GoPro .... it's driving me crazy.

[Quaffetasse]

Hi, so I've been trying to understand how my GoPro  (Hero12Black) handles metadata, specifically the create time. For what I need right now, I want to have a filename that represents the time when I pressed the Shutter Button. Like the "DateTaken" tag. I discovered Exiftool through Bulk rename utlity, which can read that specific exif information out of an Image File, but not from video. So far I've had success by using the "filecreate" tag to generate my filename... but sometimes I have copied video-files over MTP from my camera or used the windows copier (usually I use Tera Copy, which preserves the "File Created" timestamp... and thus my reasoning was to not use "filecreatedate" and landed on the Quicktime Tag "CreateDate". What it does (in my case since I'm in GMT/UTC+1+1 (plus one for the regular timedifference and +1 for daylight saving time) the program adjusts each CreateDate by 2 hours, resulting very reliably in correct filenames. I have done some tests to verify this. I set the time on the GoPro Camera with the Quick app and then I took a short film of an atomic clock on my display. So I know what time a file was actually recorded. A poor man's Clapperboard so to say.

Anyway, sometimes files were off by one hour. And I have not been able to reliably reproduce this error.
I have collected a few of these examples and generated an output which I put in a sheet...
I'm not at all sure if this is the right place to ask... because if it is the camera that jumps one hour ahead and back at will, then it's not an exiftool related issue at all. But in any case I'd like to find a way to reliably rename my video files so I can organize them better.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1GN6dMiIiv18b_nHyV70Q7K8qNyOg_yYV_gnp1fxc3Do/edit?usp=sharing

[StarGeek]

Like the "DateTaken" tag.

Minor correction. There's no such thing as a "Date Taken" tag. Under Windows, it is a property that can be found in the Details tab. This property (and other properties) can be filled by multiple tags. You can find a listing of what tags fill which Windows properties in this post.

Anyway, sometimes files were off by one hour. And I have not been able to reliably reproduce this error.
I have collected a few of these examples and generated an output which I put in a sheet...
I'm not at all sure if this is the right place to ask... because if it is the camera that jumps one hour ahead and back at will, then it's not an exiftool related issue at all. But in any case I'd like to find a way to reliably rename my video files so I can organize them better.

I'm not sure what your question is. Exiftool will only display and edit the data it is told to. The only time stamps that are changed when it modifies a file are the file system ones, FileModifyDate/FileAccessDate, and that's is a property of the file system, not exiftool. The -P (-preserve) option can be used to prevent the FileModifyDate from changing.

My standard copy/paste regarding video time stamps
Most video time stamps are supposed to be set to UTC and the program is supposed to adjust this to the local time zone when displayed (see 5th paragraph on the Quicktime tags page), with the most common exceptions being the Quicktime:CreationDate (not to be confused with the Quicktime:CreateDate) and the Quicktime:DateTimeOriginal. Those tags should be set to the local time+time zone of where the video was shot.
I have no idea why some of the times are off. You would have to check the programs you use and how you copy the files to see where the error is introduced.

[Quaffetasse]

Minor correction. There's no such thing as a "Date Taken" tag. Under Windows, it is a property that can be found in the Details tab.

Yes, excuse me you're right, it is called Date Taken but the program I used looks up the DateTimeOriginal. In any case, video files don't have this.

I'm not sure what your question is.

How can I reliably read timestamp data from my files using EXIFTool, considering that the CreateDate timestamp is sometimes incorrect?

(The more I'm typing this post the more I suspect this is not an EXIF Tool issue at all but a GoPro Issue, am I right? Still I'd like to post for the off chance there is something that I'm missing or misunderstanding, hoping that the information provided is comprehensive enough.)

I took the two examples

Directory Listings with Different Date Types

FileCreateDate
Mode   LastWriteTime   Length   Name
-a----   6/17/2024 6:37 PM   44,419,752   2024--06-17_[18-39-49]_(GX014793)_HERO12Black.MP4 correct Date
-a----   6/17/2024 9:02 PM   34,958,156   2024--06-17_[21-02-27]_(GX014797)_HERO12Black.MP4 correct Date
-a----   6/17/2024 6:37 PM   44,419,752   2024--06-19_[07-43-44]_(GX014793a)_HERO12Black.MP4 Timestamp of time of copying (Windows Copy handler, understood)

MediaCreateDate
Mode   LastWriteTime   Length   Name
-a----   6/17/2024 6:37 PM   44,419,752   2024--06-17_[18-36-58]_(GX014793)_HERO12Black.MP4 correct Date
-a----   6/17/2024 6:37 PM   44,419,752   2024--06-17_[18-36-58]_(GX014793a)_HERO12Black.MP4 correct Date
-a----   6/17/2024 9:02 PM   34,958,156   2024--06-17_[22-02-27]_(GX014797)_HERO12Black.MP4 Incorrect Date - Why? Don't understand.

CreateDate
Mode   LastWriteTime   Length   Name
-a----   6/17/2024 6:37 PM   44,419,752   2024--06-17_[18-36-58]_(GX014793)_HERO12Black.MP4 correct Date
-a----   6/17/2024 6:37 PM   44,419,752   2024--06-17_[18-36-58]_(GX014793a)_HERO12Black.MP4 correct Date
-a----   6/17/2024 9:02 PM   34,958,156   2024--06-17_[22-02-27]_(GX014797)_HERO12Black.MP4 Incorrect Date - Why? Don't understand.

[StarGeek]

How can I reliably read timestamp data from my files using EXIFTool, considering that the CreateDate timestamp is sometimes incorrect?

(The more I'm typing this post the more I suspect this is not an EXIF Tool issue at all but a GoPro Issue, am I right? Still I'd like to post for the off chance there is something that I'm missing or misunderstanding, hoping that the information provided is comprehensive enough.)

From what I can tell, you are not missing anything on the exiftool side. The CreateDate (and ModifyDate and Media/Track*Date) are all supposed to be set to UTC, so they should be offset by your timezone, which you clearly understand. I do know that older GoPros are not aware of time zones, so they would always record everything in local time, but I think newer ones are better at this, and it does not seem to be the problem here.

My advice would be to look through the settings of the camera for any date/time related settings. In Nikon/Canon DSLR cameras, there is a Daylight Savings setting that needs to be turned on/off so that the user doesn't need to reset the camera's clock twice a year. Maybe there is something similar? Looking at details of this camera on the web seems to indicate that you can change setting through a mobile. Maybe there's a problem when setting through the phone rather than directly on the camera or vice versa?

[Quaffetasse]

I do know that older GoPros are not aware of time zones

yes the GoPro 9 which I also own does not need the -api QuickTimeUTC option for correct dates. But that is already taken into consideration and works IF(!) the CreateDate on the Camera is written into the file correctly.

My advice would be to look through the settings of the camera for any date/time related settings.

I've been not able to reproduce the issue reliably, however, here's what I did:

- Used the app to sync time ( after verifying, it is set to the correct time and also the correct Daylight saving setting)
- The camera warns you when you take out the battery for too long that the time got reset, so this was not the case during all the recording sessions I had this issue.

The most important question for me is still: If you look at the

Code Select Expand

[System] FileCreateDate it is in fact correct, which leads me to the conclusion that at the time the shutter button was pressed and the .mp4 file was created on the SD Card, the time must have been correct otherwise it could not have been written into the file correctly.

But I will take this issue now over to the GoPro forums, which seem rather inactive these days but still... I hate the thought of there being individual clips that are off by one hour at random, especially GoPro where I take lots and lots of short clips... Anyway. I discovered the EXIF Tool and its power through the issue so that's a very good thing. This piece of software doesn't disappoint