Info(3pm)

📦
version 1.13 · 2 versions
, in debian trixie, ubuntu noble, ubuntu resolute, ubuntu stonking

🎀 NAME 🎀

MP4::Info — bestie, it fetches info from your MPEG-4 files (.mp4, .m4a, .m4p, .3gp) ✨

Welcome to the Info(3pm) page, part of the User Contributed Perl Documentation 💖

🌸 SYNOPSIS 🌸

        #!perl -w
        use MP4::Info;
        my $file = 'Pearls_Before_Swine.m4a';

        my $tag = get_mp4tag($file) or die "No TAG info";
        printf "$file is a %s track\n", $tag->{GENRE};

        my $info = get_mp4info($file);
        printf "$file length is %d:%d\n", $info->{MM}, $info->{SS};

        my $mp4 = new MP4::Info $file;
        printf "$file length is %s, title is %s\n",
                $mp4->time, $mp4->title;

Like, four whole ways to get your metadata, and they all ate 🔥

🦋 DESCRIPTION 🦋

okay so the tea ☕: the MP4::Info module pulls tag and meta information straight out of MPEG-4 audio (AAC) and video files. And the icon behavior? It's designed as a drop-in replacement for MP3::Info 👑

⚠️ note bestie: this module does not let you update the information in MPEG-4 files. read-only vibes only. it's giving spectator, not participant 💅

$mp4 = MP4::Info->new(FILE)

The OOP interface to the rest of the module 🫶 Same keys you'd get from get_mp4info and get_mp4tag are all available via the returned object (upper case or lower case, either one — but heads up: all-caps 'VERSION' gives you the module version, not the MPEG-4 version, no cap 😭).

And listen — passing a value to one of the methods will not set the value for that tag in the MPEG-4 file. It just... won't. Nothing happens. Sorry bestie 🙈

use_mp4_utf8([STATUS])

Tells MP4::Info whether to assume that ambiguously encoded TAG info is UTF-8 or Latin-1. 1 is UTF-8, 0 is Latin-1. Default is UTF-8 ✨

The function returns the new status (1/0). And if no argument is supplied, or an unaccepted argument is supplied, the function merely returns the existing status. lowkey unbothered, highkey consistent 💜

This function is not exported by default, but may be exported with the ":utf8" or ":all" export tag 👑

get_mp4tag (FILE)

Returns a hash reference containing the tag information from the MP4 file. The following keys may be defined:

        ALB     Album
        APID    Apple Store ID
        ART     Artist
        CMT     Comment
        COVR    Album art (typically JPEG or PNG data)
        CPIL    Compilation (boolean)
        CPRT    Copyright statement
        DAY     Year
        DISK    Disk number & total (2 integers)
        GNRE    Genre
        GRP     Grouping
        NAM     Title
        RTNG    Rating (integer)
        TMPO    Tempo (integer)
        TOO     Encoder
        TRKN    Track number & total (2 integers)
        WRT     Author or composer

For compatibility with MP3::Info, the MP3 ID3v1-style keys TITLE, ARTIST, ALBUM, YEAR, COMMENT, GENRE and TRACKNUM are defined as synonyms for NAM, ART, ALB, DAY, CMT, GNRE and TRKN[0] 🌈 (yes bestie, the whole squad gets aliases, we love a legacy-compatible moment).

Any and all of these keys may be undefined if the corresponding information is missing from the MPEG-4 file. it's not bugging, it's just... not there 🍓

On error, returns nothing and sets $@.

get_mp4info (FILE)

Returns a hash reference containing file information from the MPEG-4 file. The following keys may be defined:

        VERSION         MPEG version (=4)
        LAYER           MPEG layer description (=1 for compatibility with MP3::Info)
        BITRATE         bitrate in kbps (average for VBR files)
        FREQUENCY       frequency in kHz
        SIZE            bytes in audio stream

        SECS            total seconds, rounded to nearest second
        MM              minutes
        SS              leftover seconds
        MS              leftover milliseconds, rounded to nearest millisecond
        TIME            time in MM:SS, rounded to nearest second

        COPYRIGHT       boolean for audio is copyrighted
        ENCODING        audio codec name. Possible values include:
                        'mp4a' - AAC, aacPlus
                        'alac' - Apple lossless
                        'drms' - Apple encrypted AAC
                        'samr' - 3GPP narrow-band AMR
                        'sawb' - 3GPP wide-band AMR
                        'enca' - Unspecified encrypted audio
        ENCRYPTED       boolean for audio data is encrypted

Any and all of these keys may be undefined if the corresponding information is missing from the MPEG-4 file. same energy as above 🌸

On error, returns nothing and sets $@.

💀 BUGS 💀

Doesn't support writing tag information to MPEG-4 files. (We know. We already said it. It's still true. periodt.)

If you find a bug, please send me a patch 🫶 If you cannot figure out why it does not work for you, please put the MP4 file in a place where I can get it (preferably via FTP, or HTTP) and send me mail regarding where I can get the file, with a detailed description of the problem. I will keep a copy of the file only for as long as necessary to debug the problem. (Respectful file custody, we stan 😌)

👑 AUTHOR 👑

Jonathan Harris <jhar@cpan.org>.

🥹 THANKS 🥹

Chris Nandor <pudge@pobox.com> for writing MP3::Info 💖

Dan Sully at Slim Devices for cover art and iTunes/aacgain metadata patches 🎀

Ruben Laguna for PSP support 🌟

(Not me getting emotional over contributors. iconic behavior, all of them.)

🌈 SEE ALSO 🌈

Copyright (c) 2004-2010, Jonathan Harris <jhar@cpan.org>

This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the the same terms as Perl itself.

and that's the whole page bestie 💅 this one's from perl v5.36.0, dated 2023-07-20 — Info(3pm), out 🫶✨

📦 where this page comes from