VideoInspector : Codecs, infos...

[Kyle_Katarn]

Hello,

I'm currently working on a project called VideoInspector. This will be a "super codec viewer" with quality factor and as many details as possible about video files.

[Features]

Container support : AVI, Matroska, MPEG (I and II), Quicktime
Codecs requirements automatic detection
File intergrity check
Automatic, content based container format detection
Displays movie info : Duration, streams
Displays Video stream info : Resolution, bitrate, frames per seconds (FPS)
Displays Audio stream info : Sample rate, bitrate, number of channels
Calculates video quality factor
International support
And much more !


[Screenshot]
http://www.kcsoftwares.com/images/vtb_screen.gif

[Official Web Site]
http://www.kcsoftwares.com/?vtb

[Sirber]

does it works for RM in MKV?

[mf]

Isn't GSpot open source? If so, you can contribute to that and save yourself a lot of duplicate work.

[Doom9]

Isn't GSpot open source?No, it isn't.

[mf]

Originally posted by Doom9
No, it isn't.
Ah. Then VideoToolBox can set the example ;).

[ChristianHJW]

http://mediainfo.sf.net . Its opensource and works well ....

But it appears to me that Kyle's app is already at the same level regarding its matroska support, and it has just started. Lets see how it develops ....

[bond]

any plans to support the MP4 container too?

[Kyle_Katarn]

MP4 **might** be planned if i find enought doc.

[bond]

well you can have a look at the mpeg4ip and gpac project on sourceforge for example

but there should be many other sources available too on the net i guess as mp4 is the official container of the mpeg-4 standard

[Kyle_Katarn]

Thanks !

New version & Offcial Web site : http://www.katarncorp.com/?vtb

[Kyle_Katarn]

New version !


----------------------------
VTB v0.6.1.25 [27/01/2004]
----------------------------
+ Language files (Catalan, Chinese, German, Italian, Polish, Spanish, Ukranian)
@ Codec Database
@ Matroska video streams support (non-VFW video streams)
# Shell extension bug when file path contained spaces.
# .divx extension files are now properly supported.

----------------------------

+ : Added
- : Removed
@ : Improved
# : Fixed

----------------------------

The Katarn Corporation
http://www.katarncorp.com

[Kyle_Katarn]

Originally posted by Sirber
does it works for RM in MKV?


Now, it does !

[Kyle_Katarn]

New version of VideoToolbox : http://www.katarncorp.com/?vtb


----------------------------
VTB v0.7.0.30 [04/02/2004]
----------------------------
+ MPEG I/II Support
@ Long codec name display
# [AVI] : "strf" chunk are now properly supported.
# [AVI] : Audio bitrate are now properly supported.


----------------------------

+ : Added
- : Removed
@ : Improved
# : Fixed
Date : [dd/mm/yyyy]

----------------------------

The Katarn Corporation
http://www.katarncorp.com

[SeeMoreDigital]

This is a great idea Kyle_Katarn,

I was thinking of starting a discussion about this very subject.

As others have mentioned, there are plenty of individual tools out there, (such as Gpot, AVIcheck, Media Info, MP4UI, RealMedia 'ShellExt' etc) but not one tool that does the lot!

Now....

What we could do with in the future is an interface that will allow the user to 'extract' individual streams and import others - a bit like MP4UI can

Thanks for this

Cheers

[Kyle_Katarn]

I'll check if this is easily implementable.

First i'll try to add support for new formats (QT,RM,WMV....)

[SeeMoreDigital]

Originally posted by Kyle_Katarn
I'll check if this is easily implementable.

First i'll try to add support for new formats (QT,RM,WMV....) I hope that includes MP4 too... This would be a 'god send' for Mpeg4 fans like Mr bond and myself ;)

Cheers

[Kyle_Katarn]

Well if you can find me some good MP4 specs, i'll do it asap !

[SeeMoreDigital]

Originally posted by Kyle_Katarn
Well if you can find me some good MP4 specs, i'll do it asap ! bond knows far more about this sort of thing than me I'm afraid!

One thing that might be useful to Mpeg4 (DivX, XviD, 3viX etc) .avi encoding fans, would be to include B-frame (B-VOP), GMC (S-VOP) and Qpel detection.

Personally, I've only found one tool that can do this and that's Sigma's AVIcheck (http://82.2.167.24/Uploaded_Files/AVIcheck_(v4.06.172).exe).

Cheers

[Kyle_Katarn]

I'll try to do so !

[bond]

for the real mpeg-4 systems (mp4 and more) specs you can search for ISO 14496-1

for "shorter" infos have a look at the mpeg4ip (http://mpeg4ip.sourceforge.net/) project (there are also docs in the cvs) or the gpac (http://gpac.sourceforge.net/) project, both offer mp4 libraries under the gpl...

[SeeMoreDigital]

Just as a side question....

Can somebody explain to me why it is that all these kinds of tools display different bitrate sizes for the same encode?

Cheers

[Kyle_Katarn]

Great ! I'll give this a look.

[Kyle_Katarn]

Originally posted by SeeMoreDigital
Just as a side question....

Can somebody explain to me why it is that all these kinds of tools display different bitrate sizes for the same encode?

Cheers

The problem comes from the fact that video bitrate are not always explicitely defined in some files (AVI...) and have to be "guessed"...

[SeeMoreDigital]

Yep,

I have to admit this has always been a bit of an annoyance for me.

Okay I understand that many encodes are now 2pass VBR but I would have thought that once the audio stream bitrate (in kbps) has been identified (and deducted from the overall file size), calculating the 'average' video stream bitrate should be quite straight forward!

