======video-meta======

''Video-meta'' is a Perl script by Mike Schilli that displays attributes of a video file, helpful in "video forensics", when you need to know what codec and frame rate a video was shot in, quickly and easily. ''Video-meta'' invokes the ''Video::FrameGrab'' module, which in turn invokes **mplayer**. 

Video-meta achieves the same results as the ''mediainfo'' tools (''mediainfo'' and **mediainfo-gui**), which are included in the default Slackermedia queue file, so strictly speaking this is doubling up on functionality. You may find it useful, however, since it gives //less// information than other tools, in an easy-to-read format, and tends to favour the most useful and common information rather than every last detail that 90% of the time you will not need.

===== Install =====

The installation is easy but unique in that it involves Perl, which has its own way of installing modules. It also depends upon ''perl-yaml'', available from [[http://slackBuilds.org]].

Once you have yaml installed, install ''video::framegrab'' perl module with the command:

<code>
$ su -c "perl -MCPAN -e \
'install Video::FrameGrab'"
</code>

If this is the first time you have used CPAN, you will be prompted to allow perl to setup the CPAN environment. It is safe to answer ''yes''.

When that install process is over, install the ''Data::Dump'' perl module with the command:

<code>
$ su -c "perl -MCPAN -e \
'install Data::Dump'"
</code>

The script ''video-meta'' itself requires no installation, although the initial line of the script needs modifying so that the script can find Perl on the system:

<code>
$ wget ftp://linuxmagazin.de/pub/magazin/2010/01/Perl/video-meta \
-O video-meta.pl
$ sed "1s#/local##" video-meta.pl > video-meta
$ chmod +x video-meta
$ su -c 'cp video-meta /usr/local/bin/'
</code>        

===== Usage =====

Invoke ''video-meta'' before the name of a video file:

<code>
$ video-meta foo.avi
</code>

The metadata attributes associated with foo.avi are printed in your terminal.



<WRAP tip>
**See Also** \\
[[https://mediaarea.net/en/MediaInfo|Mediainfo]] \\
[[ffmpeg|Ffmpeg]]
</WRAP>

<WRAP centeralign>
<wrap fa>[[videogrep|R]]</wrap> <wrap fa>[[start|S]]</wrap> <wrap fa>[[vlc|Q]]</wrap>
</WRAP>