[FFmpeg-user] Encoding DV tapes with "datecode" preserved for each frame

[Francois Visagie]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: ffmpeg-user [mailto:ffmpeg-user-bounces at ffmpeg.org] On Behalf Of
> Martynas Brijunas
> Sent: 07 May 2016 01:29
> To: ffmpeg-user at ffmpeg.org
> Subject: [FFmpeg-user] Encoding DV tapes with "datecode" preserved for
> each frame
> 
> Hi,
> 
> I have a collection of AVI files which were created from DV tapes. Each frame
> in these AVI files has a "datecode" field which can be seen with a tool like
> "dvdate". I would like to move my collection from the very bulky AVI files
> (16GB per tape) to a very manageable MP4. My question is: can the
> "datecode" field be preserved when transcoding from dvvideo (native) to
> h264 (libx264)? I am attaching a screenshot of how this "datecode" looks like
> on one of my files.

Not saying it isn't possible, but I never managed to do this. It could be that datecode is proprietary DV codec metadata not understood by ffmpeg (at least with the versions I tried).

Failing that, you have a couple of alternatives. To help ffmpeg access datecodes, extract them to subtitle text file format with dvdate or similar beforehand, and then try mux them in (converting format if necessary) with ffmpeg during encoding. The other alternative follows from this - extract datecode to subtitle files for your player to render during playback. The latter is what I usually do.

> 
> Thank you in advance.