Organizing our entire library of multimedia files is a more complex task than it may seem and it requires a good dose of patience and dedication. If we need to know all the metadata that our audio and video files contain, we can make use of a very useful tool designed for this purpose, such as MediaInfo , about which we are going to talk today.
All multimedia files, such as audios or videos, have a large amount of information stored inside them. In it we can find data about its content such as the title, the artist, the album, the duration, among others. In the same way we can also find more technical data that allow our player to recognize the type of file to be able to reproduce it, such as the codec, the sampling frequency, chapters or the FPS.
This information contained in the files is not always readily available, so in order to view them we need a program that has the necessary tools to be able to access and extract all this information they contain. This is where the tool that we are going to see next comes into play.
MediaInfo is a free program that allows us to access and view all the metadata that our audio and video files contain. This application will take care of displaying all this information in different ways, such as in a simple sheet, in plain text, tree structure, HTML format, etc. Also, it is possible to export the data in CVS, HTML or TXT format. Furthermore, it can be executed either through the graphical interface, command line or DLL.
Information to which we have access
- General: title, author, album, director, duration, track number, date …
- Audio: codec, sample rate, language, bitrate, channels …
- Video: codec, fps, aspect, bibrate …
- Chapters: list of chapters and number of chapters.
- Text: subtitle languages.
Supported formats
- Audio: MP3, OGG, WAV, AC3, RA, DTS, AAC, M4A, AIFF, AU …
- Video: AVI, MKV, OGM, WMV, DivX, QuickTime, Real, DVD (VOB), MPEG-1, MPEG-2, MPRG-4 …
- Subtitles: SRT, ASS, SSA, SAMI …
All the information of your multimedia files with MediaInfo
Once we run the program, a “Preferences” window will appear first, where we can configure and customize some features of the application, in case we want to make any changes, such as setting Spanish as the default language. Later we click on “OK” to access the main menu. If we want to modify any data that appears in the Preferences, we will be able to access them later.
Once in the main menu we discover its very attractive and intuitive interface . At the top we find the classic toolbar organized by tabs, with the options of “File”, “View”, “Options”, “Debug”, “Help” and “Language”.
Add as many files as you need to see
From the “File” section we can add a file or folder . If we add, for example, an audio folder, the information available to track 1 will appear first. In it we will find all its metadata such as the audio format, size, album, position, name of the track. track and performer. At the bottom we find the “Audio track” section where it informs us of the kb / s, kHz, channels and the audio format. In the upper part within the gray bar we find the file path, if we scroll it down, we can see the rest of the files that the folder is made of.
Different ways to view metadata
MediaInfo has a wide display range, as we are in “Basic”. To obtain more information about the file we have chosen, we can select a different view from the “View” section . Pressing on will display a large menu with different display options such as “Sheet”, “Tree”, “Text”, “HTML”, “XML”, etc. In this way we can see all the data in our files in the way that seems most comfortable to us.
Among all the options we have, the “Tree” may be the one that shows the most information on all the information in the file, showing the metadata in four categories (“General”, “Audio”, “Video” and “Other “). In it we can see how you can see a large amount of technical data about each selected file. The “Text” window shows us the same information as the Tree window, but this time formatted as text so that we can export it .
In most of the times, we will find all the information we need from the “Tree” window without having to export anything. On the other hand, if what we want is to send the information of the file specifications to another person, the export option is extremely useful.
Export to a custom format
In the left bar we will find the button “Export to a custom format”, with which to send the information of a file to anyone. When clicking, a new window will appear with different export modes CSV, Sheet, Text, HTML, XML, among others.
Download MediaInfo
MediaInfo is a free application that we can download from its website . It is multiplatform, so it can be used with Windows, macOS, Linux, Android, iOS operating systems … Its installation is quick and easy and does not include any type of spyware or malware. In addition, it is a very light software so it can be used on all types of computers, even if they are not very powerful.
Its version 20.08 is currently available for Windows, dated August 11, 2020, which speaks very well of the developer’s update policy.
Alternatives MediaInfo
If we are looking for a program with which to view the metadata of our multimedia files, we can choose one of these alternatives to MediaInfo:
MediaInfoXP
It is an open source application with which we can see the technical information of all our audio, image and video files, being compatible with a wide variety of formats, among which are the most popular. We can load the files individually or simultaneously showing all the properties of each file per line. We can download MediaInfoXP for free from its website.
Batch Media Info Supporter
It is an application for Windows, free and very easy to use, that allows us to immediately view and extract the metadata of our multimedia files. Once the data is extracted, we can export it by means of a text file or an image. We can download Batch Media Info Supporter from here .
