Android: Read and Write .mp4 metadata -Tag

Question

I want to read and edit(Write) the mp4 metadata. Particularly I want to read/write Tag metadata in android as shown in below picture.

I searched for this on internet and found mp4Parser, but I think mp4Parser don't write Title Keyword.

For .jpg file we use XPKeyword metadata which represents title. So same way how to do same for .mp4 file.

Leibniz

Answer 1

The Android SDK contains the class MediaMetadataRetriever to retrieve all the metadata values inside your file, you can read more about MetaData values here.

public void readMetaData() {
    File sdcard = Environment.getExternalStorageDirectory();
    File  file = new File(sdcard,"/Android/data/myfile.mp4");

    if (file.exists()) {
        Log.i(TAG, ".mp4 file Exist");

        //Added in API level 10
        MediaMetadataRetriever retriever = new MediaMetadataRetriever();
        try {
            retriever.setDataSource(file.getAbsolutePath());
            for (int i = 0; i < 1000; i++){
                //only Metadata != null is printed!
                if(retriever.extractMetadata(i)!=null) {
                    Log.i(TAG, "Metadata :: " + retriever.extractMetadata(i));
                }
            }
        } catch (Exception e) {
            Log.e(TAG, "Exception : " + e.getMessage());
        }
    } else {
        Log.e(TAG, ".mp4 file doesn´t exist.");
    }
}

To edit/write metadata, Android SDK doesn´t have any method, probably by copyright issues, but you can use options like:

https://github.com/sannies/mp4parser

http://multimedia.cx/eggs/supplying-ffmpeg-with-metadata/

https://github.com/bytedeco/javacv/blob/master/src/main/java/org/bytedeco/javacv/FFmpegFrameRecorder.java

Newsman

I am getting IllegalArgumentException using your MediaMetadataRetriever code posted above. – Leibniz

In this line :- retriever.setDataSource(file.getAbsolutePath()); – Leibniz

Getting this absolutePath:- /storage/emulated/0/myvideo.mp4 – Leibniz

previoulsy i have tested this sample thats the reason for what i have posted the image too, do you have the permission "android.permission.READ_EXTERNAL_STORAGE" defined into your AndroidManifest.xml? – Newsman

Its working... I created a new android studio project for this code and I forgot to add read/write permission. Thanks – Leibniz

yes from any file that could contain metadata values. – Newsman

@Elenasys I'm getting an illegalArgumentException at setDataSource. Anyway to fix this? – Mayers

@Elenasys I managed to fix it, my path was bad. But for some reason the date is returned as blank (not null). But I know there is a date value because I checked in another app. Any idea why it's blank? – Mayers

@IsabelInc Hi the date can´t have a null or blank value, must be at least with 0 value if was injected to the file. With the same file did you get the date? – Newsman

@Elenasys I can see the date using other apps (like ESfile explorer). I even tried to access the date directly by using MediaMetadataRetriever.METADATA_KEY_DATE but again the log only shows a blank value (no value at all). I have also outputted the i for reference. Here is a paste bin of the log pastebin.com/g7ueedaQ – Mayers

Answer 2

I hope it is not too late but if you want to add/edit/delete metadata fields on MP4 files you can use JCodec's metadata editing classes.

There's a CLI tool backed by a java API. The CLI is in org.jcodec.movtool.MetadataEditorMain and the API is in org.jcodec.movtool.MetadataEditor.

Read more about it: http://jcodec.org/docs/working_with_mp4_metadata.html

So basically when you want to add some metadata you need to know what key(s) it corresponds to. One way to find out is to inspect a sample file that already has the metadata you need. For this you can run the JCodec's CLI tool that will just print out all the existing metadata fields (keys with values):

./metaedit <file.mp4>

Then when you know the key you want to work with you can either use the same CLI tool:

# Changes the author of the movie
./metaedit -f -si ©ART=New\ value file.mov

or the same thing via the Java API:

MetadataEditor mediaMeta = MetadataEditor.createFrom(new
    File("file.mp4"));
Map<Integer, MetaValue> meta = mediaMeta.getItunesMeta();
meta.put(0xa9415254, MetaValue.createString("New value")); // fourcc for '©ART'
mediaMeta.save(false); // fast mode is off

To delete a metadata field from a file:

MetadataEditor mediaMeta = MetadataEditor.createFrom(new
    File("file.mp4"));
Map<Integer, MetaValue> meta = mediaMeta.getItunesMeta();
meta.remove(0xa9415254); // removes the '©ART'
mediaMeta.save(false); // fast mode is off

To convert string to integer fourcc you can use something like:

byte[] bytes = "©ART".getBytes("iso8859-1");
int fourcc =
    ByteBuffer.wrap(bytes).order(ByteOrder.BIG_ENDIAN).getInt();

If you want to edit/delete the android metadata you'll need to use a different set of fucntion (because it's stored differently than iTunes metadata):

./metaedit -sk com.android.capture.fps,float=25.0 file.mp4

OR alternatively the same through the API:

MetadataEditor mediaMeta = MetadataEditor.createFrom(new
    File("file.mp4"));
Map<String, MetaValue> meta = mediaMeta.getKeyedMeta();
meta.put("com.android.capture.fps", MetaValue.createFloat(25.));
mediaMeta.save(false); // fast mode is off

Zendavesta

there is a problem with it right now. Jcodec currently does ruins video transformation matrix (mp4, h.264). Android-recorded videos usually use that matrix. So, I 've got video upside-down after using Jcodec. – Filler