Repair file names with invalid characters on the command line, add missing file times using the filename text, on files created by embedded devices like personal video recorders, with the free Swiss File Knife for the Windows CMD.EXE shell.

- download the free Swiss File Knife Base from Sourceforge.
- open the Windows CMD command line, Mac OS X Terminal or Linux shell.
- OS X : type mv sfk-mac-i686.exe sfk and chmod +x sfk then ./sfk
- Linux: type mv sfk-linux.exe sfk    and chmod +x sfk then ./sfk
  OS X and Linux syntax may differ, check the help within the tool.

sfk fixfile [options] dirname

repair file names with invalid characters, add missing
file time from filename, on files created by embedded
devices like personal video recorders (PVR).

use with care! filenames and times may be changed completely
and this cannot be undone. this command runs in simulation mode
by default, previewing changes without modifying anything.
add -yes to really apply changes.

limited file selection
   this command is for Windows only and supports only
   a few file selection options like -dir and -file.

options
 -dewide    if any unicode 16 bit wide characters are found
            in the filename (making the file unusable for
            many command line applications) remove them.
            careful! use this only if just a few of such
            characters exist, otherwise the file may become
            completely unusable.
 -setftime  if date and time info are found in the name like in
              myfile-01312015-1740-news.mpg
            then extract date and time. if the file has no date
            or a different date change it to the found date.
 -setndate  change date text in filename to normalized
            flat format YMD like 20150113
 -defull    same as -dewide -setftime -setndate
 -withsub   include sub directories (not default)

see also
   the following are normally used after fixfile
   as they need plain ASCII filenames to work with.
   sfk rename   flexible mass rename of files
   sfk media    to cut mpeg2 video files

examples
   sfk fixfile -defull f:\HBPVR .mts .meta
      fix filenames and times of .mts and .meta files
      in the recording folder of a XORO HRK 7560.
      for example, it will change a filename like
         ?S?uper_?R?TL-01312015-0540-SpongeBob.mts
      to
         Super_RTL-20150131-0540-SpongeBob.mts
      stripping four wide characters and also setting
      the file date/time to 31.01.2015 at 05:40.

   sfk fixfile -defull -dir f:\HBPVR -file .mts .meta
      same as above using long file selection syntax.

 

read more about all sfk functions here.