Media Analysis Tools

How we check media files







Jérôme Martinez
MediaArea.net SARL

Different needs

  • Metadata extraction and review
  • File format (containers, coding) validation
  • File format investigation
  • Local policy conformance
  • Metadata editing/fixing
  • Audiovisual quality control

MediaInfo

Metadata extraction and review

  • Convenient unified display
  • Of most relevant technical and tag data
  • For video / audio / text / ancillary data files
  • 6k downloads/day, 40k GUI launches/day
  • BSD-2-Clause license

MediaInfo

Supported formats

  • Most formats used by either individuals or professionals
  • Detects weird transport layers
    e.g. Dolby E spanned on 2 audio tracks, subtitles in the ancillary data, sidecar files...

MediaInfo

Export

  • Classic flat text, XML...
  • Also in professional output formats e.g. PBCore, EBUCore, FIMS...

MediaConch

A conformance checker

  • Implementation checker
  • Policy checker
  • Reporter
  • GPLv3+/MPLv2+ license

MediaConch

Supported formats

  • Implementation checker for Matroska, FFV1, PCM natively
  • Implementation checker for PDF and TIFF via plugins
    (veraPDF and DPFManager projects)
  • Policy checker for all formats
  • Optional server mode (watch folder)
  • Optionaly an ordonancer
    e.g. FFmpeg transmux / transcode before checks

MediaTrace

Deep check of bytes

  • Provides meaning of each bit in a file
  • Work in progress (sometimes stalls due to too much information, only first frames displayed)
  • Available in MediaInfo GUI (text mode), MediaConch GUI (Tree mode), MediaInfo and MediaConch CLI (Text, XML)
  • BSD-2-Clause license (in MediaInfoLib)

MediaTrace

Example with a Matroska file

MediaTrace

Example with a TIFF file

BWF MetaEdit

WAV/BWF Metadata checker and editor

  • Focused on WAV format, used a lot by archives
  • Difference between requirements and recommandations
  • Can delete/modify/add metadata
  • Can export metadata
  • Public domain

BWF MetaEdit

Enforce the guidelines developed by

  • FADGI (US Federal Agencies Audio-Visual Working Group)
  • European Broadcasting Union (EBU)
    • BWF (EBU tech 3285)
    • CodingHistory (EBU tech R98-1999)
    • OriginatorReferencce (EBU tech R99-1999)
  • Microsoft (INFO chunk)

QCTools

Audiovisual quality control

  • On the decoded frame
  • Focused on digitalized content
  • Initially focused on video artefacts, now checking also audio
  • BSD-3-Clause license for UI/new filters, GPLv2+ for FFmpeg libs

QCTools

Tied to FFmpeg

  • Depends on FFmpeg for demux, decode, and check
  • Some tests were already present in FFmpeg (especially libavfilter), we added an UI
  • We also added some tests to libavfilter upstream

QCTools

List - Video

  • YUV: MIN, AVG, MAX, LOW, HIGH, Difference
  • Saturation, Hue, Temporal Outliers, Vertical Line Repetitions
  • Broadcast Range, Crop Width/Height
  • Peak Signal to Noise Ratio (PSNRf), Structural SImilarity Metric (SSIMf), Mean Square Error (MSEf)
  • Interlacement Detection

Note: tool is focused on field comparison for the moment

QCTools

List - Audio

R.128, Audio Phase Meter, DC Offset, Audio Diffs, RMS

Interfaces

Not only one interface: different people, different needs, different technical knowledges

  • Command line
  • Graphical interface
  • Server (REST API)
  • Web interface

Standardization


Issues:

  • Checking is good, but compared to what?
  • Lack of open video/audio standards
  • Lot of people work on lossy formats (e.g. VP9, AV1, Opus)
  • Some people need lossless formats

Standardization


CELLAR: IETF workgroup

  • Container: Matroska
  • Video: FFV1
  • Audio: FLAC (not started)

Sponsorships


Lot of work, we need sponsorship

  • Several compagnies (usually don't like to be named :( )
  • European Union (especially PREFORMA project)
  • US Federal Agencies Digital Guidelines Initiative
  • National Endowment for the Humanities
  • The Knight Foundation

Contributions


We need you!

  • Patch for new features
  • Patch for bug fixes
  • Participation in CELLAR
  • Design (e.g MediaConch new displays)
  • Participation in documentation writting
  • Testing
  • ...

Stay in touch

MediaInfo: https://mediaarea.net/MediaInfo

MediaConch: https://mediaarea.net/MediaConch

BWF MetaEdit: https://mediaarea.net/BWFMetaEdit

QCTools: https://mediaarea.net/QCTools

Follow us on Twitter @MediaArea_net

Jérôme Martinez: jerome@mediaarea.net

Slides: https://mediaarea.net/Events

License: CC BY