DVdate is a lightweight and portable piece of kit that lets you view Audio Video Interleave file information. It addresses users with background in video processing tools.

Since installation is not a prerequisite, you can simply drop the executable file anywhere on the hard drive and run it immediately.

Otherwise, you can store DVdate on a USB flash drive or similar storage unit, and run it on any computer. This way, you can keep the tool in your pocket whenever you're on the move.

What's more important is that the Windows Registry section does not receive entry updates, and files are not left behind on the hard drive after program removal.

The interface of the utility is based on a standard window with an complicated layout, where you can open AVI items by using either the file browser or "drag and drop" method. You can add as many items as you want.

So, you can preview the clip in the main application window and navigate it frame by frame, by moving a slider. Displayed information focuses on the date code and codes, codec, resolution, duration, frames per second and audio properties (frequency, channel mode, format, bit rate). It is possible to copy any of these fields to the Clipboard, along with the full or short name, file date or size.

In addition, you can save the playlist to a plain text document (TXT format), switch to full screen mode, disable deinterlacing, turn off sound, read the RIFF header, change the codec and fix the video frame rate, as well as add the date or time code. DVdate also lets you recompress the AVI into DV type 2, convert the aspect ratio, fix a time difference, extract audio, overwrite a datecode and show the inlay.

The program uses a moderate-to-high amount of CPU and system memory, has a good response time and supports keyboard shortcuts. We have not encountered any issues throughout our evaluation; the app did not hang, crash or pop up error dialogs. On the downside, DVdate has not been updated for a very long time.