How to identify video formats from command line on Linux
Last updated on November 27, 2020 by Dan Nanni
If you want to know what video/audio codec are used for the video file you downloaded from somewhere, you can play the video itself. Most media player software such as VLC or MPlayer can display properties of a video file being played. However, there are command-line utilities that allow you to determine video properties quickly.
In this tutorial, I will describe how to check video formats from the command line on Linux.
Method One: exiftool
The first method to determine video properties is by using exiftool, which is a comprehensive media metadata viewer and editor. Using exiftool, you can look up the metadata of a given video file easily.
$ exiftool input.mp4
ExifTool Version Number : 8.60 File Name : input.mp4 Directory : . File Size : 168 MB File Modification Date/Time : 2012:05:15 11:19:04-04:00 File Permissions : rw-rw-r-- File Type : MP4 MIME Type : video/mp4 Major Brand : MP4 v2 [ISO 14496-14] Minor Version : 0.0.0 Compatible Brands : isom, mp42 Movie Header Version : 0 Create Date : 2012:05:14 15:18:50 Modify Date : 2012:05:14 15:18:50 Time Scale : 600 Duration : 0:56:32 Preferred Rate : 1 Preferred Volume : 100.00% Preview Time : 0 s Preview Duration : 0 s Poster Time : 0 s Selection Time : 0 s Selection Duration : 0 s Current Time : 0 s Next Track ID : 3 Track Header Version : 0 Track Create Date : 0000:00:00 00:00:00 Track Modify Date : 2012:05:14 15:18:51 Track ID : 1 Track Duration : 0:56:32 Track Layer : 0 Track Volume : 0.00% Image Width : 960 Image Height : 720 Graphics Mode : srcCopy Op Color : 0 0 0 Compressor ID : avc1 Source Image Width : 960 Source Image Height : 720 X Resolution : 72 Y Resolution : 72 Bit Depth : 24 Video Frame Rate : 6 Matrix Structure : 1 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 1 Media Header Version : 0 Media Create Date : 2012:05:14 15:18:51 Media Modify Date : 2012:05:14 15:18:51 Media Time Scale : 44100 Media Duration : 0:56:32 Media Language Code : und Handler Description : IsoMedia File Produced by Google, 5-11-2011 Balance : 0 Audio Format : mp4a Audio Channels : 2 Audio Bits Per Sample : 16 Audio Sample Rate : 44100 Handler Type : Metadata Handler Vendor ID : Apple Movie Data Size : 175021210 Avg Bitrate : 413 kbps Image Size : 960x720 Rotation : 0
Method Two: tovid
Another way to identify video formats is to use tovid command-line tool, which is a command-line tool for creating DVDs. This tool can also identify video formats as well.
One problem of previously mentioned ExifTool is that the metadata accessed by the tool may be inaccurate or sometimes misleading. Unlike ExifTool, tovid actually probes an input video file (by using MPlayer) to obtain accurate frame rate and video rate.
To install tovid on Ubuntu or Linux Mint:
$ sudo apt-get install tovid
To install tovid on other Linux distros, you can install it from source.
To find out video attributes with tovid, run it as follows.
$ tovid id input.mp4
Read options from /home/dev/.tovid/tovid.ini:
--------------------------------
tovid id
Identify video files
Version 0.33
http://tovid.wikia.com
--------------------------------
Analyzing file: 'input.mp4'...
=========================================================
File: input.mp4
Width: 960 pixels
Height: 720 pixels
Aspect ratio: 1.33:1
Frames: 20357
Duration: 00:56:32 hours/mins/secs
Framerate: 6.000 frames per second
Video format: H264
Video bitrate: 288536 bits per second
---------------------------
Audio track 1 (Stream 0.1, AID 0):
---------------------------
Codec: aac
Bitrate: 124000 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.
=========================================================
Method Three: mplayer
You can also directly use mplayer from the command line to get information about a video.
