Using SuperDVdate

Utilisation de SuperDVdate - Cliquer ici pour la version Française de cette page, gracieusement traduite par Sébastien Bénassy.

Opening SuperDVdate, changing the Skins and adding video

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Changing the appearance and adding files

Clicking on the Skins button changes the various program color themes.
Drag and drop your video files to the white space below the screen, or
use the Add button to go to a specific location where your video files are.

Note 1: SuperDVdate won't work with different video frame sizes at the one time. For example, all video files must be 1920x1080 or 1280x720, etc. The easiest way to make certain is to initially select all the files from the same camera.

Note 2: For SuperDVdate to work correctly, original (unedited) video files need to be used. If an edited video file is used, the date/time will need to be set manually.

The following image shows the layout and the Settings option after video has been added to the program.

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Real surveillance video has been used so the screen image in Number 1 has been pixilated.

Numbers 1 to 8 should be self-explanatory.

Number 9 is the Delete button for deleting a particular (highlighted) file.

Number 10 clears the entire list of files.

Number 11 brings up the various Settings options (Number 12).

Settings: Part 1 - Date and time formats

The following image shows the various ways in which the date/time can be displayed on your video.

The image on the left shows where to click to bring up the various time/date text layout options. The images to the right show the formatting used in the white box with the black screen showing how the time/date is then displayed.

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dd = day, mm = month, yyyy = a four digit year display
hh = hours, mm = minutes, ss = seconds

All of the above can be typed into the Customizable Time Stamp format area in any order with any amount of spaces in between.

The \R places subsequent formatting on a new line.

Two lines of text would be formatted as:
'Sample Tex'\R'Sample Text'
- see the forth image to the left

Here an "ampm" has been added which will convert the time to an AM or PM display.

Additional information can be written to the time/date display by simply placing that between single apostrophes.

Tip: By using several seconds of black video or a static shot, as well as the 'Sample Text' setting on its own (as per 'Camera 1:' above), a title page can be added to the beginning or end of your video.

Basic Set - covers the various selections described below. Other options such as Outline, and Shadow are self-explanatory. The "Other" tab allows for different displays as demonstrated in the green and white time/date section at the top right of the image.
The location of where the time/date is displayed on the video can be changed using the sliding indicated by the arrows or via a numerical input.
Allows the font type to be changed.
Allows for the font size to be changed and bold or italics to be used.
Allows for the time/date color and degree of transparency to be changed as well as whether a solid background color is used and what that color is.

Settings: Part 2 - Output formats

Tip: An incorrect burnt-in date/time can be corrected by using a solid background color and carefully adjusting its size and positioning the new date/time over the top of the other, incorrect date/time.

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Output formats

Output Format has been selected.
If producing a DVD, select MPEG2 (DVD).
Aspect Ratio - usually set on 16:9.
Work Threads - set it to the highest number your PC can accommodate. Ensure you are not running other programs at the same time.
Select PAL for Australian and the UK, or NTSC for the US
Create a folder for the converted files, then use the Browse button to select that folder.
Select the Overwrite the same check-box if running the program again after making changes.
You can save your settings as a scheme and load those settings at a later time.

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Video rotation

This is a particularly handy feature whereby any video that has the wrong rotation can be re-rotated 90, 180 or 270 degrees clockwise with the date/time then appearing the correct way up.

If you do need to rotate any video files, ensure only the files that need identical rotation are included in SuperDVdate. Once this setting is activated, ALL the video files in SuperDVdate will be effected.

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Other

Click on Other.
Choose Same - anything other than this will degrade you output video. This is one of the most overlooked aspects of the settings in SuperDVdate and is critically important for getting the best possible video quality in your final DVD.
Adjust volume to suit you situation. Reminder: using AVS Remaker to produce you final DVD can be done with all audio turned off. This setting is only relevant when one or more files must contain audio.
This setting is not relevant for most surveillance video and should be unchecked.
Keep Copy time-stamp checked.

Tip: Once you make all your formatting and layout adjustments for one lot of video file type, either take note of those settings or save them as a Scheme. Once additional files of a different type are then added to SuperDVdate, the formatting and layout setting will likely revert to the default setting and will need to be readjusted.

After making all your various adjustments, be sure to click on Save.
Then click on Start.

Correcting date/time errors

Most camcorders record to an .MTS file format, which contains time/date metadata that is used by SuperDVdate. If the date/time was correctly set on your camera, then there should be no further need to make any corrections. However, if the date/time setting was (even slightly) wrong, you might want to make corrections.

Car and covert cams on the other hand can write to a variety of different file formats - .MOV, .AVI, .MP4, etc. SuperDVdate will obtain a date/time record from the most reliable method, but this could mean using the date modified setting, meaning the time will be out by the length of the video. In other words, if you started recording video at 10.00 am and stopped at 10.05 am, the time modified setting will be 10.05 am. SuperDVdate will show the commencement time of of the video as 10.05 am, but this can be easily corrected.

Lets look at some example of how each file type can be corrected - if necessary.

Correction methods 1 and 2 - Change All & Hard Set the date and time

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An .MTS file type is being used here. Normally, these require no further adjustment.
Check the file's date modified time and see that the end of the recorded time (as indicated by the underlined time) coincides with that.
All Change - by ticking the All change box and making adjustments to the hours, minutes and seconds, all the .MTS files will be adjusted accordingly.
Hard-set the video date and time. This setting allows you to alter a date and time for one file at a time after selecting that particular file. Simply pick the calendar option to change the date, then click and highlight the hour or minute or sec setting and use the up/down arrow, or type in the correct numbers.

Correction Method 3 - Time Options

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AVI files are being used here.
One of two tabs is 'Time Options'. Here you can pick whether SuperDVdate should use the information it has from the files as being the Start or End times. If SuperDVdate has sourced the time information from the file's date modified time, then End time should be set. After doing that, check to see that the end time displayed in the Video time section in SuperDVdate matches the date modified time of the file in Windows Explorer.
The 'Manual adjustment' tab is identical to the above image showing items 3 and 4.

Get to-the-second accurate date/time on all your video and validate any changes made

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By going to www.time.is/(insert your city) on your PC or phone and taking a few seconds of video with all the cameras used on a matter, adjustments can be made to all the video from each camera (separately as they will vary) to get totally accurate date/time.

Keeping that few seconds of www.time.is video with your surveillance video validates the date/time.