Timestamp Burner

Every video file already carries a creation date in its metadata — but metadata is the first thing that dies in the wild. Messaging apps strip it, social platforms re-encode it away, and screen recordings never had it. A burned-in timestamp is pixels, not metadata: it survives every re-upload, every transcode and every platform that touches the file. That is why dashcams, CCTV systems and body cameras burn the date and time into the frame itself — the stamp is the evidence, not an annotation of it.

The three stamp elements serve different jobs. The date answers "when was this?" for documentation, insurance clips and archival footage — choose "File date" to stamp the video's own modification date rather than today. The clock time adds precision for incident review. The running timecode is the editor's tool: HH:MM:SS:FF counts frames from your chosen start offset, so you can reference "01:12:04:17" in notes and find the exact frame instantly. Match the frame-rate setting to your footage (30 for most phone recordings) so the FF counter rolls over the way your editor expects.

Two honest notes. First, this stamp is permanent — check the position against your footage before exporting, because bright areas can swallow a white stamp (that's what the dark box background is for). Second, the export is a real-time re-encode in WebM, the only container browsers can write: a 5-minute video takes 5 minutes to export, and you should keep the tab focused. For anything that needs an MP4 container afterwards, HandBrake or CloudConvert will remux the WebM losslessly in seconds.