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I need to read metadata from one of my movies in mp4 format and to do that I need a very basic mp4 (for movies) metadata editor. Which programs can you recommend ? (Since I don't know any).

I don't need media organizers, nor anything fancy, just something that allows me to peek inside the file.

David Foerster
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Flame_Phoenix
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7 Answers7

21

You can use Wwidd for video file and

EasyTag (for mp4 + audio files). To install EasyTag type:

sudo apt-get install easytag
almaceleste
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g_p
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6

You can use VLC. Simply open the file and hit CTRL + L to show the playlist or from the View menu choose Playlist.

When you see the list right-click on the list item you need to edit and click on Information

Click the List item

userDepth
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3

None of the other solutions proposed here worked with my QuickTime MOV file (a movie recorded on an iPhone and edited with the iOS iMovie app). VLC almost worked but the 'Save metadata' button doesn't save anything. exiftool, however, did work!

apt install exiftool
exiftool -overwrite_original -year=2020 -comment="City trip to Paris" -title="Paris" '/tmp/paris.mov'

Tested in Ubuntu 20.04.

3

If you're just trying to see the metadata, exiftool gives pretty extensive metadata on most media files, including .mp4/.m4v files. Simply install using sudo apt install exiftool, then run exiftool '-g' <file> This will give the metadata in a -g "grouped" listing.

If you need to edit specifically .mp4/.m4v files, try atomicparsley (https://atomicparsley.sourceforge.net). It can look a bit daunting at first, but a few minutes with the help section, and you'll get the basics.

UPDATE: I would add that while it wasn't possible at the time of my original response, .mp4 editing has since been added to exiftool. @Occasional provides a nice example of the syntax in their response.

LOlliffe
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2

Here's an example using the command line ffmpeg tool. This reads the metadata, displays it and edits the title.

ffmpeg -i infile.mp4 -f ffmetadata infile.txt
cat infile.txt
ffmpeg -i infile.mp4 -metadata title="New Title" -codec copy outfile.mp4
Community
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nbauers
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1

I usually use ExFalso sister to Quod Libet music player ExFalso tag editor

slava
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Dan Smout
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AtomicParsley command line tool can set all the .mp4 metadata tags (supports 3 tag schemes: iTunes-style, 3GPP & ISO), including artwork and long description and even custom tags (I don't know what's this, never used it).
To install: 

sudo apt install atomicparsley

To use: 

AtomicParsley --help

gtkpod is a GUI application that uses an atomicparsley library to set some metadata tags. To work on the .mp4 files you need to turn on the MP4 Plugin in the Preferences.

EasyTag is another good GUI application that can set the .mp4 metadata tags. It's more easy to use than gtkpod, but latter can set more tags.

Kid3 is also a very good GUI application that, like EasyTag, can edit batch of files.

almaceleste
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