BetterMediaInfo 1.1.0

BetterMediaInfo opens a media file and tells you exactly what is inside it - every codec, every stream, every piece of metadata.

It runs the same MediaInfoLib engine as MediaInfo itself, on the same 26.05 version, so the readings are identical and only the interface differs.

It is free and open source, with no paid tier and nothing bundled in the installer.

What It Tells You About a File

Drag a file onto the window and it reports back in a moment: the container, the video codec and its profile, resolution, frame rate and bit rate, every audio track with its codec, channel layout and language, every subtitle track, and the chapter markers if there are any.

It reads MKV, MP4, AVI, MOV and essentially every other container in use, because the engine underneath it is the one the whole industry already relies on for this.

The card view gives you the summary at a glance and the detail view gives you everything, with templates if you want the output arranged your way and an export if you want to keep it.

The video table also carries a Dolby Vision column, which is the quickest way to find out whether a file is going to need anything special before it will play.

What It Now Does Beyond Reading

This is where it has moved past being a viewer, and it is the part that most distinguishes it from plain MediaInfo.

• MKV remuxing. Select which streams to keep, edit track names and languages, reorder them by dragging, and merge - it drives MKVToolNix underneath, so nothing is re-encoded.
• Track extraction. Pull an audio or subtitle track out of an MKV, with progress and a cancel button.
• Frame capture. An FFmpeg Tools window added in 1.1.0 - a seekable preview with screenshots by frame number, by interval, every second, at keyframes or at scene changes.
• Contact sheets. The same window builds thumbnail grids and de-duplicated frame sets, with optional border trimming on the captured images.
• Disc folders. It recognises Blu-ray folder structures and will hand an ISO straight to BDMaster if you have it.

The remuxing and extraction features need MKVToolNix installed and pointed to in settings. None of it touches your source file unless you ask it to write a new one.

Themes and the Interface

The window follows your Windows light or dark setting by default, which MediaInfo's own interface does not do.

If you would rather choose for yourself, there are twenty built-in themes in the settings with immediate preview, and the choice applies to the whole interface rather than skinning parts of it.

The interface is available in nine languages, and it picks one on first run from your system settings rather than asking.

Where It Fits in a Workflow

Checking a file before you encode it is the obvious use. Knowing the source codec, bit rate and resolution before starting a job in HandBrake or Shutter Encoder is what stops you upscaling something by accident or re-encoding a file that was already fine.

For anyone managing a library, it is the fastest way to find the odd ones out - the episode in a different codec, the film with no subtitle track, the rip whose audio is stereo when everything else is 5.1.

And once it has told you what is wrong, the same window will often fix it, or hand the file straight to MPC-HC to see the problem for yourself.

Once You Know the Codec

Analysis is often the first half of a playback problem: the file opens here perfectly and still refuses to play in Windows Photos or the Films app. That gap is usually a missing system decoder rather than a broken file.

If the report says HEVC, the HEVC Video Extension restores playback in Windows apps, and if it says AV1, the AV1 Video Extension does the same.

VP9 has its own VP9 Video Extension, and a file whose Dolby Vision column is filled in needs the Dolby Vision Extensions before Windows will do anything with it.

The shortcut past all of them is a player that carries its own decoders - VLC Media Player - or the K-Lite Codec Pack for system-wide support.

If the codec name means nothing to you, our Codec Finder takes it and tells you what plays it, and DirectShow Filter Manager is the tool for when two filters are fighting over the same file.

Installing It

There are two Windows builds: a normal installer, and a portable archive you can unpack onto a USB stick and run without touching the registry.

One dependency is worth naming, because it is not obvious and the symptom looks like a broken download. This is a Tauri application, so it draws its interface using the system WebView2 runtime - present by default on Windows 10 and 11, but if the window opens blank, installing the Microsoft Edge WebView2 Runtime is the fix.

The project also ships macOS and Linux builds upstream, so a Mac or a Linux box is not shut out - they are simply not the download on this page.

About That "Open With" Review

One of the reviews on this page, written against version 0.8.0, says that opening a file through the Windows "Open with" menu launches the program but does not load the file. That was accurate at the time.

Version 0.9.0 added command-line support for launching with files and folders, which is the mechanism "Open with" and drag-onto-icon both use. If you tried it back then and gave up, the current build behaves the way you expected.

Who Should Look Elsewhere

Look at what you actually want to do with the file. If the answer is change it rather than read it, this is the wrong end of the job - MKVToolNix is the editor, and BetterMediaInfo is only driving it.

If you want the details on a right-click rather than in an app, MediaTab adds them to the Windows properties dialog and gets out of the way.

And if the question is about your machine rather than your file - which decoders are installed, what your graphics chip will accelerate - that is X Codec Inspector and DXVA Checker, not a file analyzer.

Alternatives

Anyone who prefers the classic interface should take MediaInfo itself - same engine, same readings, longer history, and a command-line version for scripting.

For legacy AVI work, GSpot is still popular despite its age, and AVIcodec covers similar ground on older containers.

VideoInspector adds codec download suggestions on top of its report, which some people want and others find gets in the way of a plain answer. The rest of the field is in Codec Identifiers.

Quick questions

Download BetterMediaInfo 1.1.0 and see what is actually inside your files, or tell us how you got on if you have used it before.