How do I find the date a video (.AVI .MP4) was actually recorded?

Question

properties> date created... I thought this meant the date the video was created, but finally realized that date changes every time I move, reorganize, even open a file. o

Answer 1

For me the mtime (modification time) is also earlier than the create date in a lot of (most) cases since, as you say, any reorganisation modifies the create time. However, the mtime AFAIUI is an accurate reflection of when the file contents were actually changed so should be an accurate record of video capture date.

After discovering this metadata failure for movie files, I am going to be renaming my videos based on their mtime so I have this stored in a more robust way!