ExifTool Forum

ExifTool => The "exiftool" Application => Topic started by: Mac2 on January 13, 2014, 09:39:45 AM

Title: Attempt to update exif:DateTimeOriginal in .MOV files
Post by: Mac2 on January 13, 2014, 09:39:45 AM
Hi,

I'm trying to update exif timestamps in MOV files but the dates are not written. ExifTool does not report an error, just a "file unchanged".
These commands work with image files, but not with .MOV files.

This is what I see:


exiftool -alldates 1548.mov
Date/Time Original              : 2013:10:26 12:15:56
Create Date                     : 2013:10:26 11:15:56
Modify Date                     : 2013:10:26 11:15:56


exiftool -v -exif:DateTimeOriginal="2014:01:01 12:00:00Z" 1548.mov

======== 1548.mov
Rewriting 1548.mov...
  FileType = MOV
  MIMEType = video/quicktime
  Editing tags in: ExifIFD
  Rewriting Movie
  Rewriting UserData
  Rewriting XMP
  Rewriting MovieHeader
  Rewriting Track
  Rewriting TrackHeader
  Rewriting Media
  Rewriting MediaHeader
  Rewriting Track
  Rewriting TrackHeader
  Rewriting Media
  Rewriting MediaHeader
Nothing changed in 1548.mov
    0 image files updated
    1 image files unchanged

exiftool -alldates 1548.mov
Date/Time Original              : 2013:10:26 12:15:56
Create Date                     : 2013:10:26 11:15:56
Modify Date                     : 2013:10:26 11:15:56


I've just leaned that some cameras write EXIF data to MOV files. Perhaps ExifTool can only read from but not write to MOV files?
Title: Re: Attempt to update exif:DateTimeOriginal in .MOV files
Post by: Phil Harvey on January 13, 2014, 11:06:52 AM
ExifTool currently only writes some standard QuickTime date/time tags in MOV videos.  The embedded EXIF is non-stanard, and writing this is currently not supported.

- Phil
Title: Re: Attempt to update exif:DateTimeOriginal in .MOV files
Post by: Mac2 on January 13, 2014, 01:40:13 PM
That's what I've thought. Thanks, Phil  :)
I'll forward this to my user.

Maybe an "cannot write EXIF to this format" warning could be added?
Title: Re: Attempt to update exif:DateTimeOriginal in .MOV files
Post by: Phil Harvey on January 13, 2014, 01:44:21 PM
Quote from: Mac2 on January 13, 2014, 01:40:13 PM
Maybe an "cannot write EXIF to this format" warning could be added?

Users would be overwhelmed with messages if I did this for the general case (ie. QuickTime tags can't be written to JPG files either, so just writing "CreateDate" would generate a warning for JPG images).  And adding a special case for EXIF->QuickTime isn't very appealing.

- Phil
Title: Re: Attempt to update exif:DateTimeOriginal in .MOV files
Post by: Mac2 on January 13, 2014, 02:25:04 PM
Agreed!

It would also flood my app log with messages because I sometimes rely on ExifTool to sort out if it can write a specific tag or not  :-[