Video metadata
What a video file says about where and when
A video clip has the same problem as a photo, only bigger. Phones write the capture time, the device model and often the exact location into the container, editing apps add their own name, and AI video generators now attach a provenance record. None of it plays. All of it travels with the file. The Metadata tab reads it in a few seconds and shows it grouped so the location and the device are the first things you see.
What lives inside a video container
- Creation and modification time. Written at the container level and again inside each track. Copying the file does not change it.
- Location. Phones write a location atom carrying latitude and longitude, and some write an altitude. It is accurate to the spot you were standing on.
- Device. Make and model, sometimes the operating system version, sometimes the camera app.
- Software. The encoder or editing tool that wrote the file, and its version.
- Titles and comments. Title, artist, comment, copyright, album, genre. Screen recorders and editors fill these in without asking.
- Provenance. A C2PA manifest, if the clip was generated or edited by a tool that signs its output. The C2PA guide explains what a manifest proves.
Formats the viewer reads
MP4, M4V, MOV and 3GP share one container family and are read the same way. WebM and MKV share another. Drop in any of them on the Metadata tab. The report lists every atom or element that carries a value, and the file is never changed by reading it.
Reading a clip
Open the tool, pick the Metadata tab and drop the video in. The upload limit for video is shown under the drop zone. If the file is over the limit, trim it or read a shorter clip from the same phone: the tags do not change between takes, so a short clip tells you what the long one carries.
Removing it
The Video tab takes the tags out without touching the picture or the sound. The video and audio streams are copied across unchanged, so a large clip cleans in well under a second and there is no re-encode, no quality loss and no waiting. The video cleaning guide covers the details and the option to keep ordinary tags while removing only the AI ones.
What is not a tag
A visible logo in the corner of a generated clip is drawn into the frames. A moving watermark is drawn into the frames. An invisible watermark in the pixels, of the kind some generators now add, is in the frames too. Reading metadata will not show any of them and cleaning metadata will not remove any of them. This page is about the container, and the container is the only part that cleaning changes.
Common questions
Do videos really carry GPS location?
Phone videos usually do. The camera app writes a location atom into the container when location services are on for the camera. The Metadata tab shows it on a map.
Does reading a video change it?
No. The Metadata tab only reads. The file is opened, the tags are listed, and the file is deleted after the request.
Which video formats are supported?
MP4, M4V, MOV and 3GP, plus WebM and MKV. They are read and cleaned without being re-encoded.