Video metadata is the technical information embedded within a video file that describes its properties — including codec type, resolution, bitrate, frame rate, duration, and container format. This data is crucial for video editors, streaming engineers, and content creators to ensure compatibility with playback devices, optimize for web streaming, manage storage efficiently, and maintain quality standards throughout post-production workflows.

Simply drag and drop your video file onto this tool. Our Video Metadata Viewer reads the file header and extracts codec information (such as H.264/AVC, H.265/HEVC, AV1, VP9, AAC, Opus, etc.) directly in your browser. No upload to any server is required — all analysis happens locally on your device, ensuring complete privacy and instant results.

Bitrate (measured in kbps or Mbps) represents the amount of data processed per second of video. Higher bitrates generally mean better quality but larger file sizes. For reference: 1080p streaming typically uses 4-8 Mbps (H.264), while 4K content may require 15-35 Mbps. This tool calculates the average bitrate from your file size and duration, and also estimates the more insightful "bits per pixel" metric for cross-resolution quality comparison.

Absolutely safe. This Video Metadata Viewer operates entirely within your browser using JavaScript and the File API. Your video files are never uploaded to any server — all processing occurs locally on your device. The file stays on your machine; we only read its metadata headers and create a temporary local URL for preview. You can even disconnect your internet after loading the page and the tool will continue working perfectly.

We support all major video container formats including MP4, WebM, MKV, MOV, AVI, M4V, FLV, 3GP, TS, MTS, M2TS, OGV, and WMV. For MP4/MOV files, we parse the ftyp box to identify the codec brand (e.g., avc1 for H.264, hvc1 for HEVC). For WebM/MKV, we detect the EBML header structure. The tool leverages both file header parsing and the browser's native HTML5 video element to provide the most comprehensive metadata available.

Our tool provides a quality assessment based on the "bits per pixel" (bpp) metric. As a rule of thumb: <0.05 bpp indicates heavy compression (visible artifacts), 0.05-0.1 bpp is acceptable for streaming, 0.1-0.2 bpp is good quality, and >0.2 bpp is excellent/archival quality. For streaming H.264 1080p at 30fps, aim for at least 4-6 Mbps. This tool helps you quickly assess if your video meets these benchmarks.

The container format (MP4, MKV, WebM, MOV, etc.) is the file wrapper that holds video, audio, subtitles, and metadata streams together. The codec (H.264, HEVC, AV1, VP9, AAC, MP3, etc.) is the actual compression algorithm used to encode each stream. Think of the container as a box and the codec as the method used to pack items inside. This tool identifies both — the container from the file extension/header, and the codecs from deep file inspection.