[FFmpeg-user] Adding embedded metadata to v210.mov

[Dave Rice]

> On Aug 4, 2015, at 12:17 PM, Kieran O'Leary <kieran.oleary at irishfilm.ie> wrote:
> 
> On Tue, Aug 04, 2015 at 10:21:30 -0400, Dave Rice wrote:
>> You could try:
>> ffmpeg -i  uncommented.mov -map 0 -c copy -metadata comment="your comments here" commented.mov
> 
> Thanks Dave. I tried it without the mapping and it worked perfectly. It even showed up in mediainfo. Are there some instances where the mapping is required? Does it have something to do with ffmpeg only outputting 1 audio track by default? 

Yes by default ffmpeg maps the first or most appropriate track for audio and video, so -map 0 maps all tracks.

>> The output file may have other differences besides simply adding the metadata. It is demuxed then muxed again to >a >new file, so if the input contains atoms that are not understood by the muxer than they may be missing in the >output. >There are some other tools that allow editing in place on quicktime by junking the moov atom and appending >a new >one, perhaps http://www.omino.com/sw/qt_tools/man/qt_info.html or apple's automator.
> 
> This sounds worrying.What kind of information could get lost?

I have some files with a proprietary atom created by a broadcast system that contains contextual info on the creation of the file. This metadata wouldn't be preserved in the example above. You could use an atom inspector to view the file before and after to determine if there is any meaningful difference. Still in archival work I don't think I would recommend modifying file the to insert an id, perhaps this is better done in an external database.
Dave Rice