ExifTool Forum

General => Metadata => Topic started by: 11august on October 19, 2019, 04:50:22 AM

Title: Alternative to Exiv2 for video metadata
Post by: 11august on October 19, 2019, 04:50:22 AM
Hello the EXIFTool team!

With my partner we would like to test another external lib than Exiv2* for reading video metadata in our photos/videos analysis software. We've been said that Mediainfo could be interesting. What do you think of it?

As a preliminary check of what kind of metadata are read by Mediainfo versus Exiftool, I've compared the two with a .mp4 video and noticed that some metadata doesn't appears in Exiftool, such as Chroma subsampling, Scan type...

*Do you know if Exiv2 still really provides reliable metadata for videos?

Title: Re: Alternative to Exiv2 for video metadata
Post by: StarGeek on October 19, 2019, 12:09:43 PM
Quote from: 11august on October 19, 2019, 04:50:22 AMWe've been said that Mediainfo could be interesting. What do you think of it?

While I can't offer any opinion on MediaInfo (I had never heard of it until about a month and a half ago), I can share Phil's response to your question about the differences.

QuoteAs a preliminary check of what kind of metadata are read by Mediainfo versus Exiftool, I've compared the two with a .mp4 video and noticed that some metadata doesn't appears in Exiftool, such as Chroma subsampling, Scan type...

Phil has said
Quote from: Phil Harvey on September 26, 2019, 11:19:04 AM
ExifTool only extracts metadata, it doesn't decode the video stream to get the actual parameters.

I also believe that Phil has said working to add stream decoding will open a whole bunch of new problems, so this ability is unlikely to be added in the foreseeable future.