$ mplayer -vo null -ao null -identify -frames 0 input.mp4
MPlayer svn r34540 (Ubuntu), built with gcc-4.7 (C) 2000-2012 MPlayer Team Playing input.mp4. libavformat version 53.21.0 (external) Mismatching header version 53.19.0 libavformat file format detected. ID_VIDEO_ID=0 [lavf] stream 0: video (h264), -vid 0 ID_AUDIO_ID=0 [lavf] stream 1: audio (aac), -aid 0, -alang und VIDEO: [H264] 960x720 24bpp 6.000 fps 288.5 kbps (35.2 kbyte/s) Clip info: major_brand: mp42 ID_CLIP_INFO_NAME0=major_brand ID_CLIP_INFO_VALUE0=mp42 minor_version: 0 ID_CLIP_INFO_NAME1=minor_version ID_CLIP_INFO_VALUE1=0 compatible_brands: isommp42 ID_CLIP_INFO_NAME2=compatible_brands ID_CLIP_INFO_VALUE2=isommp42 creation_time: 2012-05-14 15:18:50 ID_CLIP_INFO_NAME3=creation_time ID_CLIP_INFO_VALUE3=2012-05-14 15:18:50 ID_CLIP_INFO_N=4 Load subtitles in ./ ID_FILENAME=input.mp4 ID_DEMUXER=lavfpref ID_VIDEO_FORMAT=H264 ID_VIDEO_BITRATE=288536 ID_VIDEO_WIDTH=960 ID_VIDEO_HEIGHT=720 ID_VIDEO_FPS=6.000 ID_VIDEO_ASPECT=0.0000 ID_AUDIO_FORMAT=MP4A ID_AUDIO_BITRATE=124144 ID_AUDIO_RATE=44100 ID_AUDIO_NCH=2 ID_START_TIME=0.00 ID_LENGTH=3392.85 ID_SEEKABLE=1 ID_CHAPTERS=0 ========================================================================== Opening video decoder: [ffmpeg] FFmpeg's libavcodec codec family libavcodec version 53.35.0 (external) Mismatching header version 53.32.2 Selected video codec: [ffh264] vfm: ffmpeg (FFmpeg H.264) ========================================================================== ID_VIDEO_CODEC=ffh264 ========================================================================== Opening audio decoder: [ffmpeg] FFmpeg/libavcodec audio decoders AUDIO: 44100 Hz, 2 ch, s16le, 124.1 kbit/8.80% (ratio: 15518->176400) ID_AUDIO_BITRATE=124144 ID_AUDIO_RATE=44100 ID_AUDIO_NCH=2 Selected audio codec: [ffaac] afm: ffmpeg (FFmpeg AAC (MPEG-2/MPEG-4 Audio)) ========================================================================== AO: [null] 44100Hz 2ch s16le (2 bytes per sample) ID_AUDIO_CODEC=ffaac
Method Four: ffmpeg
If you have installed FFmpeg on your system, you can check video codec information from the command line with FFmpeg as follows.
$ ffmpeg -i input.mp4
ffmpeg -i storm.mp4
ffmpeg version 0.8.6-6:0.8.6-0ubuntu0.12.10.1, Copyright (c) 2000-2013 the Libav developers
built on Apr 2 2013 17:02:16 with gcc 4.7.2
Input #0, mov,mp4,m4a,3gp,3g2,mj2, from 'storm.mp4':
Metadata:
major_brand : mp42
minor_version : 0
compatible_brands: isommp42
creation_time : 2012-05-14 15:18:50
Duration: 00:56:32.85, start: 0.000000, bitrate: 414 kb/s
Stream #0.0(und): Video: h264 (High), yuv420p, 960x720, 288 kb/s, 6 fps, 6 tbr, 12 tbn, 12 tbc
Metadata:
creation_time : 1970-01-01 00:00:00
Stream #0.1(und): Audio: aac, 44100 Hz, stereo, s16, 124 kb/s
Metadata:
creation_time : 2012-05-14 15:18:51
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