Inspiring

Question

LrC does not sort video files according to capture date and time

Forum|Forum|1 year ago
June 21, 2024
2 replies
1547 views

I have both RAW and Video files in my LrC catalog. The RAW files sort as expected when selecting "Sort: Capture Time". But with Video files they do not sort according to the "Capture Time" metadata but according to the "Date Time" metadata. For my RAW files all the date time metadata fields (there are several) contain the same data, which is the capture date and time. But video metadata is a mess! I won't delve into all the problems with date and time metadata in video files, but "Capture Time" metadata and "Data Time" metadata are not the same. Consequently sorting on "Date Time" metadata does not sort according to "Capture Time".

The bug is that when sort according to "Capture Time" is selected, the resultant order is according the "Data Time" metadata which is the wrong order.

Windows

This topic has been closed for replies.

johnrellis

Legend

Building on Johan's comment, a couple of the common issues with video capture time:

- Videos from many cameras will have their capture dates shifted by the time zone offset from UTC where the photo was taken:

https://community.adobe.com/t5/lightroom-classic-ideas/p-handle-video-capture-times-for-cameras-obeying-the-quicktime-mp4-standard/idi-p/14007948

- The Mac Photos app substitutes the time of export for capture time when it exports videos (unless you use Export Unmodified). Other video apps simply discard video metadata.

- When LR doesn't recognize any capture-date field in the metadata, it will use the file's last-modified date. Worse, each time that last-modified date changes, LR changes the capture date in the catalog! And LR will sort the videos inconsistently with the times shown under the thumbnails and in the Metadata panel. (The EXIF DateTime field is often but not always the same as the file's last-modified date.)

In general, you often have to use the menu command Metadata > Edit Capture Time to correct the capture date of videos. Once you do that, LR will behave consistently.

DClark064Author

Inspiring

I always us Metadata > Edit Capture Time to correct the video metadata from Zulu to the correct time zone. In that case it is easy to correct lots of files quickly. In this case the Date Time metadata has been changed by another program that stabilized the video. The Capture Time metatdata is still correct. In order to correct this error I would need to individually correct about 420 files one-by-one, unless there is a way to either get LrC to use the correct metadata when sorting by Capture Time (i.e. the Capture Time metadata) or some way to set the Date Time metadata to agree with Capture Time. Is there a way to do that? Maybe someone who is good a writting LrC plugins could do something.

Regardless, LrC is using the wrong metatdata. That's a bug. It needs to be fixed.

johnrellis

Legend

Thanks for examining the metadata in the files.

I am aware that the root of the problem is that Sony Catalyst is changing some of the metadata. I have sent a report to Sony asking why they do that and that they corrrect it. I have no reply and don't expect I will ever get a reply. Nor do I expect they will change anything.

Examining the metadata list you provide I am surprised to see that it does not agree with the metatdata I am seeing for the same files. First, as I mentioned above the capture date/time the Sony A1 puts in the video metadata is UTC not local time. As a result I always make a -7 hr correction using LrC. All the files sent to you had that correction. I see that you are showing capture date/time without the correction. Maybe LrC did not adjust the metadata in the file but only in the LrC catalog.

Second the Capture Date/Time of the stabilized files you are extracting seem to be different from the Capture Date/Time I am seeing in LrC. I set up the metadata panel in LrC by editing the list of data presented to show any field that has date or time. I do not see any field about quicktime. I have attached the data in the 12 screen captures below. The difference between what you extracted and what I am able to see in the LrC panel explains why I could not find any metadata that agreed with the sort order and you do. Why the metadata you see and and what I see differ is not known to me.

I am providing the data below not because I expect you to analyze it and reply to me. It us not my intention to make work for you. I am providing it only because you seem to have an interest in how video metadata is managed and are doing a lot to inform Adobe of improvements they can make.

Regardless this reinforces my conclusion that using LrC to manage my video files in not viable. At this time I am using a combination of Catalyst Prepare and Davinci Resolve.

Edited to replace the duplicate 0780 stabilized with 0780 unstablized, and to add 1008 unstablized. There are correctly two versions of the 1008 stabilized that used different stabilization parameters.

"I do not see any field about quicktime."'

Right, LR doesn't show any of the QuickTime video metadata fields in the Metadata panel.

In general, all of the date/time fields in the Metadata panel have reasonably precise meanings for photos. (Those meanings sometimes have obscure meanings assigned by the standards and don't mean what LR's labels sometimes seem to imply.) But when Adobe implemented video in LR 3 and 4, they did a rush job, and they crammed video metadata into the existing photo framework without giving it much thought. After LR 4, they've mostly stopped paying attention to video.

For video, the only relevant Metadata panel field is Capture Date/Time. It represents LR's notion of when the shutter was pressed. It's a separate field in the catalog with a complicated set of rules of how it gets set for photos and videos. For video, it gets set from the field EXIF:DateTimeOriginal if it's present in the video (some cameras do that), otherwise it gets set from QuickTime:CreateDate.

When you use Metadata > Edit Capture Time, it changes the catalog field for Capture Date/Time (and it sets other catalog fields at are really for photos, e.g. EXIF Date Time Original and IPTC Date Created). But as discussed, nothing ever gets written back to the video file or a .xmp sidecar.

JohanElzenga

Community Expert

There are lots of known problems with video capture dates, due to poor video standards.

-- Johan W. Elzenga

DClark064Author

Inspiring

I agree that video metatdata is a mess. In this case the problem is with LrC. When it sorts by "Capture Time" it uses the wrong metadata. This is not a problem with video standards (which are plentiful), it's a problem with LrC. It's a "bug" that needs to be fixed.

Sign up

To post, reply, or follow discussions, please sign in with your Adobe ID.

Sign in to Adobe Community

To post, reply, or follow discussions, please sign in with your Adobe ID.

Scanning file for viruses.

This file cannot be downloaded