How to tag/metatag MP4, AVI, MOV, WMA ?

[pacman10]

I'm at the low end of the learning curve, making my own videos with various devices (GoPro, Canon MVX, smartphone, etc.). I want to tag them with tags which are stored in the files (not on a separate database) so that my desktop software can find them on my computer and the attached network storage. That's all I want to do. I don't want to tag them for web publication and I don't want to keep them in a video storage system which keeps the tags in a separate database (because the vendor of such a system might no longer be in business in five years time and then I'm left with a non-supported database system and a lot of non-tagged video files).

Clearly, I can "tag" the files by including keywords in the filename, but that is limited in length. I want to tag the videos just as I tag photos and MP3 files.

Is there a solution for this ? I've been thrashing around the Web with Google et al. without success. Either I'm using the wrong search terms or there is no solution or there is a solution out there which is "buried" because very few people are interested in tagging.

pacman10

P.S. I put this in this section because I'm "... a newbie / new to video and/or ....have problem deciding what section (my) post should be in..". If it belongs somewhere else please do let me know.

[Selur]

ffmpeg can add tags during remuxing (see: http://ffmpeg.org/ffmpeg.html and search for metadata).

[aedipuss]

no you can't tag various video files like you do mp3s. your best bet is to include the most important data in the filename.

[vhelp]

filename lengths are 255 chars. should be long enough for your needs. i use long filenames bc i too work with many video files. i braket or .dot. most of them. and since i write my own utilities, i wrote my own filesearch app that i keep nearby. it is stricly a filesearch, very limited. anyway. i would go with the filename route bc you can search for them in explorers search tool. although i only used once/twice, if you are in w7, it has an easier search tool for this.

[vhelp]

-metadata[:metadata_specifier] key=value (output,per-metadata)’

Set a metadata key/value pair.

An optional metadata_specifier may be given to set metadata on streams or chapters.

This option overrides metadata set with -map_metadata. It is also possible to delete metadata by using an empty value.

For example, for setting the title in the output file:
ffmpeg -i in.avi -metadata title="my title" out.flv

To set the language of the first audio stream:
ffmpeg -i INPUT -metadata:a:1 language=eng OUTPUT

the above seems easy enough to set a tag, however, you will need a front-end utility for that or gui that handles ffmpeg and sports that feature. i don't know any. but you can write .bat files to process meta tags using the above examples. then, you would need a front-end utility to read or search for them--or write your own. otherwise, the easier route is by using the filename.

[Selur]

btw. interessting read regarding ffmpeg &metadata:
http://multimedia.cx/eggs/supplying-ffmpeg-with-metadata/
-> main real downside of this method is that it only works on remuxing (no in-place editing like mkvpropedit offers for mkv files)

[pacman10]

Thanks to you all for these rapid and useful replies.

Tags in filename: While Windows usually limits file names to 260 characters the file name must actually be shorter than that, since the complete path (such as C:\Program Files\filename.txt) is included in this character count. In practice this has sometimes caused me problems when copying a file with a very long file name to a location that has a longer path than its current location. That was why I wanted to avoid using the filename for tagging. However, if tagging of video files is simply not possible I'll use the filenames as tag "buckets" and learn to keep paths short.

ffmpeg: I won't use this for the time being but followed the lead with all its links to GUIs and am impressed/interested so will be keeping that for a future learning session. It took me a few minutes to find out what remuxing is but I think I've grasped the idea. Thanks.

-metadata[:metadata_specifier] key=value (output,per-metadata): I'm afraid that is above my head at the moment but (a) that only needs research on my part and (b) it will presumably help someone else who is trying to find out how to tab video files and searches this forum.

pacman

[Selur]

Tags in filename: While Windows usually limits file names to 260 characters the file name must actually be shorter than

same goes for Mac and Linux inside the bash you are normally limited to 255 bytes (= 255 characters) for a file name.

I'm afraid that is above my head at the moment

if you want to set:
- a title 'The title'
- a genere 'The genre'
- a comment 'The long comment'
you would have to add:

-metadata title="The title" -metadata title="The genre" -metadata title="The long comment"

see: http://wiki.multimedia.cx/index.php?title=FFmpeg_Metadata

[Noahtuck]

no you can't tag various video files like you do mp3s. your best bet is to include the most important data in the filename.

