Frequently Asked Questions

Frequently Asked Questions for vDTS:

Frequently Asked Questions for vPTS:

Does vDTS work on any AVI files?

NO. There are different kind of AVI files, one of them is DV AVI file, which is captured from a DV camcorder. A DV AVI file captured from a DV camcorder carries date/time code. vDTS can only stamp such DV AVI files.

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Does vDTS work on MPEG-I/MPEG-II format files?

NO. Because MPEG-I/MPEG-II files do not carry time code as DV AVI files do.

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How does DV Time Stamp fit in the process of making DVD from DV camcorder tapes?

These are typical steps of making DVD from your DV camcorder tapes:

  1. Transfer the video from your camcorder to PC via firewire/USB2. Results: DV AVI files on your PC.
  2. Use vDTS to stamp your DV AVI files. Results: time stamped DV AVI files, your original DV AVI files are not altered.
  3. Edit the time stamped DV AVI files using your favorite video editing software (cutting/joining, adding title, transition effects, etc). Results: edited DV AVI files.
  4. Encode the edited DV AVI files into DVD (MPEG-II) format using your favorite video encoding software. Results: DVD (MPEG-II) format video files.
  5. Author and burn the DVD format files into DVD disc.
  6. Enjoy and share your memory on DVD with your family and friends.

If Step 2 is not taken, the time code in your DV AVI files is typically lost in Step 3, and is definitely lost in Step 4.

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vDTS finished stamping my file, but I did not see time stamp in the stamped file. What happened?

If you edited your DV AVI file before time stamping it (i.e. Step 2 and 3 switched in the previous question), the video editing software may have dropped the time code from your original DV AVI file. vDTS can stamp a DV AVI file only if it has the time code. vDTS keep the statistics of missing/invalid time code of a processed file and print it in the log file. For example the log file says "xxx frames have no date/time code" in such scenario.

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Can vDTS stamp large size files?

There is no practical size limit on the DV AVI files. vDTS can handle size well larger than 100GB. The limit most probably will come from your hard disk. The trial version of vDTS do have size limit of about 280MB.

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Will vDTS change the quality of my video?

In the area of a video frame where stamp is added, the quality is affected. In the rest part of the video frame the quality is exactly the same as original. If a frame is not stamped (e.g. in periodic duration mode, some video frames are not stamped), it is an exact copy of the original frame. We use our proprietary advanced algorithm to add the stamp to the video frames, which results in very high quality, compare to other stamping methods. You can see this by comparing the stamped video frames against the original ones.

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When I play back the stamped video using Microsoft Media Player, why the stamps look flickering?

When vDTS add stamps to the DV AVI files, the stamps are added to the exact location in every frame as you specified. Some earlier version (version 8 and earlier) of Microsoft Media Player (MMP) is not a good quality player to play back DV AVI files. Version 10 of MMP works very well on my machine, but some users reported that even version 10 still has the flickering problem on their machines. If you play back using Adobe Premiere or Ulead VideoStudio, the result will be better. Also once you encode the DV AVI files to MPEG-II and subsequently make DVD out of them, the DVD will look better. Another note: make sure all the frames have timecode on them. vDTS will skip stamping those frames that do not have timecode or have invalid timecode, causing the flickering problem when you play back the stamped file. You may find out if your DV AVI file have any missing/invalid timecode by reading the vDTS log file.

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Does vDTS/vPTS work on Win98, Win98se, or WinMe machines?

Some Win98 users use vDTS successfully. The best way to find out the answer on your machine is to download it and try it yourself. If it works, that's great. Otherwise, no harm is done.

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When I run vDTS/vPTS, I get this message dialog, where do I get the missing DLL?

You may download the missing DLLs here.

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Does vDTS/vPTS work on Windows Vista machines?

Yes. For 32 bit Windows Vista, put the DLLs (mfc70u.dll msvcr70.dll GdiPlus.dll) in c:\Windows\system32 folder; For 64 bit Windows Vista, put the DLLs (mfc70u.dll msvcr70.dll GdiPlus.dll) in c:\Windows\sysWOW64 folder.

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When I print the stamped photo, the date/time stamp is gone. What happened??

When you print a photo to a printer, typically part of the photo (the edges) is cropped. Most probably the date/time was cropped when you print the photo. The solution is to either print the WHOLE photo, or move the date/time stamp toward the center of the photo.

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What is EXIF format?

EXIF stands for Exchangeable Image File. EXIF format is used by most of today's digital still cameras (DSC) to store the digital images. Among other things, EXIF allows a digital photo file to store the photo attributes like date and time code along with the image (in JPG format) itself. Strictly speaking, a digital still camera store a photo in EXIF format, with JPG image being part of the EXIF. Since the digital image is the main part of the file, and the image is encoded in JPG format, such a file is commonly referred to as a JPG file. Similarly an EXIF format file contains TIF encoded image is commonly called TIF file.

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When I tried to preview a image, I saw a message 'File xxx does not contain valid time code', what does it mean?

Most probably the JPG file is not of EXIF format, or there is no date/time attribute stored in the file. Some older digital cameras do not store photos in EXIF format files. Also if the photo has been edited by a photo editing software, the edited file may not be of EXIF format.

The easiest way to find if this is a vPTS problem is to view the photo's properties using Windows Explorer: right click the JPG photo file, then follow Properties - Summary - Advanced path to see the 'Date Picture Taken' attribute. If that attribute is correct, then vPTS should stamp the same date/time.

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Does vPTS work on TIF files?

It depends. If a TIF image is contained in an EXIF formated file and has date and time code, then vPTS would stamp it. The output file will be JPG file, though.

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Will vDTS change the quality of my photo?

Once the photo is stamped, it is encoded back to JPG format. The quality of the stamped JPG file can be adjusted using vPTS's Preference Dialog. See Help for details.

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