MediaInfo 26.05 / MediaInfo Lite 26.05

MediaInfo opens a file and tells you what is actually inside it, rather than what the file extension claims.

It is free, open source under a BSD licence, and it has been the standard answer to that question since 2002.

The same MediaInfoLib engine sits inside several other tools on this site, so its readings are the ones everything else quotes.

What It Reports

Drop a file on the window and MediaInfo reads the container first - the format, its commercial name, the duration, the overall bit rate and the application that wrote it. Then it walks every stream inside.

• Video: format and codec ID, resolution, aspect ratio, frame rate, bit rate, bit depth, colour space, chroma subsampling and scan type.
• Audio: format, codec ID, sample rate, channel count, bit depth, bit rate and language tag, per track.
• Subtitles: format and language for every text track, including the broadcast caption formats.
• Chapters: the count and the full list.
• Tags: ID3v1, ID3v2, Vorbis comments and APE.

Containers it reads include MP4, QuickTime, Matroska, AVI, MPEG-PS, MPEG-TS, MXF, GXF, LXF, WMV, FLV and RealMedia, which is why it turns up in broadcast and archive work as often as it does at home.

Four Views of the Same Answer

Basic view gives you the short version, which is what most people want. Sheet, Tree and Text views open the same reading out progressively further, down to every field the engine found.

All four are customisable, and any of them exports to text, CSV or HTML. If you are filing a bug report or sending a file spec to somebody, the Text view is the thing to paste.

Command Line and Batch Reports

The CLI build is a separate download and it is the one worth having if you deal with more than a handful of files. Point it at a folder and it will report on everything in it, in a template you define.

That is what makes it useful next to FFmpeg in a script: read the source properties first, then build the encode parameters from what came back rather than from a guess.

Which Build to Download

There are more files on the download page than most people expect, and only one of them is the one you want. The third column is the decision.

MediaArea also publishes Debian, Ubuntu, Fedora, openSUSE, Arch, Flatpak and Snap packages, and iOS. Those are not served here, so take them from the developer directly.

About the Adware Complaint in the Reviews

One review on this page reports OpenCandy adware in the installer. It was accurate when it was written, in 2014, against version 0.7.67.

MediaArea carried an opt-in advertising offer inside the Windows installer to fund development, and removed it in February 2016. Nothing since then carries it.

The Explorer Crash, and the Shell Extension

A second old review reports Windows Explorer crashing when hovering over MP4 files. That is the shell extension, which adds MediaInfo details to tooltips and to the right-click menu.

It is an optional component in the installer, so you can simply not install it, and the portable build does not have one. If you want file details in Explorer without an app in the way, MediaTab adds a properties tab using the same engine and nothing else.

Once MediaInfo Names the Codec

Reading the file is usually the first half of a playback problem. MediaInfo opens it perfectly, Windows Photos or the Films app still will not, and the gap is 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 job.

VP9 has its own VP9 Video Extension, and on Windows N editions nothing works until Media Foundation Codecs restores the media layer underneath.

For DirectShow players there is LAV Filters, and the K-Lite Codec Pack installs the lot in one pass.

The shortcut past all of it is a player carrying its own decoders, which is what VLC Media Player does.

If the codec name means nothing to you, our Codec Finder takes it and tells you what plays it.

Checking Hardware Decoding

MediaInfo tells you what the file is. It does not tell you whether your graphics chip can decode it without help from the processor, which is the difference between a quiet laptop and a hot one on 4K material.

DXVA Checker answers that one, listing what your hardware will accelerate and what it will hand back to the processor.

For the related question of which decoders are installed, and which two are fighting over the same file, use X Codec Inspector or the older DirectShow Filter Manager.

Where It Fits in a Workflow

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

Run it again on the output and you have proof the encode did what you asked, which matters when a platform specifies a profile and rejects anything else.

For MKV work, MediaInfo names the tracks and MKVToolNix reorders, retags or removes them without re-encoding a frame.

Who Should Look Elsewhere

MediaInfo reads and never writes. If you came here to change a language tag, drop a track or fix a container, it will tell you exactly what is wrong and then do nothing about it - that is MKVToolNix.

If you want the same readings in a modern interface with dark mode, and remuxing and frame capture in the same window, BetterMediaInfo runs the identical engine.

For old AVI files specifically, GSpot and AVIcodec still have their followers, and both predate most of what MediaInfo now reads.

VideoInspector adds codec download suggestions to its report, which some people want and others find gets in the way. The rest of the field sits in Codec Identifiers.

Quick questions

Download MediaInfo 26.05 and see what is actually inside your files, or tell us how you got on if you have used it before.