Rename - Media Created Date

Hello,

I would like to title video files with the timestamp in which they were recorded. Seems like an obvious choice. However, the date taken (shown below) appears to use the "encoded date" as defined by Media Info. I don't know why but there is a discrepancy between the "encoded date" and the "recorded date". The "recorded date" shows the timestamp as a day earlier and I'm assuming this is the true timestamp I want.

I have been trying to find the "Media created" tag but cannot find it in Advanced Renamer. I see an EXIF tool can be implemented by my preference is to keep it simple.

Is there a setting that is guaranteed to copy the date in which the photo or video was taken?
This particular file is an MOV.

<datetaken:yyyymmdd_hhnnss>

Edit: Used <ExifTool:CreationDate:yyyymmdd_hhnnss>. I see EXIF is integrated.

Next step is to understand if "methods" are sequential (starting with 1,2,...), if ticked. Whereas renaming occurs once its properties are found. (Since file metadata can be missing in certain fields , if renaming would proceed to the next method, then the next until data is found for renaming.)

Reply to #1:

Hi CJ,

> Next step is to understand if "methods" are sequential <

Yes. You can have a "New name" method containing one date, like

<datetaken:yyyy-mm-dd_hh-nn-ss>_<Name>

which would either give you a date followed by an underscore, then the old name, or just an underscore followed by the old name. You'd need to use a "Replace" method after that, with the regular expression:

Replace: ^_
With: <ExifTool:FileCreateDate:>_

so that it would only add the new date if the file starts with an underscore (in other words, the previous <datetaken> tag did not add a date. This could be done any number of times, but the succeeding datetime tags would only fire if no date were added up to that point.

Best,
DF

Reply to #2:

Thank you!

Reply to #2:

Below is my programming method sequences.

Method 1: New Name:<ExifTool:MediaCreateDate:>
Method 2: Replace:^
With:<ExifTool:CreateDate:>
Method 3:Replace:^
With:<ExifTool:Datetimeoriginal:>
Method 4:Replace:^
With:<ExifTool:TrackCreateDate:>
Method 5:Replace:^
With:<ExifTool:FileModifyDate:>

The idea is that if one EXIF field is missing then it would prioritize the next, then the next, and so on. Forgive the ignorance (and I'm reading the user guide). Perhaps there is already a preset that performs this that I am not aware of, and I'm overcomplicating this.

Questions:
If I don't want anything else but the recorded timestamp (no _ or space), what could I reference the Replace:^ to? Or is a character text needed to reference?
* I suppose I could use an underscore then use a "Remove" method to remove it.

Do I need the colon at the end of the field request?
(i.e. <ExifTool:MediaCreateDate> (looks like it'll work without it)


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Alternate renaming altogether:
If I use the timestamp method, wanting the video recorded date as the name, what is the best "Set to:" field? Created date and time, image date and time, metadata field, i.e.

Does the metadata field reference the EXIF (most accurate)? I'm reading that metadata can reference windows filesystem data which may not necessarily be the EXIF recorded data (a more specific image/video subset.)

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TIA, and I think these answers should clarify my final solution.

Reply to #4:

Hi CJ,

> If I don't want anything else but the recorded timestamp (no _ or space), what could I reference the Replace:^ to? <

I should have said to set "Use regular expressions:" ON. The caret (^) is a non-printing "anchor" in regex that just references the filename starting position. In other words, when I said replace "^_" with a date, it just means that the date will only be added if there is an underscore in position one, the first character of the name. That's why I added the underscore in the first place, so that you wouldn't get a file with a name like <Create date 1><Create date 2><Create date 3>...

The idea is to try the date you think most likely to be correct first. If that date is found, none of the dates you try in later methods would be added, since there wouldn't be an underscore in the first position.

> * I suppose I could use an underscore then use a "Remove" method to remove it. <

Yes, that's the way I'd do it in that case.

> Do I need the colon at the end of the field request? <

No, that was a mistake on my part.

> If I use the timestamp method, wanting the video recorded date as the name, what is the best "Set to:" field? <

The timestamp method only effects the windows dates, not the filename. Look at the "Created date" column in the files list; that's what gets changed by the Timestamp method. It won't help in creating a new filename. (Although after you've added a "created" date to the filename you could, if you wanted to, use that to set the Windows Created Date to that date... at least in theory :)

I hope this helps!

Best,
DF