Photo slideshow, dates not displayed correctly

[Cup]

Hi all! Been a while since I've been here.... How's everyone doing?
Anyhoo, I've developed a bit of a minor issue on my box. Wondering if anyone has any ideas as to how to correct it, because I can't think of anything.

The setup:
Win7 Ultimate X64 Media Center.
Recorded TV is on a local drive. ALL other libraries (Photos, Music, Movies) are pointed at shares on a Server 2012 Essentials box. For years, it's been as close to flawless as possible.

Issue:
System is sitting idle, Media Center drops to the Photo Slideshow screensaver, just like normal. Up until about two weeks ago, the 'in-focus' photo was captioned with the date that said photo was taken.
About two weeks ago, this changed. Slideshow screensaver still works like before, but, the captions are now, ah, truncated. It only displays the first digit of the photo's date. 10/17/2011 is now just shown as 1; 6/12/2012 is now shown as 6, etc.

I've looked at a random sampling of the photos in the library, and confirmed that the 'date created' tag in the metadata is still present and correct.

Any ideas? Things to try to fix it?

Thanks!

-Chris