A lightweight metadata utility designed for Digital Imaging Technicians (DITs) to perform quick checks on original camera files (OCF).
basicmeta provides a quick overview of essential technical metadata (frame rate, resolution, and encoded date) without the overhead of opening a heavy GUI or a full NLE. It is specifically optimized for DIT workflows to verify clip consistency during data offloading, ingest, or backup verification.
It supports common professional acquisition formats:
- Video: MXF, MOV, MP4, R3D
- Audio: WAV
- Other non-camera containers: MKV, AVI, M4V, MTS, FLV, WebM
- macOS
- Linux
basicmeta relies on the following metadata engines:
- Install Homebrew (if not already installed):
/bin/bash -c "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Homebrew/install/HEAD/install.sh)"
- Tap and install:
brew tap lucuma13/homebrew-dit
brew install basicmeta
basicmeta [options] <path>
| Option | Description |
|---|---|
-f |
Force analysis of non-camera video containers (MKV, AVI, M4V, MTS, FLV, WebM) |
-h |
Show help message |
--version |
Print version |
The <path> can be a single file or a directory, or the current directory if left blank.
If this tool fails to parse metadata from your specific camera files, or if you have ideas for improvement, please fork the repository and submit a pull request, or message me directly with a sample of the problematic metadata output. Help me make this tool more robust for the DIT community!