Movie metadata

[wywh]

Movie metadata is a mess and a moving target.

But 'Keys' and 'ItemList' are currently somewhat supported in QuickTime Player, Photos.app, Final Cut Pro and Compressor. Keys seems to be to most robust in the Mac ecosystem:

In macOS 13.2 apps (QuickTime Player, Photos.app) and Google Maps I already have dates working in movies after 1970 with:

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exiftool -api QuickTimeUTC=1 -QuickTime:CreateDate='2001:01:01 12:00:00' .
...and additionally for movies before 1904-1970 where the above does not work. This works down to year 1 and in Mac apps this overrides the date in 'QuickTime:CreateDate':

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exiftool -Keys:CreationDate='1922:01:01 12:00:00+02:00' .
...and for locations:

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exiftool -Keys:GPSCoordinates='-36.6101, -66.91515, 119.9' .
Currently Keys seems to be the best tag for other movie metadata for Mac apps. ItemList works somewhat and UserData works in a very limited and spotty manner.

-> So I am finally slowly starting to add Title, Author, Description and Keywords to .mp4, .m4v and .mov movies from my spreadsheet memo with a command like:

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exiftool -m -P -overwrite_original_in_place -Keys:DisplayName='Title' -Keys:Author='Author' -Keys:Description='Description' -Keys:Keywords='Keyword 1,Keyword 2' movie.mp4
Umlauts, line breaks and tabs seem to work OK in Photos.app and in a somewhat more limited way in iPadOS 16.3 (Keywords are not displayed and the Description text display is truncated somewhere between 428-649 characters).

If the standards evolve, then it is easy to copy Keys or selected tags to ItemList or UserData with a command like (might be useful for cross-platform compatibility):

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exiftool -m -P -overwrite_original_in_place '-ItemList:Title<Keys:DisplayName' '-ItemList:Author<Keys:Author' '-ItemList:Keyword<Keys:Keywords' '-ItemList:Description<Keys:Description' .

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exiftool -m -P -overwrite_original_in_place '-UserData:Title<Keys:DisplayName' '-UserData:ID-titl:Title<Keys:DisplayName' '-UserData:ClipFileName<Keys:DisplayName' '-UserData:Author<Keys:Author' '-UserData:Keywords<Keys:Keywords' '-UserData:Description<Keys:Description' .
-> So I am testing which movie metadata is currently best supported in my apps. Keys seems to be the best for Mac apps like QuickTime Player and Photos.app. My .mp4, .m4v and .mov test movies with Keys, ItemList and UserData with some supported metadata attached. What info do other operating systems display in these?

... I tested those sample movies in a Windows 10 VM:

Details > Origin > Media Created > Quicktime:Create date or File date?
Details > Media > Contributing Artists > Author Keys
Details > Properties > Details > Comments > Description Keys

Photos > Info > Date > Quicktime:Create date or File date?
Photos > Info > Location > Keys:GPSCoordinates

macOS 13.2 vlc-3.0.18-intel64:

ItemList:Title

- Matti

[StarGeek]

What info do other operating systems display in these?

See this post for Windows Properties->Details.

I don't think there's been any changes since my last revision there, but I haven't check Win11.  And to be honest, I'm unlikely to upgrade unless I really have to.

[wywh]

Those sample movies show the following info (macOS 13.2 QuickTime Player, Photos.app described above):

* Final Cut Pro 10.6.5:

Content Created (Import dialog) - QuickTime:CreateDate (.mp4, .m4v, .mov UTC)
Content Created (Libraries sidebar) - Keys:CreationDate (.mp4, .m4v, .mov)

* Adobe Bridge 2023 13.0.2.636 macOS:

Date Created - Keys:CreationDate (.mov)
Date Created - QuickTime:CreateDate (.mp4, .m4v local time!)

GPS - Keys:GPSCoordinates (.mov)
GPS - UserData:GPSCoordinates (.mp4, .m4v)

...sigh

- Matti

[Phil Harvey]

It's enough to make you cry.

- Phil