Quickly Identify Video File Attributes

In 2009 the answer was mplayer -identify and the idvid script from the tovid suite. tovid is gone, mplayer is a niche install, and the tool that ships on every box with ffmpeg does the job better: ffprobe reads the actual streams, is fast, and prints in whatever shape a script needs. MediaInfo is the one to reach for when a human has to read the result.

ffprobe: the one-liner

ffprobe -hide_banner video.mp4

That prints the container, duration, overall bitrate and one line per stream, the way mplayer used to. For a fixed set of fields, ask for exactly those:

ffprobe -v error -show_entries format=duration,size,bit_rate:stream=index,codec_type,codec_name,width,height,r_frame_rate,sample_rate,channels -of default=noprint_wrappers=1 video.mp4

index=0
codec_name=h264
codec_type=video
width=320
height=240
r_frame_rate=25/1
index=1
codec_name=aac
codec_type=audio
sample_rate=44100
channels=1
duration=20.000000
size=494783
bit_rate=197913

-v error silences the banner and warnings, -show_entries picks the fields (format-level before the colon, stream-level after), -of default=noprint_wrappers=1 drops the [STREAM] brackets.

ffprobe in scripts

One line of CSV with the video stream only (-select_streams v:0):

ffprobe -v error -select_streams v:0 -show_entries stream=codec_name,width,height,r_frame_rate -of csv=p=0 video.mp4

h264,320,240,25/1

Everything as JSON, for jq or anything else:

ffprobe -v error -show_format -show_streams -of json video.mp4

Frame rates come as fractions (r_frame_rate=25/1, or 30000/1001 for 29.97 fps), and r_frame_rate is the stream’s nominal rate; avg_frame_rate is the measured average, which matters for variable-frame-rate screen captures.

MediaInfo: the readable version

sudo apt install mediainfo
mediainfo video.mp4

That prints General, Video and Audio sections with human units. --Inform templates give you one line per file, handy for a whole directory:

mediainfo --Inform="Video;%Format% %Width%x%Height% %FrameRate%fps %BitRate/String%" video.mp4
mediainfo --Inform="General;%Duration/String% %FileSize/String%" video.mp4

AVC 320x240 25.000fps 123 kb/s
20 s 0 ms 483 KiB

Matroska files

For .mkv, mkvmerge -i from mkvtoolnix lists tracks, chapters and attachments by track ID, which is also what you need for mkvextract and mkvpropedit:

mkvmerge -i video.mkv

File 'video.mkv': container: Matroska
Track ID 0: video (AVC/H.264/MPEG-4p10)
Track ID 1: audio (AAC)
Chapters: 3 entries

exiftool: metadata only

exiftool video.mp4

exiftool (package libimage-exiftool-perl) still works on video and is the fastest of the lot, but it reads the container’s metadata rather than probing the streams, so a mislabelled file will mislead it. Use it when you want creation dates, camera model or GPS from a phone recording; use ffprobe when you want the truth about the codec.

If you want to gain quick insight into the basic properties of a video file from the Linux command line, there’s a few really easy methods. The information you might be interested in are audio and video codecs, resolution, frame rates, bitrates, etc.

Using *mplayer*, you can see some basic information about a video file. For example, the following video is using the WMV3 video codec at the resolution of 1280×720 (720p), the bitrate of 3000 kbps, etc.

mplayer video.wmv -vo null -ao null -frames 0 2>&1 /dev/null | egrep "(VIDEO|AUDIO)"

VIDEO: [WMV3] 1280x720 24bpp 1000.000 fps 3000.0 kbps (366.2 kbyte/s)

AUDIO: 44100 Hz, 2 ch, s16le, 96.0 kbit/6.80% (ratio: 12003->176400)

The audio rate is shown to be 44100 Hz using 2-Channel stereo, but the codec is not listed. You can get additional information with the -identify option.

mplayer video.wmv -identify -vo null -ao null -frames 0 2>&1 /dev/null | egrep "(^ID|VIDEO|AUDIO)"

ID_AUDIO_ID=1

ID_VIDEO_ID=2

VIDEO: [WMV3] 1280x720 24bpp 1000.000 fps 3000.0 kbps (366.2 kbyte/s)

