Upgraded to Final Cut Express from imovie. How to date stamp on import?

[Wailer]

I finally bit the bullet and upgraded to Final Cut Express (FCE) from imovie. After going through the tutorial, I figured this was much better than imovie.

However, one thing I could do in imovie that I can't do with FCE: When I import from my digital video camera, everything imports fine. The resulting files in the sequence bin don't have date or time information from the camera!

I used to be able to command-I an imovie clip and I could tell the date and time it was shot, which was very convenient when you are looking at unedited video of your kids.

Do I need to manual add this to the files? Meaning I'd need to import and then re-watch the video on the camera and type the info in? Surely there must be a better way or something that I'm missing.

[clay]

I've not used Final Cut Express, but I do use Final Cut Pro on a daily basis, and I've never heard of the feature that you describe. The only thing similar that I can think of in FCP would be to apply a "timecode reader" filter to the video clip and then customize it to your liking. There is embedded timecode in your footage, but whether that relates to date/time of recording is unclear.

[DRR]

When I upgraded about 4 or 5 years ago from iMovie to FCP, I ran into this same issue and never found a solution. My workaround is to import in iMovie to the server and trim the footage in FCP. That way, the original import still retains the time/date info in the filename.

The only footage where I find myself needing the time/date info is for home movies anyway, everything else generally has script notes, timecode, window burns, etc.