Sure you can

I used to use abcAVI Tag Editor to put all kinds of info into AVI/Xvids I made.
You would not know it was there unless you checked in windows by right clicking and choosing properties or other software.
I did it to track my stuff online to see if anyone was claiming it to be there's because most people do not check or think you can.

I have never tried with MP4's or MKV's so I can not say for sure on those and I have always avoided crap like WMV & MOV like the plague!!

[vhelp]

you know, i didn't read too much of that info i posted earlier. so, rethinking about it..tagging may have limits anyway, such as what video format (avi/mpg/m2ts/vob/mkv) are supported for tagging. maybe specify the file you will be using, might be helpful tool.

[Noahtuck]

I just checked mkvmerge GUI and there is a selection to add "tags" although I never used it or paid attention to it before so I am not sure what it is for exactly as it has a option to choose an external file.

[vhelp]

there is also this resource, for flv files.
http://www.buraks.com/flvmdi

[Budman1]

Not sure about all the file types but I tried an MP4, which can be hard to inject Meta, with the ffmpeg copy parameters:

C:\Users\Bud\Desktop\VHS2DVD>ffmpeg -i C:\Users\Bud\Desktop\VHS2DVD\Wham!AC3_6Ch
annel.mp4 -metadata title="my title" -acodec copy -vcodec copy whamout.mp4

It copied without recoding and the metadata shows in the file:


Shouldn't be too hard to build a GUI for running or use a batch file, but each Video format (AVI, MP4, FLV, etc.) has its own limitations on what can be added as Metadata as noted in the articles linked above and you would have to be careful, at least in batch processing.

[hoodafukisalice]

Not sure about all the file types but I tried an MP4, which can be hard to inject Meta, with the ffmpeg copy parameters:

C:\Users\Bud\Desktop\VHS2DVD>ffmpeg -i C:\Users\Bud\Desktop\VHS2DVD\Wham!AC3_6Ch
annel.mp4 -metadata title="my title" -acodec copy -vcodec copy whamout.mp4

It copied without recoding and the metadata shows in the file:

[Attachment 19991 - Click to enlarge]

Shouldn't be too hard to build a GUI for running or use a batch file, but each Video format (AVI, MP4, FLV, etc.) has its own limitations on what can be added as Metadata as noted in the articles linked above and you would have to be careful, at least in batch processing.

I tried it on a single mp4 file and it worked like a charm! You sir, deserve applause.

Have already written a Python script to tag mkv files, and am modifying the same to handle mp4 files as well. Am just concerned if it works for all mp4 files. Are there are any mp4 specific corner cases to be aware of?

Thanks in advance.

[Budman1]

The MP4 container stores the necessary information, video, audio, etc. in 'Atoms' and these may occur in different order and sometimes even in sets of 2 or 3 of the same atom if the video has parts joined by some certain editors. Most players these days will play the video correctly but FFmpeg may have a problem inserting Metadata in these odd cases. The only way to be sure is try them, especially ones that have been 'edited', joined, cut, muxed, etc.

[hoodafukisalice]

The MP4 container stores the necessary information, video, audio, etc. in 'Atoms' and these may occur in different order and sometimes even in sets of 2 or 3 of the same atom if the video has parts joined by some certain editors. Most players these days will play the video correctly but FFmpeg may have a problem inserting Metadata in these odd cases. The only way to be sure is try them, especially ones that have been 'edited', joined, cut, muxed, etc.

Rats! I'm going to need more storage for targets until they're ruled fine.

Wonder why MPEG couldn't come up with a well defined spec and in-place tagging like MKV does. They've been around longer. Of course, MKV tagging has its own limitations. For example, mkvpropedit does not (yet) provide a way to set the release year with command line options.


Thanks again for the confirmation.

[pumpysworld]

There's also Media Monkey. What I did was add or rescan the folders containing videos to the library, used the auto-tag from filename feature, then the advanced tag management to synchronize the tags.