no continuous numbering? recommend a batch renaming tool (PC)?

T

tikigod19

Well-known member
hi all, ive only recently noticed that when formatting my gh1 the file name returns to 00000.mts. I can see this being a problem when using multiple cards at a wedding.

can anyone recommend a good program that can bath rename the files. Ive seen some that can add characters to the end or start of the filename but i want something that will let me number all files in a folder starting at for example 00001 and going up one from there... sequential numbering would you call it? anyway.. you get the idea!

thanks
 
Why not use a pre-pend instead?

Instead of renumbering the files, why not do a quick rename to cam1_roll1000001.mts, the second cam would be cam2_roll1_00001.mts, etc. That way, you don't need any special tools, and the process takes literally seconds.

I had hear Panasonic had done this, and couldn't believe it when I heard it. The lack of foresight here is shocking if there is truly no way to solve this in camera.
 
tikigod19 said:
hi all, ive only recently noticed that when formatting my gh1 the file name returns to 00000.mts. I can see this being a problem when using multiple cards at a wedding.

can anyone recommend a good program that can bath rename the files. Ive seen some that can add characters to the end or start of the filename but i want something that will let me number all files in a folder starting at for example 00001 and going up one from there... sequential numbering would you call it? anyway.. you get the idea!

thanks
Click to expand...

Yeah, this is very Important. You can do this with an Image Viewer software named XNView. Get it from Here.

Right Click on the folder of Footages in explorer > Browse with XNView (this Starts XNView)> Select the footages > Right Click > Batch Rename.
You get various options there, play with it for some time, and you will get it all.

It is Good Viewer that also Previews Video as soon as selected. Be careful, if any Video is Previewing, it won't Rename. You can also Disable this feature from the Preference.

Have a Nice Day! :)
 
A related question: Only now that I have both a GH1 and a GH2 (the first two "DSLR" cams I've owned or used), I notice these cams don't have an option to specify a number range for digital stills, either.

Is this something unique to Panasonic's cams, or do other popular DSLRs also not give you the option to control the number range assigned to digital stills?

(This seems like a really odd omission, unless I'm misunderstanding something.)
 
Best renamer I know of (and I've tested a LOT of them): ReNamer

Renaming operations are setup using a "building block" method which makes it very easy to use and powerful at the same time.
Serialization (sequential numbering) of file names is a piece of cake with this app. You can even save a profile containing a set of rename operations to quickly recall every time import your clips.
 
Rename Prefix (Automator workflow for MAC OS X)

Rename Prefix (Automator workflow for MAC OS X)

Rename Prefix.workflow for MAC OS X (just right click on any folder)
This thread got me thinking about how to do this using Automator for Mac OS X. I've created an Automator workflow file which should go in the path:
username/library/workflows/applications/finder

Once its there, you should be able to right click on any folder and a pop up will appear asking what pre-fix you want to add to all file names within that folder and all sub-folders. Enjoy and let me know how it works.

"Rename Prefix.workflow" file is zipped:
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=0DZJPMKY
 
Last edited:
Jive said:
Best renamer I know of (and I've tested a LOT of them): ReNamer
Renaming operations are setup using a "building block" method which makes it very easy to use and powerful at the same time.
Serialization (sequential numbering) of file names is a piece of cake with this app. You can even save a profile containing a set of rename operations to quickly recall every time import your clips.
Click to expand...

Just out of interest, how on god's green earth do you set up a rule so that I can rename my 00000.mts, 00001.mts etc to the same format but starting from a certain number, for example 00019.mts, 00020.mts, etc?

I have tried everything and can't quite get it working... Just wanted to ask this before I switch to the one that renames by date and time.
 
tikigod19 said:
Just out of interest, how on god's green earth do you set up a rule so that I can rename my 00000.mts, 00001.mts etc to the same format but starting from a certain number, for example 00019.mts, 00020.mts, etc?

I have tried everything and can't quite get it working... Just wanted to ask this before I switch to the one that renames by date and time.
Click to expand...

Basically, you strip out the current file name, and then serialize the file names using whatever start number you want (e.g. 19).

Here's a preset that I use for this:
View attachment Strip and Serialize.zip

Extract the file and drop it into the "Presets" folder in ReNamer's directory and load it from the "Presets" menu when you use the program. You can check out the rule settings to modify it and see how it's done.

With all that said, I would highly recommend a using a date-based file naming scheme (such as YYYY-MM-DD-SS.mts) for several reasons:

  • File name collisions (multiple files with the same name) are very unlikely to happen
  • No need to change the start number for your new files every time you need to rename a batch of files
  • Easy to identify a batch of files based on when they were shot
  • No need to worry about non-sequential files when you delete files
This is the naming scheme I use for everything I shoot on all of my cameras (photo, video, etc.) and I think it works really well for my workflow.
 
ReName + Script is NICE!

ReName + Script is NICE!

Many thanks for this heads up about this tool! I just downloaded ReNamer. It works VERY well and is quite powerful.

Jive, I especially liked you suggestion about time and date. I downloaded your preset and created a "Presets" folder under the Renamer Program folder - "C:\Program Files (x86)\ReNamer\Presets". (My ReNamer install is on drive C). Then I loaded up loaded up your preset and decided to use your date naming idea.

Unfortunately I found that I had dupes for some reason - files whose created or modified date were exactly the same down to the second. I don't know if this occurred because of a GH2 "idiosyncrasy" or something I did.

