How do I check the codecs used in MP4, MOV and MKV?

[grendizer]

To know which codecs are used in AVI and MPEG, I use Gspot.
But for containers that are not handled by Gspot, like MP4, MOV and MKV, is there a way to know which codecs are used ? 8)

[adicoto]

For MP4 you can use mp4UI and for mkv you can use VirtualDubMod. But it works only if you have the codecs installed on your system.

[J7N]

The codec IDs in Matroska files are written as cleartext and can be read by using a hex editor or by opening them (either Matroska or MP4) in MkvToolNix. If you choose to remux the opened file, the status dialog box might show longer description of the "demultiplexer" and "output module" used for each stream.

In case of V_MS/VFW/FOURCC, this (a little obsolete) list of known FourCCs might be helpful. It is basically the same as the list of known video compression formats in GSpot:
http://abcavi.kibi.ru/fourcc.htm

In case of A_MS/ACM, you can also consult GSpot's list of known ACM codes (or use Google).

[grendizer]

Thanks all :P

[grendizer]

Answering one of my own questions here:

I found a new Gspot-like program : MediaInfo: http://mediainfo.sourceforge.net/en : This is a very cool program, very clear and easy to use. It will give informations about many container formats, and YES, it can open MOV/Quicktimes!! :)

[Tizio]

Originally Posted by grendizer

Answering one of my own questions here:

I found a new Gspot-like program : MediaInfo: http://mediainfo.sourceforge.net/en : This is a very cool program, very clear and easy to use. It will give informations about many container formats, and YES, it can open MOV/Quicktimes!! :)

Tanks for the segnalation! :)

[BSPeter]

Originally Posted by grendizer

I found a new Gspot-like program : MediaInfo: http://mediainfo.sourceforge.net/en : This is a very cool program, very clear and easy to use. It will give informations about many container formats, and YES, it can open MOV/Quicktimes!! :)

Added it to the info in my Help2Help-post. Thx grendizer!

[J7N]

MediaInfo v0.7.2.1 has a bug. The video bitrate value it reports for Matroska container might be wrong. It was not shown correcly in all my H264/AVC files (both native AVC and VFW compatibility). MediaInfo reported either total_bitrate - 48 (while in fact audio bitrate was 448 kBit/s) or the previous value multiplied by 1000.