ID_CLIP_INFO_NAME0=name

ID_CLIP_INFO_VALUE0=

ID_CLIP_INFO_NAME1=author

ID_CLIP_INFO_VALUE1=

ID_CLIP_INFO_NAME2=copyright

ID_CLIP_INFO_VALUE2=

ID_CLIP_INFO_NAME3=comments

ID_CLIP_INFO_VALUE3=

ID_CLIP_INFO_N=4

ID_FILENAME=video.wmv

ID_DEMUXER=asf

ID_VIDEO_FORMAT=WMV3

ID_VIDEO_BITRATE=3000000

ID_VIDEO_WIDTH=1280

ID_VIDEO_HEIGHT=720

ID_VIDEO_FPS=1000.000

ID_VIDEO_ASPECT=1.7778

ID_AUDIO_FORMAT=353

ID_AUDIO_BITRATE=0

ID_AUDIO_RATE=0

ID_AUDIO_NCH=0

ID_LENGTH=2116.00

ID_VIDEO_ASPECT=1.7778

ID_VIDEO_CODEC=wmv9dmo

AUDIO: 44100 Hz, 2 ch, s16le, 96.0 kbit/6.80% (ratio: 12003->176400)

ID_AUDIO_BITRATE=96024

ID_AUDIO_RATE=44100

ID_AUDIO_NCH=2

ID_AUDIO_CODEC=ffwmav2

Another great tool for identifying video attributes is *idvid*. *idvid* comes with the *tovid* package, so be sure to install it from your repository. It is a bit slow, but the output is very clean and easy to interpret.

idvid video.wmv

--------------------------------

idvid

Video identification script

Part of the tovid suite, version 0.31

http://www.tovid.org

--------------------------------

Analyzing file: 'video.wmv'. This may take several minutes...

=========================================================

File: video.wmv

Width: 1280 pixels

Height: 720 pixels

Aspect ratio: 1.77:1

Frames: 63352

Duration: 00:35:13 hours/mins/secs

Framerate: 1000.000 frames per second

Video format: WMV3

Video bitrate: 3000000 bits per second

---------------------------

Audio track 1 (Stream 0.0, AID 0):

---------------------------

Codec: wmav2

Bitrate: 0000 bits per second

Sampling rate: 44100 Hz

=========================================================

Audio is compliant with the following formats:

Not compliant with (S)VCD or DVD

Video is compliant with the following formats:

Not compliant with (S)VCD or DVD

This video does not seem to be compliant with (S)VCD or DVD

standards. If you burn it to a video disc, it may not work.

=========================================================

Finally, another tool that works very well is *exiftool*. It’s available in the *libimage-exiftool-perl* package. The output is also very straight forward, and easy to interpret. It’s also a lot faster than *idvid* because the tool only displays metadata, which in some cases can be misleading.*Mplayer* and *tovid* actually probe the video, providing very accurate information at the cost of speed.

exiftool video.wmv

ExifTool Version Number : 7.30

File Name : video.wmv

Directory : .

File Modification Date/Time : 2009:04:20 09:21:58

File Type : WMV

MIME Type : video/x-ms-wmv

File ID : 12341234-1234-1234-1234-123412341234

File Size : 823200182

Creation Date : 2009:03:31 02:52:55Z

Data Packets : 102833

Play Duration : 35:16

Send Duration : 35:13

Preroll : 3000

Flags : 2

Min Packet Size : 8000

Max Packet Size : 8000

Max Bitrate : 3122812

Is VBR : False

Audio Codec Name : Windows Media Audio 9.2

Audio Codec Description : 96 kbps, 44 kHz, stereo 1-pass CBR

Video Codec Name : Windows Media Video 9

Video Codec Description : Professional

Audio Codec ID : Windows Media Audio V2 V7 V8 V9 / DivX audio (WMA) / Alex AC3 Audio

Audio Channels : 2

Audio Sample Rate : 44100

Stream Type : Video

Error Correction Type : No Error Correction

Time Offset : 0 s

Stream Number : 2

Image Width : 1280

Image Height : 720

Title :

Author :

Copyright :

Description :

Rating :

Image Size : 1280x720

As always, comments and additional tips are welcome!