exiftool video performance

Started by Baumfaust, March 23, 2019, 01:02:12 PM

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Baumfaust

Hello folks,

I have about 50 video files here, a total of about 200 GB. Unfortunately the date of the camera was not set correctly (year 1984). Now I'm looking for a way to change the metadata of the individual files, to add an offset to the creation date, then to batch the whole thing.
So far I found exiftool for it, basically it works with the following call.


exiftool -overwrite_original "-AllDates+=35:01:26 02:24:32" -verbose 001_12_schwarz_11_blau.MOV


However, it is incredibly slow, since a copy of the file is created every time. With a 2 GB film it took 10 minutes.

Do you have another idea?


StarGeek

Due to the way exiftool works, it has to rewrite the file to change the data.  But it should be nearly as quick as copying the file.  Is the target file on a local disk or across a network or something similar?

* Did you read FAQ #3 and use the command listed there?
* Please use the Code button for exiftool code/output.
 
* Please include your OS, Exiftool version, and type of file you're processing (MP4, JPG, etc).

Baumfaust

Oh ok, thanks for the info. The files are stored at a NAS, so yes its written across a network.
I guess its the wrong place to ask, but is there another tool which can change the metadata only, without rewriting the whole file?

StarGeek

I don't know if it's possible do that safely.  But here are some other things you can check out.

HayoBaan's matchDateTime script.  He's a mod here so he might chime in as to the speed.
FFmpeg It always outputs to a new file, so that probably isn't faster.
mp4Box I haven't even checked this out so I don't know anything about it's abilities, so it might not even do what you need.
VLC I believe it does have some metadata editing abilities, though I haven't checked it out.  I'm not sure if it can be used through command line or is only through gui.
* Did you read FAQ #3 and use the command listed there?
* Please use the Code button for exiftool code/output.
 
* Please include your OS, Exiftool version, and type of file you're processing (MP4, JPG, etc).

Hayo Baan

Quote from: StarGeek on March 23, 2019, 04:36:20 PM
HayoBaan's matchDateTime script.  He's a mod here so he might chime in as to the speed.

matchDateTime will really only update metadata that isn't updatable by exiftool and it too reads and writes the whole file, so this won't help in your case either.

Perhaps best is to (temporarily) copy the files to a local disk, make the necessary changes, and then write them all back.
Hayo Baan – Photography
Web: www.hayobaan.nl