Thanks George,

I have sent you the script and information in a PM.

Looking forward to hear from you.

Regards,

Ronny

Hi Ronny,

I would be happy to give that a try. Send me the files, please.

Regards, Kasia

Hi Kasia,

I have sent you the script and information in a PM.

Looking forward to hear from you.

Regards,

Ronny

Hi Ronny,

I will be happy give it a try.

Cheers,.

Julia

Hi Julia,

Thanks for trying the script. I have sent files by email along with a dropbox access to the folder containing the video. 

Regards,

Ronny

Hi Matias and Eliardo,

Thanks for reply. I have discovered some issues with the script due to the valuable feedback I've got from above. Could I get back to you when I have spent more time on the script?

Hi Ronny,

I would like to test the sript.

Hi Valerio, I have to improve the script before more testing. I will notify you when it is ready.

Regards,

Ronny

Hi Ronny, I would like to test the script too.

Cheers

Thanks Marcelo,

I have to improve the script before more testing. I will notify you when it is ready.

Regards,

Ronny

Hi Ronny,

I see you are implementing some fixes to your script. When then new version will be ready, I would be happy to give it a try.

Best regards.

                       Luca

I'm still working on it;)

Hi Ronny, please let me know if you need someone more to test the script

Cheers

Hi, the thread starting to get old, but I haven't had time to work on the script before now. I still have some issues with processing date/time because of FAT system is not timezone independent. I have made a call in R to exiftool which works for images. Although, not yet for video. I try to work around this with the script below, but it would be helpful to see how it performs in other timezone (the video is taken in "Europe/Berlin")

I would be happy if someone try the script below. 

##################################

###Read metadata of the the attached video file to get 'mtime', this will be used later###

file.info("C:/Videos/0DVFBEV2.ASF") # Has to be changed, this is the path to the downloaded video file, note the 'mtime' as it will be used later

###Get the timezone of the computer that you have downloaded the video file###

local.time.system

Hi Ronny,

Is your research objective specifically about modification of the files? That date-time can vary between different computer platforms and it's quite a tricky matter to deal with properly.

For us, when using images/video for research, it is the creation date-time we want to know i.e. date-time of certain animal behaviour or environmental state. Creation date-time does not change (it remains recorded in EXIF information of the image/video), whereas modification date-time of the file does change when the file is copied or downloaded..

To get the creation date-time I would recommend using EXIFTOOL, This extremely useful utility works reliably across computer platforms and various image/video types and it can be integrated with R if you wish. See www.sno.phy.queensu.ca/~phil/exiftool/

Best wishes for your projects!

H Julia,

Thanks for reply.

I try to auto process a bulk of images/videos by customizing a R script. Generally it is not a problem, as most of the files are from same timezone as my local computer. Although, to make the script more general I wish to consider e.g. files from different time zones. I have just tried exiftool and made a call in R to get it integrated, and it works. Although for some files, e.g. from my Browning Strike Force (camera trap), the Exiftool doesn't read creation date, see attached file.

If I understand it right, the modification time depend on the local computer. Further, if you change name or downloading the file from a server the modification time will change. If the file is kept, copying is okay, the modification time will be the original time. When sharing, one could omit this by using ZIP-folder. For an example see attached files, a .avi-file from Browning Strike Force (timezone "America/Toronto") and the same file enclosed in the ZIP-folder "Example". The modification time for the .avi file will most likely change to the time you download it, but the .avi-file within the ZIP-folder will stay as original (although in your time zone). The .avi-file enclosed in the zip-folder, could be conversed to original time as long as you know the original timezone. I have do hope that the script below could be used. 

##################################

###Read metadata of the the attached video file to get 'mtime', this will be used later###

file.info("C:/Videos/IMG_0017.AVI") # Has to be changed, this is the path to the downloaded video file, use the one from ZIP-folder

###Get the timezone of the computer that you have downloaded the video file###

local.time.system

Sorry Ronny, the bad news is that mtime can be changed on extracting from zip archive.

I tested your files - see my text files from exiftools attached. You will notice ctime is preserved, not mtime.

But... please be aware that using metadata of the *file* is DIFFERENT to the metadata of the *image*. (Not just a matter of time zone, ctime can be applied in different ways by different systems, and does not necessarily indicate the time of image creation  - more in next message)

Might be helpful to recap: If you want to analyse the animal's behaviour that the camera recorded, you really need the date-time of *image* creation. If you use any file metadata instead of *image* metadata, your own analysis could be right or wrong - maybe small difference that is not obvious. Generalising your script could be completely UNreliable for other users across different computer platforms where the file metadata can be treated differently.

From a quick search I see exif information for AVI is not standardised. Maybe you can check the details for your particular camera(s) e.g. some cameras record 'sidecar' files containing video metadata. If that's the case, your script could probably access the relevant metadata by matching sidecar and image file names. Of course this would be specific to your camera(s) and your computer system. Good luck with all this.

Hi Julia, thank you so much for testing. I was hoping that extracting from zip archive didn't change the modification time. I read somewhere it shouldn't change, anyhow exif information is the way to go and then being restricted to cameras with files that are supported. Although when working with files with the same time-zone as the computer it should be okay, at least when there is a timestamp displayed at the image or the video itself (given that you are sure this time is correct). As I see it the problem occurs when sharing data. 

Regards,

Ronny