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[Hendrik]

Coming in 30.0.60, Media Center will import additional metadata from video files for improved filtering and future use in Tooltips and Theater View.

Preview:


Details of all fields:
Video

• Video Codec - Detailed information about the video codec used to compress this video
• Video Bitrate - The bitrate of the video stream (if the value is available)
• Video Crop - Crop of the active image area, without black bars
• Video Scan - Scan type of the video, eg. Interlaced or Progressive
• Color Depth -  Bitdepth of the video (Bits per Component, eg. 8-bit, 10-bit)
• Color Space - The color primaries used for this video
• HDR Format - Format of the HDR information used for this video, if any.
• HDR Average Luminance - The average HDR brightness of this video
• HDR Peak Luminance - The peak HDR brightness of this video
• HDR Mastering Luminance - The brightness of the mastering monitor used for the video
• HDR Mastering Color Space - The color space used for mastering the video

Audio
- For audio, all fields (except Audio Streams) are list fields with one value per stream. These lists may contain empty values, if a stream does not convey this information.

• Audio Streams - Number of audio streams in the video
• Audio Codec - Audio codec used to compress the audio
• Audio Channels - Number of audio channels
• Audio Sample Rate - Sample rate of the audio
• Audio Bitrate - Bitrate of the audio
• Audio Language - Language of the audio
• Audio Title - Title of the audio stream

Subtitles
- Similar to audio, these fields are list fields with one entry for each subtitle stream

• Subtitle Streams - Number of subtitle streams
• Subtitle Codec - The codec used to compress/encode the subtitles
• Subtitle Language - Language of the subtitles
• Subtitle Title - Title of the subtitle stream

How do I use this?

The new information is automatically gathered when a video file is imported. Additionally, running the "Update Library (from tags)" tool will also populate these fields.
Additionally, there is a "Analyze Video" button under Library Tools to gather this information quickly on existing files.

This data can be imported from all local video files. Functionality with internet streams or other streaming sources will be very limited.
DVD folder structures (IFO) are not currently supported, but will be added in a future update.

Future changes

We will be expanding these features in the near future. Coming up next:

- DVD folder structures (IFO)
- Bitrate values are only populated when the file has built-in metadata to provide this data, we plan to look into measuring the values in absence of metadata

[mwillems]

I'm really excited to have subtitle data available in the metadata.  I often watch video in environments where subtitles are necessary, but not all of my videos have subtitles and I never figured out a good way to create a view to show which files have subs and which don't.  That also complicated the process of finding 3rd party subtitles (as I couldn't readily make a list of videos that needed them, so I'd just handle it when I encountered it).  Now both those tasks should be easy to do.  Thanks so much!

[zybex]

Awesome, thank you Hendrik

The new fields did not show up by default in my Tag Editor - I didn't have the "All Fields" section enabled (not sure if I removed that some time ago or if it's the default). So I had to customize the editor to add the section, as I don't see an easy way to add a "Video" section like you have on your screenshot. They also don't show up on the "Fields with values" section, which may be a bug?

Would it be possible to add "Video Info" and "Audio Info" sections to the Tag panel with the relevant fields already added? It would be nice that we could add/remove those sections just by selecting them. The "Add" button could have "Add section -> Video/Audio/Subs/File/etc", each with a predefined list of fields.

[eve]

Subtitle metadata is a *really* nice touch.

I've had to resort to reading mediainfo for items separately to establish what the 'index' is for audio and subs to use with my own control interface 
This simplifies things a little since I guess I can just read the list from JRiver itself and figure out the index that way.

[amandalishus]

Y'know, I've been using MC for well over a decade now... One might think that eventually you'll run out of ways to wow me with a new feature, and yet you keep doing it regularly and reliably, year after year. In fact, I've learned that if I haven't been blown away by a new feature in the last couple of releases, I need to go back to the changelog for each build and see what I missed.

This time it's the audio streams... I'm a sucker for the commentary track on movies I like, and I've invested quite a bit of time and money adding audio streams to movies for which I've purchased RiffTrax as well. I've added custom database fields to help me keep track, but that only works when I remember to populate them. I've had much the same problem with subtitles, since I started trying to collect them when I recently became friends with someone who is losing their hearing. He's already quite impressed with the scope of options MC offers for displaying subtitles, but I'm sure it will make him even happier once I don't need to start the movie to determine whether I have them or not.

Anyway, thanks again for your ceaseless work improving what was already the best media library and player around  I may have to apply for the beta channel if Build 60 isn't out by Valentine's Day 

[eve]

Y'know, I've been using MC for well over a decade now... One might think that eventually you'll run out of ways to wow me with a new feature, and yet you keep doing it regularly and reliably, year after year. In fact, I've learned that if I haven't been blown away by a new feature in the last couple of releases, I need to go back to the changelog for each build and see what I missed.

