diff --git a/.gitignore b/.gitignore
index ab2d61b..6f359db 100644
--- a/.gitignore
+++ b/.gitignore
@@ -1,6 +1,7 @@
 github_deploy_key*
 *.swp
 
+.pytest_cache
 # Byte-compiled / optimized / DLL files
 __pycache__/
 *.py[cod]
diff --git a/fact/VERSION b/fact/VERSION
index 2a0970c..c5523bd 100644
--- a/fact/VERSION
+++ b/fact/VERSION
@@ -1 +1 @@
-0.16.1
+0.17.0
diff --git a/fact/io.py b/fact/io.py
index 21742b2..050a70d 100644
--- a/fact/io.py
+++ b/fact/io.py
@@ -89,7 +89,14 @@ def to_native_byteorder(array):
     return array
 
 
-def read_h5py(file_path, key='data', columns=None, mode='r'):
+def read_h5py(
+        file_path,
+        key='data',
+        columns=None,
+        mode='r',
+        parse_dates=True,
+        first=None,
+        last=None):
     '''
     Read a hdf5 file written with h5py into a dataframe
 
@@ -101,6 +108,13 @@ def read_h5py(file_path, key='data', columns=None, mode='r'):
         name of the hdf5 group to read in
     columns: iterable[str]
         Names of the datasets to read in. If not given read all 1d datasets
+    parse_dates: bool
+        Convert columns with attrs['timeformat'] to timestamps
+    first: int or None
+        first row to read from the file
+    last: int or None
+        last event to read from the file
+
     '''
     with h5py.File(file_path, mode) as f:
         group = f.get(key)
@@ -115,12 +129,16 @@ def read_h5py(file_path, key='data', columns=None, mode='r'):
 
         df = pd.DataFrame()
         for col in columns:
-            array = to_native_byteorder(group[col][:])
+            dataset = group[col]
+            array = to_native_byteorder(dataset[first:last])
 
             # pandas cannot handle bytes, convert to str
             if array.dtype.kind == 'S':
                 array = array.astype(str)
 
+            if parse_dates and dataset.attrs.get('timeformat') is not None:
+                array = pd.to_datetime(array, infer_datetime_format=True)
+
             if array.ndim == 1:
                 df[col] = array
             elif array.ndim == 2:
@@ -146,7 +164,13 @@ def h5py_get_n_rows(file_path, key='data', mode='r'):
         return group[next(iter(group.keys()))].shape[0]
 
 
-def read_h5py_chunked(file_path, key='data', columns=None, chunksize=None, mode='r'):
+def read_h5py_chunked(
+        file_path,
+        key='data',
+        columns=None,
+        chunksize=None,
+        mode='r',
+        parse_dates=True):
     '''
     Generator function to read from h5py hdf5 in chunks,
     returns an iterator over pandas dataframes.
@@ -178,28 +202,22 @@ def read_h5py_chunked(file_path, key='data', columns=None, chunksize=None, mode=
                 columns.remove(col)
                 log.warning('Ignoring column {}, not 1d or 2d'.format(col))
 
-        for chunk in range(n_chunks):
-
-            start = chunk * chunksize
-            end = min(n_rows, (chunk + 1) * chunksize)
-
-            df = pd.DataFrame(index=np.arange(start, end))
-
-            for col in columns:
-                array = to_native_byteorder(group[col][start:end])
+    for chunk in range(n_chunks):
 
-                # pandas cannot handle bytes, convert to str
-                if array.dtype.kind == 'S':
-                    array = array.astype(str)
+        start = chunk * chunksize
+        end = min(n_rows, (chunk + 1) * chunksize)
 
-                if array.ndim == 1:
-                    df[col] = array
-
-                else:
-                    for i in range(array.shape[1]):
-                        df[col + '_{}'.format(i)] = array[:, i]
+        df = read_h5py(
+            file_path,
+            key=key,
+            columns=columns,
+            parse_dates=parse_dates,
+            first=start,
+            last=end
+        )
+        df.index = np.arange(start, end)
 
-            yield df, start, end
+        yield df, start, end
 
 
 def read_data(file_path, key=None, columns=None, **kwargs):
@@ -370,6 +388,7 @@ def create_empty_h5py_dataset(array, group, name, **kwargs):
     dtype = array.dtype
     maxshape = [None] + list(array.shape)[1:]
     shape = [0] + list(array.shape)[1:]
+    attrs = {}
 
     if dtype.base == object:
         if isinstance(array[0], list):
@@ -382,6 +401,7 @@ def create_empty_h5py_dataset(array, group, name, **kwargs):
     elif dtype.type == np.datetime64:
         # save dates as ISO string, create dummy date to get correct length
         dt = np.array(0, dtype=dtype).astype('S').dtype
+        attrs['timeformat'] = 'iso'
 
     else:
         dt = dtype.base
@@ -393,6 +413,10 @@ def create_empty_h5py_dataset(array, group, name, **kwargs):
         dtype=dt,
         **kwargs
     )
+
+    for k, v in attrs.items():
+        dataset.attrs[k] = v
+
     return dataset
 
 
diff --git a/tests/test_io.py b/tests/test_io.py
index f4f8d1e..6333712 100644
--- a/tests/test_io.py
+++ b/tests/test_io.py
@@ -62,9 +62,6 @@ def test_to_h5py_datetime():
         to_h5py(df, f.name, key='test')
         df2 = read_h5py(f.name, key='test')
 
-        for col in df2.columns:
-            df2[col] = pd.to_datetime(df2[col])
-
         for col in df.columns:
             assert all(df[col] == df2[col])