To deal with this issue, I created a small Pascal Script (see below) that prepends the file name with the date, hour and minute of the file created date in the form "yyyy-mm-dd-hh-mm" + original file name. For example: The file "00000.MTS" was renamed to "2011-01-16-16-32-00000.MTS" (file created on 2/16/2011 at 4:32 PM). One big reason I like this approach is that it retains the original file name and helps to ensure uniqueness.

After creating and saving the script, I created a preset that uses the script. Super easy.

For anyone who wants to use my script:

  1. Open ReNamer and click the "+" sign to "Add" a rule.
  2. Select "PascalScript" from the list.
  3. Paste my script into the "Configuration" window
  4. Click the "Scripts" button (lightning bolt symbol) and then "Save Script..."
  5. Enter a script name that makes sense to you. ( I used "DateTimeAndFileName".) The script is saved to the ReNamer "Scripts" folder.
  6. Click "Add Rule" to add the rule to your ReNamer rules.
  7. If you'd like, you can save your whole configuration including the rules to a preset. (Presets --> Save As).
  8. Now select "Add Files" by clicking the "Add Files" icon. (Or add entire an entire folder.)
  9. Click "Preview". You should see the renaming result in the preview window.
  10. Click "Rename" to rename your files.
This tool helped me tremendously. I hope my script helps others.

Regards,

Dan.


Code: 
vvar
  DateTime: TDateTime; 

begin
  DateTime := FileTimeCreated(FilePath);
  FileName := FormatDateTime('yyyy-mm-dd-hh-mm', DateTime) + 
    '-' +
    WideExtractBaseName(FileName) +
    WideExtractFileExt(FileName);
end.
 
Cool script, thanks for sharing. Also note that you can do the same thing by adding an "Insert" rule, clicking the "Insert Meta Tag" button, and selecting "File_DateCreated". You can insert this data at any point in the original file name using the rule's other options as well.

It is odd that you would have 2 files that have the same second, unless you were somehow able to fully record two clips with the camera in less than a second. But even if that were possible, what good would they be? They're less than a second long! :)

Prepending the date to the original file name definitely increases the likelihood of unique file names, but I don't think my left brain could stand the non-sequential numbering :) I'd have to quell it by seeing if it was possible to restart the numbering whenever the date changes.

Too bad GH1's MTS files don't contain EXIF data, because then I could use the same tool I use for all my photos as well as all cameras that create *.THM (which are really empty jpg files with EXIF data) files for their videos (i.e. Canon T2i, etc.):
AmoK Exif Sorter

Awesome program, and it also handles duplicate file names (since it is quite easy to take more than one photo in less than a second) by appending a number to the end of the new file names.
AmoK Exif Sorter + ReNamer are quite invaluable in my post production workflow.
 
Peter J. DeCrescenzo said:
Is this something unique to Panasonic's cams, or do other popular DSLRs also not give you the option to control the number range assigned to digital stills?
Click to expand...

I'm not sure if it's unique to Panasonic or unique to the sub-$1000 price range, but no, none of the prosumer and higher DSLRs lack this feature.
 
Jive said:
It is odd that you would have 2 files that have the same second, unless you were somehow able to fully record two clips with the camera in less than a second. But even if that were possible, what good would they be? They're less than a second long! :)
Click to expand...

No, such files are not necessarily only less than a second long. I have it happening quite regularly.

Two consecutive clips get the same Modified Date whenever they are taken within a short amount of time. I assume this is (within) a minute, perhaps a couple of them. If you take clips with delays of a number of minutes, they are likely to also get their real Modified Date when written (closed).
 
Jive said:
Basically, you strip out the current file name, and then serialize the file names using whatever start number you want (e.g. 19).

Here's a preset that I use for this:
View attachment 29048

Extract the file and drop it into the "Presets" folder in ReNamer's directory and load it from the "Presets" menu when you use the program. You can check out the rule settings to modify it and see how it's done.

With all that said, I would highly recommend a using a date-based file naming scheme (such as YYYY-MM-DD-SS.mts) for several reasons:

  • File name collisions (multiple files with the same name) are very unlikely to happen
  • No need to change the start number for your new files every time you need to rename a batch of files
  • Easy to identify a batch of files based on when they were shot
  • No need to worry about non-sequential files when you delete files
This is the naming scheme I use for everything I shoot on all of my cameras (photo, video, etc.) and I think it works really well for my workflow.
Click to expand...

thanks for this but I find it just starts from 00001 every time? How do I choose the start value?

Also could you tell me how to use the date time method? Is is the created date (ie the date it was filmed) or the date it was copied to the PC?

I couldnt see a standard sort of preset in the menu for assigning date but I probably missed it...
 
tikigod19 said:
thanks for this but I find it just starts from 00001 every time? How do I choose the start value?
Click to expand...
Did you take a look at the rule settings when you loaded the preset? The Serialize rule has an "index starts" setting. Change that to what you want to start numbering from.

tikigod19 said:
Also could you tell me how to use the date time method? Is is the created date (ie the date it was filmed) or the date it was copied to the PC?

I couldnt see a standard sort of preset in the menu for assigning date but I probably missed it...
Click to expand...
This was covered a few posts ago. Scroll up, or click the links below:
Post #14
Post #15
 
ah right yes, I must have missed those posts! Thanks a lot.

Also I didnt realise I could edit the rule settings after loading a preset.
 
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