her that the likelihood of it being her is soooo small, its crazy to think it could be her. But she says the woman in the clip (as far as she can tell) looks like her, (the camera man is ducking behind bushes n stuff)

Anyways, she asks me if I can find out when the original file was encoded, because if it was made before she got ‘jiggy’, it cant be her, right?

I got her to pass the file thru Gspot to see if any dates were revealed (yea, I know, it was a long shot, but the best thing I could think of) but nothing.

Oh, and its an MPEG file.

And no, I havnt seen the file myself, and I wont send it to anyone, and I don’t even know the filename.

Well, I knew this would be the best place to ask, seeing as your all amazing video experts and all ;)

[ktan]

nt

[Manao]

I don't know exactly the specification of the MPEG format, but you may try to edit the beginning of the file in hexadecimal, and search for any tags that could refer to an encoding tool. If such a tag exists, and if it reports a version number, knowing the history of the tool will give you a date, around which the clip may have been encoded ( if the guy which encoded the movie was up to date with his encoding tools ).

However, you won't have certitudes.

[r6d2]

Can you post it so we can analyze it? :D:D:D

Seriously, I don't think you can get this info from the stream. However, by analyzing light sources, the location and such, you may determine the date within some extent.

[ktan]

She claims that the light characteristics (direction, colour etc) on the film match the location and that the trees look similar too.

If she let me look at the file, I bet I would notice something ‘amiss’ that proves it isn’t her, but she’s not letting me look at it.

Good suggestion Manao, and it would probably work, but trying to 'yahoo chat' explain to her how to download, install and use Gspot was hard enough. I’m not really looking forward to the prospect of having to remotely explain to her how to install and use a program with equal complexity to something like NanDub.


All being said, the chances of it actually being her, as so remote, I think its more than a little paranoid of her to be thinking it is.

[mf]

I've looked at some MPEG files in a hexeditor, but it doesn't seem like there's any useful info in the headers. So I guess apart from a JUNK-like block or any preserved filesystem data (originally created at - though peer to peer apps usually overwrite those with the date of download), you're lost.

[ktan]

It was downloaded from Kazaa (Using Kazaa Lite).

[ktan]

HER: well im not completely stupid,close but not completely. I have looked at it enough to think it's me otherwise I wouldnt be asking for your help

ME: okok

ME: its just going to be impossible to explain u thru this :" edit the beginning of the file in hexadecimal, and search for any tags that could refer to an encoding tool"

HER: ok lets not bother then. I'm not too fussed either way now

ME: Proper computing stuff, and id have to read about how to do that

ME: well, i tried ya know

HER: yeah thanx

ME: u gunna keep the file ?

HER: yeah :D

HER: no 1 else will understand why but yeah, gonna keep it

ME: well, ill close the topic in the forum then

HER: ok

ME: are you gunna say thanks to the guys for trying to help out?

HER: can you do it for me please

HER: say im shy or summin

ME: shy! u were getting Jiggy in the woods!

ME: just say thanks here! and ill post this chat

ME: Next time u gunna do that, just have a look about 1st. ya know, check to see if anyones there with a camcorder

HER: thanx guys..if u ever end up having sex anywhere....make sure u aren't being filmed

ME: heh

HER: :D

[ktan]

ME: i bet they have a chuckle at that

ME: hehe

HER: hehe

HER: shame

HER: i quite like being a pornstar

ME: hehe

HER: might do it again sometime....if it was me. Or even if it isnt

ME: well, doing stuff in the woods is a good thing to do

ME: in the woods, in the warm summer rain

HER: yeah,spose...if your with some1 who will make he most of it

[r6d2]

I was about to post that since she recognized the place, and could not tell the guy... Either she's done it several times there with different guys, or several times with the same guy. Otherwise she'd be able to tell when it was.

In fact I need an actrees suitable for a nude scene in movie I'm shooting at an E.R. facility. If she's available and willing, let me know. :)

[ktan]

Just the once in the woods, with one guy.

And they not together anymore, so he never needs to know he might be over the net, right?

But without actually seeing the file for myself, i dont know for sure; How bad quality the pic is, how far away they are from the cam, etc.

Apparently no faces are shown, she recognises her hair and her butt! And the fact what her and the guy did in the woods matches the order that stuff happens in the clip.

[temporance]

To answer your question: there is no standard way of encoding date into an MPEG video, audio or systems stream. It's possible, but very unlikely that some tools could write this information into user_data.

Of all the dodgy voyeuristic video clips out there, what are the chances of her finding one where she has the lead role?

Unless her stalker contacted her and said "here's your movie".

Do you know how she found the movie?

[ktan]

She just found it floating about on the Kazaa network.

[r6d2]

Originally posted by ktan
Just the once in the woods, with one guy.And she cannot remember when it was? She was drunk or something?

[ktan]

She knows when she was in the woods, and she knows when she downloaded the file.

If the file was created AFTER the woods, then it could be her.

but,

if the file was created BEFORE the woods then it cant be her.

[r6d2]

Oh, now I get it, sorry for the confusion.

If the clothes appear somewhere... I guess they don't. If she remembers when it was, and she has a photo of her at the time, she might compare the hairdressing to see if there's a match. Or the guy's hair for that matter.

[ktan]

No clothes being worn at the time!

[RadicalEd]

TMPGenc always stores the version number close to the beginning of the file, you can get it with any hex editor (http://www.chmaas.handshake.de/delphi/freeware/xvi32/xvi32.htm). It shouldn't even be too hard to explain. Then again, someone could always be using outdated software to make new movies, so the information is near useless :D