This time it's the audio streams... I'm a sucker for the commentary track on movies I like, and I've invested quite a bit of time and money adding audio streams to movies for which I've purchased RiffTrax as well. I've added custom database fields to help me keep track, but that only works when I remember to populate them. I've had much the same problem with subtitles, since I started trying to collect them when I recently became friends with someone who is losing their hearing. He's already quite impressed with the scope of options MC offers for displaying subtitles, but I'm sure it will make him even happier once I don't need to start the movie to determine whether I have them or not.

Anyway, thanks again for your ceaseless work improving what was already the best media library and player around  I may have to apply for the beta channel if Build 60 isn't out by Valentine's Day 

I'm really glad it happened! It does seem like users of JRiver are more likely to place a value on, and actually have, audio commentaries due to the fact that JRiver incorporates robust BDMV ripping and playback.
Considering that there's a pretty strong set of remote control options for JRiver, it was always a weird deficit that I couldn't 'read' what tracks were available for a currently playing item.

Thanks again Hendrik!

[eve]

For clarity I have a question.

I use MakeMKV for ingest (well sort of) and I try to tag most relevant audio / sub tracks with meaningful info. This I find is very helpful, especially once I start muxing in other audio mixes.
A release may have the best video, but it's audio may be lacking or I may prefer say, a theatrical audio mix, not to mention licensing issues for various commentary tracks recorded over the years which prevent their inclusion in releases. I also tend to run OCR on image based subs since rendering text based subs leads to much nicer, more consistent results.

I assume that the new "Title" field for audio and sub tracks will match what I've labelled a track in MakeMKV?

[jmone]

Looking good!  While most of my HDR content is UHD BD rips that I'll check with later when supported, I've run it over my HDR Home Videos and compared it to what I've been pulling with SOT (Media Info).  Couple of things:
- HDR Mastering Color Space:  Seems to be blank (was Expecting "Display P3")
- A new field for "Scan Type"?: eg Interlaced vs Progressive

[jmone]

...and it is quick!

[lepa]

I assume that the new "Title" field for audio and sub tracks will match what I've labelled a track in MakeMKV?

That is correct

[eve]

That is correct

Okay this kicks butt.

Thanks!!!

I can probably rip out this terribly inefficient code that I use for sub and audio selection from a tablet.

[Hendrik]

The next build has a new entry in Library Tools to only run the new analysis on existing files, without messing with existing tag data etc.

Further changes with more data will be coming shortly as we update some external libraries with added features.

[comox]

Please consider adding to future changes the ability to update tags from library for a few key fields like [Name], [Date], and [Genre].

This would improve the viewing and organizing experience of videos exported to devices like phones.

It also would make MC unique since no apps that I'm aware of do a nice job of writing video tags.

I sometimes wonder if this omission was an quietly agreed convention between app developers since making it easy to write video tags would break video torrents.

[Hendrik]

We do not currently plan to write tags to video files, sorry. Software support for writing video tags is very limited, especially without re-writing the entire file, which would take quite some time for video files.

This is also rather off-topic for this thread, please open a new one or use an existing one that is more appropriate.

[zybex]

Thanks Hendrik!

(nonsense, skip to next post)
Looks like this EAC3+Atmos variant is not yet identified, MC tags it with [Audio Codec] = "E-AC3", but empty [Audio Title]. Atmos is not mentioned anywhere:

Audio #1
ID                          : 2
Format                      : E-AC-3 JOC
Format/Info                 : Enhanced AC-3 with Joint Object Coding
Commercial name             : Dolby Digital Plus with Dolby Atmos
Codec ID                    : A_EAC3
Title                       : (empty)

On a few files the [Audio Title] gets populated with a mix of tech info and track comentary - perhaps this should be 2 different fields, [Audio Title] and [Audio Commentary] ?

[Audio Codec] : DTS-HD MA;AC-3
[Audio Title] : DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1;Commentary from 2003 by Director Ridley Scott, Writer Dan O'Bannon, Executive Producer Ronald Shusett, Editor Terry Rawlings and Actors Sigourney Weaver, Tom Skeritt, Veronica Cartwright, Harry Dean Stanton and John Hurt

On some other files the [Audio Title] is completely empty, perhaps because MC is reading an empty commentary string into the field.


