VID · Video tools

Video Metadata Inspector

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Settings are written to the URL as you change them. Nothing differs from the defaults yet.

Find out what a video file is before you convert, trim, or upload it. The report reads the container and every track without decoding a frame, so a multi-gigabyte file is read in seconds.

Container

The format and its MIME type, the duration computed from the streams, and, when it disagrees, the duration the header claims. Overall bitrate is the file’s size over its duration, which is the honest figure for variable-bitrate files. The track list says what the file holds: usually one video and one audio track, sometimes several audio languages, sometimes subtitles.

Tracks

Each track reports its codec by name and as the exact parameter string a player is asked about. avc1.640028 is H.264 High at level 4.0; hvc1.1.6.L120.90 is HEVC Main; vp09.00.31.08 is VP9 profile 0; mp4a.40.2 is AAC-LC; opus is Opus. The string decides whether a browser, a phone, or an editor opens the file.

A video track adds its display size and, when different, the coded size the decoder works in, the rotation stored as metadata (phone footage is often coded landscape and flagged 90°), the frame rate measured from packets, the key frame pattern, and the color space: primaries, transfer function, matrix, and range.

An audio track adds its sample rate and channel layout. A start before zero is the encoder’s priming, declared through an edit list; see the FAQ.

Decodable here says whether this browser can decode the track, which is what every other video tool on this site needs. H.264 and VP9 decode everywhere; HEVC and AV1 depend on the browser and the hardware.

Key frames

Compressed video stores a full picture only at key frames and the frames between them as differences. The report scans the first 3000 packets and gives the average and the longest gap between key frames. That gap is how far a lossless trim or split can land from where you set it, how far a seek has to decode before it can show a frame, and how long a viewer waits when a stream starts mid-file.

Tags

Title, artist, album, date, genre, comment, description, and the number of attached images, with the names of any other fields the container carries. Phones write a creation date and a location, editors write their own name, and screen recorders write nothing. Strip metadata copies both streams into a new container without any of it. Rotation stays, because it is part of the video track and not a tag.

Report

Copy JSON puts the whole report on the clipboard, and Download JSON saves it next to the file, for a bug report, a support ticket, or a note on what an encoder produced.

Frequently Asked Questions

The container format and MIME type, the real duration and the header's, overall bitrate, and for every track: codec, codec parameter string, bitrate, start time, language, name, and whether this browser can decode it. Video tracks add display and coded size, rotation, frame rate, key frame spacing, and color space; audio tracks add sample rate and channels. Tags such as title, artist, date, and cover art follow.

The exact parameter string a player uses to decide whether it can play the track, such as avc1.64001f for H.264 High profile level 3.1 or vp09.00.31.08 for VP9. It is what a browser's canPlayType or WebCodecs is asked, and the first thing to check when a file plays in one place and not another.

How precisely the file can be cut or seeked without re-encoding, and how it will stream. A key frame every two seconds is typical of phones and editors; one every ten seconds is common from screen recorders and means a lossless trim can land up to ten seconds off. The first 3000 packets are scanned, about 100 seconds at 30 fps.

Fragmented MP4 files, as written by screen recorders, OBS, and many phone apps, declare only their first fragment in the header, often a fraction of a second. The duration shown is computed from the streams; the header's figure is shown beside it when they disagree, because players that trust the header stop early.

An AAC encoder adds priming samples at the start of a track, and the container's edit list tells players to skip them so sound and picture line up. The report shows that lead-in. A file that starts before zero and plays late in some player is one whose edit list that player ignores.

The container's tags: title, artist, date, comment, cover art, and the other fields listed under Tags. The video and audio streams are copied without re-encoding into a fresh container, and rotation is kept. Information inside the streams themselves, such as an encoder's name written into the H.264 stream, stays.

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