time changes on imported videos

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I recently downloaded several photos and videos from two cameras into photoshop elements 5.0. Both cameras were used to take pictures on a recent trip, so I needed to mesh the photos/videos into their proper sequence. I ordered the photos/movies in PSE according to "oldest first." The photos and videos for the most part aligned themselves in chronological order. The exceptions were the videos which, when imported, shifted the time PSE thinks they were taken by 1 hour, ie, the information in Windows Explorer showing a video to have been taken at 12:15 (the correct time it was taken) would be imported into PSE and shown to be taken at 1:15. All photos were imported with the correct time. I tried catalog restore but ended up with the same shift in time for the videos. Any thoughts?....thanks

[momoffduty]

I can't be of help, but someone will be along soon.

[Barb O]

Skip,

Times for videos in the Organizer can be tricky and yes I do suspect that there have been some bugs in the PSE code. Now there is an Organizer command which will change the time used by PSE 5 for those videos. However I am not sure if it is the solution or even a good workaround for your problem.

I am curious --

1 -- are you located in the USA ? and were these videos taken during Daylight Savings Time ?

2 -- what format are these videos ? For example knowing the file type of the video file and also the video codec used for recording the video may help isolate the problem. I also suggest that you post the make and model of the video camera plus identifying which Windows operating system runs on that PC.

3 -- Do you have one of those video files which is not really any good and therefore you would not use it? I ask because such a file would be a good candidate for experimenting.

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Barb - I do live in the US and all the photos/videos were taken during daylight savings time. Both cameras recorded the Eastern Daylight time the photo/video was taken even though they were taken in the Mountain time zone. The time tags on all the pictures downloaded from both cameras and stored in Windows Explorer are correct and sequenced properly. The videos are avi files. The cameras are a Canon S5-IS and a Sony DSC-W7. My operating system is Windows XP. NOTE: this is a recent development. I have not had problems in the past importing the videos with the correct time on them. I have a file available for experimenting.

[Barb O]

some additional questions and comments--

1 -- to clarify -- are your videos from both the Canon S5-IS and the Sony DSC-W7 ?
I ask because I have some familiarity with the Canon still camera MJEPG 640x480 video. However, I don't know details about the Sony DSC-W7 video -- is it perhaps an MPEG format and what info does your documentation for the Sony camera contain about the video format?

2 -- how do you transfer your photo and video files from the cameras to your PC ? for example, do you connect the camera to your PC or do you remove the card from the camera and use a camera card reader ? Do you use Photoshop Elements downloader software for the transfer, do you use software that came with the camera, do you use the Windows software (Windows Explorer or the Windows camera wizard)

3-- I am puzzled as to why this had worked OK for you with PSE 5 and Windows XP in the past and does not work now. Because PSE 5 is an older version, it does not have any recent patches. Using the Help menu in the Organizer workspace, what is your version level of PSE 5 ?

FYI - The time in the photo and video files is based on the time date setting in your camera at the time you took your photo. So if your cameras were normally set to Eastern time zone time and you did not change that camera setting when you traveled to the Mountain Time zone, it is normal to have the photo time show the eastern time zone time. Of course, this does not explain that one hour time difference for the videos.

4-- Note: I anticipate that my next suggestion may be to Right click on the thumbnail for 1 video file available for experimenting and change the time using the command in that right click menu. (I can't give you exact syntax now because I am not at a computer with PSE, but I think you can find it.) So especially if you have more than one video file available for experimenting, you might try that on just one video thumbnail within the PSE Organizer now and include your results in your next post.

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Barb - the Sony has the same output (MPEG) as the Canon. Actually, I only have one video from the Sony and probably about 30 from the Canon. The time shift problem occurs on both cameras. I download the camera to a desktop PC using the photoshop download software and store the photos/videos in a Windows explorer file. This desktop PC is the one I use for deleting photos and videos to get the project size down to a manageable level. NOTE: PSE 5.0.2 (current version) running on the desktop computer does NOT exhibit any time shifting. The time on the properties box for each photo/video is the same as the time taken as shown in the Window Explorer listing. Once I've deleted extraneous photos/videos, I copy the Windows explorer file to a laptop computer (also v 5.0.2) that I use to create DVDs with Premiere Elements. It's with the second (laptop) computer that I'm having problems. I open PSE on the laptop and tell it to get the files in Windows Explorer. All the photo files come into PSE on the laptop with the correct time, all the videos (from each camera) come in with the time advanced one hour. I did try right clicking on a thumbnail and changing the time of the video. It worked just fine! This does seem like a solution to my problem since I can get the videos back to their correct time so I sure appreciate your help. Just seem kinda strange.....

[Barb O]

I don't know why you would get different results for the time of the videos on the 2 computers using PSE 5.0.2.

-- What is the Windows operating system on the laptop ? What version of Premiere Elements ?

-- Are the dates taken for these videos close to the change to/from daylight savings time ? I ask that because I think there has been maintenance for Windows this year which modified the Windows code for determining times based on Daylight savings or not.

FYI - I do think I can explain why the photos times are derived differently.
-- The photo files from a digital camera (your photo files are probably .jpg files) contain a metadata format within the photo file that identifies date and time taken. It is my understanding that PSE uses that metadata within the photo file (instead of the Windows date fields) to make its determination of the date/time the photo was taken.
-- For video files, I am not certain how PSE is determining the date and time taken because this metadata format (which is within the photo files) does not exist for video files. My suspicion is that Elements is probably using Windows date fields but I can not say specifically which fields are referenced by PSE or PRE.

the Sony has the same output (MPEG) as the Canon

I disagree with that conclusion because I believe the Canon camera video be motion jpeg (MJPEG). This may not be relevant to our current discussion about times However, I mention it now in case it makes a difference in any future discussion.

I did try right clicking on a thumbnail and changing the time of the video. It worked just fine! This does seem like a solution to my problem since I can get the videos back to their correct time so I sure appreciate your help

FYI - You can multiple select thumbnails and then change all the selected thumbnails with this time change command.

After you did the PSE change time command, do you see any difference with Windows Explorer for the times of those video files ?

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Barb - the laptop is running on the same system as the desktop, Windows XP. I have Premiere Elements version 3.0.2, although I haven't used PE on the videos in question as of yet. All the videos were taken in mid-October, so Daylight Savings Time should not affect the results, especially since all the videos "moved" one hour forward in time and did not "fall back." Both cameras take JPEG photo images. For the photos: Windows Explorer shows each JPEG with information on "date modified" and "date picture taken." If the photos have not been corrected in PSE, the date modified and date picture taken entries are both the same and reflect the correct Eastern Standard Time the photos were taken. For the videos: Windows Explorer only lists the "date modified," not the date taken. However, the date modified (and time modified) does reflect the correct Eastern Standard Time the videos were taken. Up until a few days ago, I would have said that PSE was reading the "date modified" from the video file and using that information for the "date picture taken." Now it seems like it's reading that (correct) information and adding one hour to determine the date/time taken. When I performed the right click/change date time, the videos rearranged themselves in PSE into the proper order. There was no difference on the information contained in Windows Explorer. I think I'm OK now - just a little baffled. Thanks again for all your help....skip