Date-Time Stamp for Video

[wcb]

My Arlo Pro 2 - H6 camera caught footage of an intruder entering and later leaving our home with some of our property.  I have been asked by the Detective invesitaging the burlary whether I can get video footage with the date and time showing in the video feed so that it can be used as evidence in court.  I already have provided him with a screenshot of where these videos are found in my library which does show the date and time.  However, he needs that information to be part of the video, as it often is for surveillance cameras.  Is this possible? 

[DannyBearAgain]

No unfortunately, it has been a requested feature as far back as when Netgear ran the show.

Not sure if you want to try this,

use a mobile to video record your library playback of the file on the arlo mobile app or web login since it displays the date time information although not exactly time code.

Courts will want to see the standard time code title keyed within the picture at the time of recording.

[StephenB]

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@wcb wrote:

 However, he needs that information to be part of the video, as it often is for surveillance cameras.  Is this possible? 

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It's not in the video you see on the display, but there is metadata in the mp4 file that shows the creation date and time.

If you right-click on the mp4 in windows, and then select "details", you can see this.  (You'll need to scroll down).

The file name of the mp4 also is a timestamp, in a format called "epoch time".

• https://kb.arlo.com/996425/How-do-I-convert-the-time-stamp-saved-in-Epoch-time-when-I-download-recor...

As the KB article explains, you can convert that time to human-readable format using epochconverter.com

Not sure if either is enough for the police.  Perhaps suggest that you can let the officer do the download themselves, so they can attest to the fact that the file name and metadata was not modified.

As @DannyBearAgain suggests you could also see if making a screen recording while watching the video in the app will do.  This can also be done from a PC browser (there are tools in Windows that allow you to make a screen recording).

[Zzzzzzzzzz]

ARGH!!!

I too have downloaded some videos that I want to save in case I need to show to police.  I just realized that there are no time and date stamps on the videos. I could have sworn that there were when I first got the Arlo cameras. But I must be mis-remembering.... 

More and more issues which are really making think that paying a lot for newer Arlo cameras and expensive monthly subscription just doesn't make sense....

[jguerdat]

Check the EXIF data embedded in the video to see if the timestamp is there.

[Zzzzzzzzzz]

@wcb       I removed my USB drive from my Pro 2 base station, and the filenames look something like this

5JX1877YBB107_00011ec0_20230430_103614.mp4

The last two parts of the filename are the date (20230430 => 4/30/2023) and the time (103613 => 10:36:13). Then when I play it on the generic Windows video player, it shows the date and time.  Of course, this won't work for anything without a base station (e.g., Arlo Q and Baby)

[Zzzzzzzzzz]

@StephenB    @jguerdat    Thanks for the information on epoch time. I was able to figure that out from the filenames and metadata. I guess it will depend if it will actually be accepted as proper evidence. Hopefully, I never have to find out....

If Arlo can make it more transparent for the Pro 2 Base Station files, why can't they do it for all the other downloaded files (see my prior post about Pro 2 Base station files that directly show date and time on the filename and well as in video).

[StephenB]

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@Zzzzzzzzzz wrote:

(see my prior post about Pro 2 Base station files that directly show date and time on the filename and well as in video).

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Actually they don't embed the date/time stamp in the encoded video in any product (though I hope that is coming).

You can see the recording time if you look at the file properties, since it is in the file metadata.