Download DVdate
to get insight in avi videos
probably the best utility in the world to manage all DV videos
Help pages about DVdate:
my software:
This page is better viewed in 1024x768.
Last update
at Saturday, December 13, 2008
Download
version 7.1.1
released at Saturday, December 13, 2008
size 860 Kb
When downloading for free this software, you acknowledge that you will use it at your own risk, without any warranty from Paul Glagla. It works for me, it should work for you, but perhaps not, because I cannot test my programs on all different systems available.
This software is delivered for personal use of the video hobbyist only. Any use by a company, an administration or during professional activities is prohibited. If you need to use it for such activities, please ask me for a licensed version. To learn how to get a licensed version, click below.
What is DVdate?
DVdate is a powerful utility for processing AVI files in general, and specially AVI DV files. It features many useful functions, easy and fast to apply even to a great number of avi files at once. For example:
convert a DV file from type 1 to
type 2 (and reciprocally): It is useful
when importing files into some video editing
software that accept only videos of
type 2, like Pinnacle's Studio.
DVdate may recognize even some
strange DV types, like those produced
by Movie Edit Pro and convert
them to regular DV types.
convert a non DV file into a
DV file (Pal or NTSC): it is useful
when editing a project with DV files, to
import easily a video clip, that has been compressed
with anything else than DV, like DivX or
Mjpeg.
convert a DV file from Pal to NTSC
or reciprocally: it is useful to make a DVD in NTSC
format with a camcorder in DV Pal.
embed ("Inlay" or should I say "burn"? ) datecode or timecode into the frames of a DV
file: it is useful to display the date
and time of capture on the screen, like
the analog camcorders used to do. This function
is highly personalizable, with nice
features (change font, position, schedule
to display ay each scene change, display
the datecode on two lines, adjust the
alignment, add a border...
create a subtitle file with the datecodes
at the right times: very useful to display the datecode
when playing a video, without burning it permanently
into the video frames.
export a file containing the list of
scenes from a
DV video to some popular formats: it
can be a simple text file, or a Excel Worksheet, but also
a Word doc, and even a document for OpenOffice.org (Calc
or Writer) it's useful to catalog
DV tapes, or to make a database
of all scenes. It's then personalizable
with Microsoft Office or OpenOffice.org
fix the framerate of an avi file : it
may fix some out of sync issues, specially
when an analog capture board did not set
the correct framerate
rename avi files by adding their
datecode or timecode:
it's useful when sorting video clips and
archiving them.
many other features are available:
extract audio to WAV, fix a time difference,
change the FourCC of the codec, split
a DV file into individual scene files...
DVdate features a multimedia player which can read the video (including in full screen) and browse easily through the video with CTRL+ array keys, and even browse from scene to scene with the function keys F8 and F9. It displays in real time the datecode and timecode of the frame being played. DVdate displays also complete information about the AVI file. Like the utility Gspot, it indicates the codec, the image size, the number of frames per second, the duration of the video etc.... When dealing with DV files, it adds the type 1 or 2 and the TV standard Pal or NTSC or even the aspect ratio 4x3 or 16x9. It features also a function to display the RIFF header of an avi file, like riffwalk.exe from Microsoft used to do.
DVdate can load a great number of avi files into its "playlist", and process them individually or altogether. It displays automatically the video of each selected file. It may open the selected files in a third-party application with a single key stroke. With one keyboard hit (CTRL+F7) it may even load all avi files present on all your hard drives. Try it, you may be surprised by the result.
DVdate comes with a script language, which can automate many functions, and is useful in batch processing, and command-line mode.
DVdate features a Scenes Editor, and can create (even for non DV files, for instance DivX) a scn file containing data about the scenes (start, end, caption, thumbnail...). This enables the amazing function of browsing from scene to scene in some of my software, and is compatible with Studio from Pinnacle.
Minimum Requirements for DVdate
DVdate has been tested under Windows XP SP1 and SP2 and Windows Vista. It needs directX 9.0 or better. To play videos in its integrated multimedia player, the corresponding directshow filters (sometimes called codecs) must be installed on your system. If they are not, the video will not play but other commands may still work.