@Comox: you can add a button to the MC toolbar to run something like this on the selected file:
mkvpropedit "[filename]" --set "title=[Name]"

(sorry for another off-topic Hendrik)

[zybex]

Sorry, I think I misunderstood - the "DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1" and "English TrueHD Atmos 7.1" also comes from the file metadata right? I thought it was generated by the video analyzer.
In that case, is it possible to write the "Atmos" info to some other field as many files won't have that in the Title metadata? Perhaps the [Audio Codec] should include it.

[lepa]

Title is parsed AFAIK as it is from the name field just like IMO it should be done. Some people have been inserting also technical attributes of stream to the name field and that's what MC is then getting as title.

I think that object audio support in this context is not yet implemented. My assumption has been that there will either be own field for object audio or it will be part of the audio codec but that is what Hendrik can confirm or deny

By default MakeMKV for example uses channel count for audio names/titles like: "Surround 7.1", "Surround 5.1", "Mono", "Stereo". I tend to remove these and add info about what is the purpose of track instead like "English Dub", "Cantonese Mix", "Audio commentary with...", "Original Stereo Mix" etc because those channel counts, bitrates, codecs and stuff can be read from the file data

[Hendrik]

Sorry, I think I misunderstood - the "DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1" and "English TrueHD Atmos 7.1" also comes from the file metadata right? I thought it was generated by the video analyzer.
In that case, is it possible to write the "Atmos" info to some other field as many files won't have that in the Title metadata? Perhaps the [Audio Codec] should include it.

Future changes

We will be expanding these features in the near future. Coming up next:

- Detection of object-based "immersive" audio codecs like Atmos and DTS:X

 

Detection of these needs an update of an external library, which is always a lengthy process for all platforms etc, so I wanted to roll some more updates into one, so it'll be coming soon.
Right now I'm thinking it'll just get added to the Audio Codec field, eg. "TrueHD Atmos", "DTS-HD MA DTS:X" (or just DTS:X? It can't really come without being DTS-HD MA), "E-AC3 Atmos" .. something like that. I'll take formatting suggestions.

The title is indeed just a plain copy from the file, and not generated, or even looked at.

[zybex]

Reading comprehension issues, clearly 
TrueHD Atmos / E-AC3 Atmos / DTS:X sounds good (pun intended).

[lepa]

Naming sounds good to me

[rec head]

Thanks, this will make zone switching for Atmos even easier.

[Hendrik]

The next build will add Atmos/DTS:X detection, as well as implementing Crop/Black Bar detection. The values are not used by the renderer yet, that'll come later, but if any of you want to analyze some files and see if any produce odd/unexpected crop values, that would be useful!

[zybex]

The new features are working, but the Analyzer is now taking 5-10 seconds per file, where before it was doing 2 or 3 files per second. This is likely due to the Video Crop detection; if so, is there a way to disable just that feature?

Also, please add an "Analyze Video" option to the Auto-import settings.

[lepa]

Shutter Island UHD DV
my ffmpeg crop: 3840;1632;0;264
MC video crop: 0x264x3840x1896

[zybex]

Same info, different format. MC has start and end point, you have the movie area and the start point.
I like the list format though.

[lepa]

Cropping is wrong in MC in that case or is the format different besides in different order. I though there should be removal from y (1896) also

[zybex]

1632 + 264 = 1896

You: Width, Height, StartX, StartY
MC: StartX , StartY, EndX, EndY

StartY + Height = EndY

[jmone]

Nice  It's looking pretty good (only tested on "Files" so far but most of my library are BD rips):
- Mastering Display Color Primaries:  Now being populated correctly
- Atmos / DTS-X etc: working!
- Video Crop: working well enough for me..... but I'm not personally that worried about this feature yet as I only have 16:9 displays.  There are some differences but these are on files with very dark backgrounds (eg a video of a Luna Eclipse etc).  The rest are either the same or very close to what I was getting with SOT.  Zybex came up with a calculated "Aspect Ratio (Crop)" for SOT and I'd guess that a reworked version of this would pave over any difference between the two methods.
- Speed:  I find it perfectly acceptable.  Sure it will take a bit to rescan the entire video library but once that is done, it will not be an issue for normal importation and tagging of items

Updated list of what I still see that would be good to have (of which I know are probably on your list)
- BD rip support
- Update the Bitstreaming Option to now also include Atmos/DTS-X etc
- Updating the "Compression" to use the new info (eg show Atmos/DTS-X extensions)
- Scan Type to show Interlaced vs Progressive etc

[Hendrik]

Cropping is wrong in MC in that case or is the format different besides in different order. I though there should be removal from y (1896) also

zybex is right, our format is a typical video rectangle, which is "left x top x right x bottom", the same format you will see in the JRVR OSD for example. Other tools might provide left/top and width/height, but the result is the same, just a different convention.