I guess things would become more difficult if both the video and audio streams are variable. As maybe the only way to accurately determine the average bitrate of the entire file would be to de-mux the streams out of their container. And calculate the average bitrate of each stream against each streams file size!

But I'm no programmer or software designer. Just an end user!

Cheers

[Kyle_Katarn]

The problem also comes from "overheading" data. This means data that belongs to the container (block headers...) and not to the stream... You can only "estimate" it...

[SeeMoreDigital]

Originally posted by Kyle_Katarn
The problem also comes from "overheading" data. This means data that belongs to the container (block headers...) and not to the stream... You can only "estimate" it... Yes, sorry about that.

As I finished writing my previous post I realized that I had not taken the encodes 'overhead' into consideration!

Maybe we could do with a tool to measure this as well ;)

Cheers

[Kyle_Katarn]

I try to estimate it the best as i can... exact estimation require the entire file to be parsed... long and CPU consumming ;-)

[SeeMoreDigital]

Yep it must be difficult,

By running a 'video only' file that I encoded at 627kbps, through various 'info' tools, the following results came up: -

AVIcheck = 652kbps
Gspot = 654kbps
MediaInfo = 657kbps
Video ToolBox = 657kbps

May I ask. Will it be your intension to add the capability to analyse 'audio only' streams, such as Mp3, AAC, AC3, DTS, WAV (in mono, 2Ch, 6Ch)?

Cheers

[Kyle_Katarn]

For "audio only" you should you my "K-MP3" (which i should have called AudioToolbox...)

[SeeMoreDigital]

Originally posted by Kyle_Katarn
For "audio only" you should you my "K-MP3" (which i should have called AudioToolbox...) If you can make a tool that can analyse - 'audio only' streams, 'video only' streams, and combined audio+video streams. Why not call it 'Media Stream Analyser' or 'MSA' for short?

Just a thought!

Cheers

[Kyle_Katarn]

I'll think about it, good idea !

[cjaar]

@Kyle_KatarnA

how about supporting ogm ???

thx
cjaar

[Kyle_Katarn]

Planned too.

[Kyle_Katarn]

VideoToolbox has just been updated to v0.8.0.35

Web Site : http://www.katarncorp.com/?vtb

Change log :

----------------------------
VTB v0.8.0.35 [08/02/2004]
----------------------------
+ QuickTime Support
+ Indonesian language file
+ [MPEG] : Added support for "mpe" file extension
@ [CodecDB] : More explicit AAC codec names for Matroska
@ [MPEG] : Format detection
# [MPEG] : Duration detection on small files
# [MKV] : Resolution detection

[SeeMoreDigital]

It works great...




...Having said that I do have some thoughts!

When identifying AAC streams with SBR 'Spectral Band Replacement' it would probably be less confusing to identify them as being "AAC HE (High Efficiency)" instead of using the term "AAC Low Complexity with Spectral Band Replacement"

Great to see Quickime file identification.

Cheers

[Kyle_Katarn]

Ok i'll update the database !

[Kyle_Katarn]

New version !

----------------------------
VTB v0.8.1.36 [15/02/2004]
----------------------------
+ Danish language file
+ Dutch language file
@ Install Script
@ Codec database
# [AVI] Codec (FourCC) detection

[Kyle_Katarn]

----------------------------
VTB v0.9.0.37 [24/03/2004]
----------------------------
+ Ability to download codecs (thanks to MovieCodecs.com)
@ Language files

[Kyle_Katarn]

New version : http://www.kcsoftwares.com/?vtb

[SeeMoreDigital]

Originally posted by Kyle_Katarn
New version : http://www.kcsoftwares.com/?vtb Thanks Kyle.

I see that this is v0.9.0.39. In what way is it different fron the previous version?

Cheers

[Kyle_Katarn]

----------------------------
VTB v0.9.1.39 [01/04/2004]
----------------------------
@ Now used last version of MovieCodec.com's script
@ Codecs Database
# [AVI] : Compatibility with 3 letters FourCC (such as DIB)

[SeeMoreDigital]

Originally posted by Kyle_Katarn
----------------------------
VTB v0.9.1.39 [01/04/2004]
----------------------------
@ Now used last version of MovieCodec.com's script
@ Codecs Database
# [AVI] : Compatibility with 3 letters FourCC (such as DIB) So in order to determine say, the 4CC of an Mpeg4 .AVI, we have to click on the download button?

Cheers

[Kyle_Katarn]

It's only if you want to download the codec required by the movie file

[Kyle_Katarn]

----------------------------
VTB v0.9.2.42 [29/04/2004]
----------------------------
+ Language files
@ [AVI] : Uncompressed video stream compatibility update (empty fccHandler field)
# [AVI] : Compatibility update (strf field)


http://www.kcsoftwares.com/?vtb

[Neo Neko]

videotoolbox is slightly different but still close to videotools (http://www.videotools.net). [the other avisynth developers :rolleyes: ] Perhaps videomechanic to avoid possible confusion.

[Kyle_Katarn]

Argh, bad luck ..

[Neo Neko]

Actually it could be an improvement. if you have a tool box you have to do it yourself. Not something some people want. If you have a mechanic it sounds more spiffy and automated. Plus a lite search or two has not turned up anything real similar.

[Kyle_Katarn]

Good idea,i 'll think about it.

[SeeMoreDigital]

Nah.. I still think you should call it 'Media Stream Analyser' or 'MSA' for short?

Cheers

[Kyle_Katarn]

hum.