It is interesting to install also my software ImageGrab on your system. Thus DVdate can call ImageGrab with a single key stroke on F2 and load automatically the selected file in it.
Help pages about DVdate
Using DVdate is very simple and straight forward. Just remember to type F10 if you want to change some settings, and to type F11 to show the list of all commands with their shortcuts. Move the mouse above buttons to show hints. But if you want to use some advanced features, it is recommended to read the help pages. Following pages are available in English:
If you used DVdate with a version prior to 7.x.x, and
when theses pages will be updated, you should first of all have a look at the pages
Menu Scenes,
Edit Scenes,
Scripts. The other
help pages will seem familiar to you.
If you have found a bug, please send me an e-mail. I must say that I can not answer to most of e-mails. They are too numerous. But I read them all, and I often implement new improvements in the next versions, thanks to remarks of the users.
What's new in versions 7.0. x published in English since 2008, April the 14th.
- The program is now compatible with Unicode characters, and should work with some Asian languages or with Cyrillic characters for instance.
- The window of the program is no more constraint. One can adjust the size, maximize it, one can display or hide the list of files (and position it at the right or at the left). More buttons are available in the toolbar, that can also be displayed or hidden, and even dragged out of the main window.
- A command to convert DV videos from 4x3 to 16x9 (widescreen) and reciprocally has been added.
- A list of all commands with shortcuts and token for scripts is available with F11
- The video play gives a better experience: it is no more deformed when played in full screen. And the video is deinterlaced, at least if your system is powerful. NB on some less powerful systems, just keep this function off, if the display of video is not smooth enough.
- You may drag and drop files FROM DVdate to other applications.
- The functions like fix a time difference, change the codec, change the video frequency are easier to use, with a dialog before execution
- When you rename, embed text in the video, or put captions in the scenes, you may use simple codes to represent data from the video: for example %D for the datecode, %T for the timecode, or %U for the duration or %C for the codec...So you may highly personalize the text .
- The list of scenes may be exported (from a scn file that exits or that you can create and edit with DVdate, even for non DV videos ) to Word, Excel, OpenOffice.org Writer or Calc or a txt file. For Word and OpenOffice.org Writer, the exported document contains one thumbnail image for each scene.
- One can create a scn file not only by content or by datecode, but also by separating scenes in fixed intervals.
- Making DVdate portable ( that is to say, let it save its preferences to a ini file instead of saving them in the registry) is now very simple with one click in the Settings.
- When quitting DVdate, if the preferences are not set to be automatically saved, a dialog asks to confirm quitting without saving the preferences.
- With a right click on the video being played, the current image is copied to the clipboard, and can be pasted to other application
- Videos can now also be sorted by duration. A command in the menu Files displays the total duration of all listed or selected videos.
- A powerful editor for embedding text and datecode in the video ("inlay") is featured. All changes are applied in real time and can be assessed.
What's new in versions 7.1. x published in English since 2008, December 13th.
- A commande is available to overwrite an existing datecode in a DV video, or to create one in a DV video that had none. This datecode starts at a given date and time, then increases regurlarly when the video advances
- The RIFF header is improved and completed.
About datecode and timecode
When dealing with DV files, it is often useful to retrieve the date and time of the video capture. This data is written by camcorders onto the recorded frames, and remains on them when the video is copied, cut, transferred, saved, as long as it is not recompressed. Some applications may read these datecodes, for example the famous Scenalyser, - and there exist some others like indicated by Stefan. DVdate is one of the freeware programs that manage to do it, and to take full advantage of it.
The same situation happens for timecode, a data indicating the position of a frame in the DV tape in hours-minutes-seconds-number of frames, which is also written by many camcorders onto each frame of the DV tape. This information remains when the video is transferred into the computer, as long as the file is not recompressed. DVdate can retrieve it, and tell you where the video file was first recorded on the DV tape.
A great feature of DVdate is the ability to browse a DV file and display instantly in real time the datecode and timecode of the current frame. I don't know any software, even a commercial one, that offers this nice possibility. DVdate may also create a new avi-file with datecode or timecode burnt into each frame.
Install
and launch DVdate