1896 is of course already a adjusted number, since the original is 2160.

[Manfred]

Will the old fields disappear in the future, e.g. Sample Rate vs. Audio Sample Rate?

[Hendrik]

No, those are still used for audio files and will also continue to reflect the primary audio stream.

[Manfred]

It would be nice to have the same unit for both: Sample Rate is in khz Audio Sample Rate in Hz.

[Hendrik]

Both store the same number, its just a visual difference, which is not currently possible to re-create in a list field like Audio Sample Rate.

[lello]

Shutter Island UHD DV
my ffmpeg crop: 3840;1632;0;264
MC video crop: 0x264x3840x1896

Same info for me too.

So, if I understand correctly, at the moment the presence of the black bands is detected (excluding BDs) but no cropping is done, right?

Will it be implemented in future builds?

[lepa]

Numbers are right. Currently AFAIK they are not utilized yet

[rec head]

I'm sure there is something simple I am missing but where do I view this information? I have run Analyze Video on an MKV but there is no Video in my Tag Pane when I view it.

[Hendrik]

Right now you would have to add the fields yourself. I have also updated the default tag window template for the next build, so you could just reset it to defaults to get it. Unfortunately there is no sensible way for us to "upgrade" existing tag windows transparently - the ever looming bane of having everything customizable by the user.

[zybex]

Perhaps you could add a new tag Group containing all relevant tags so that current users can easily add it?

[mattkhan]

Giving the user an easy life is probably

1) Compare the tag window layout to the previous default, if same then upgrade it without asking
2) provide a mechanism for merging such updates

The former seems reasonable path for the user who doesn't tweak stuff, no clue what %age that is (I would guess it is "most people"?)

[rec head]

I usually do a little poking around before asking a question. I hit Alt+Enter to open the Tag Pane on the file I analyzed. None of the new info was there so I tried the box in the upper left and selected Customize. I was surprised/confused that there was no Video Field for the Movies Template.

[zybex]

If you click "Add..." on the tag panel customization, all fields shown in Hendrik's screenshot (first post) are there.

[jmone]

I'd like a Tag Window Template that shows all fields with data and hides all empty fields.  I presume it could be done with a custom template?

[Matt]

I'd like a Tag Window Template that shows all fields with data and hides all empty fields.  I presume it could be done with a custom template?

Look at Add > All Fields With Values in the customization dialog.

[rec head]

All Fields with Values did not add everything with values. Such as the new HDR info.

[rec head]

If you click "Add..." on the tag panel customization, all fields shown in Hendrik's screenshot (first post) are there.

I'm using MC 30.0.65 and I can't find Audio Codec.

[HTPC Videophile]

Updated list of what I still see that would be good to have (of which I know are probably on your list)
- BD rip support
- Update the Bitstreaming Option to now also include Atmos/DTS-X etc
- Updating the "Compression" to use the new info (eg show Atmos/DTS-X extensions)
- Scan Type to show Interlaced vs Progressive etc

++1 to all above with highest and immediate priority to - Updating the "Compression" to use the new info (eg show Atmos/DTS-X extensions) and include SDR/HDR info(Dolby Vision/HDR10/HDR10+ etc). And as an additional request : In the compression field , we use tags h264 and hevc for the appropriate encoding. Shoudn't we stick to one nomenclature  ?Either use h264 and h265 or use avc and hevc for the respective encodings instead of using a mixture of both for the sake of nomenclature consistency ? H.264 MPEG-4/AVC and H.265 HEVC instead of just  h264 would be better as it would be in line with rest of the vc1, mpeg2 tags. If h264 is an ffprobe output  limitation MC code can easily replace it with H264 MPEG-4/AVC  for uniformity while filling the compression field.

[Hendrik]

Shoudn't we stick to one nomenclature  ?Either use h264 and h265 or use avc and hevc for the respective encodings instead of using a mixture of both for the sake of nomenclature consistency

We will stick with whats more common in the industry, and thats the terms used already. The h26x names are relatively uncommon, with the exception of h264, which is far more popular then using AVC. There is no sense in using something for conformity if that's not what people know and use.

[HTPC Videophile]

We will stick with whats more common in the industry, and thats the terms used already. The h26x names are relatively uncommon, with the exception for h264 which is far more popular then using AVC. There is no sense in using something for its conformity if thats not what people know and use.

I won't further argue or press for it but FYI KODI uses H.264  and H.265 

[Matt]

All Fields with Values did not add everything with values. Such as the new HDR info.

That's because the fields are read-only.  I'll add a way to show read-only fields as well to a coming build.

[jmone]

Thanks - It good to be able to see all the tags on an item.