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This question already has an answer here:

How can I get information about a video with a command-line tool? (e.g. video duration, audio codec, bitrate etc)

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marked as duplicate by Radu Rădeanu, Basharat Sialvi, Kevin Bowen, psusi, Jorge Castro Jun 3 '13 at 19:00

This question has been asked before and already has an answer. If those answers do not fully address your question, please ask a new question.
    
Yes, I said that in the answer and I flagged the question as it. – Leo Jun 3 '13 at 12:03
    
Yes, unfortunately I didn't see that question even tough I searched for something similar in the portal before. Sorry! :P – franzlorenzon Jun 3 '13 at 12:16
up vote 33 down vote accepted

You have several commands to get that information:

avprobe from the package libav-tools is pretty good.

Sample output avprobe somefile.mp4

avprobe version 0.8.4-4:0.8.4-0ubuntu0.12.04.1, Copyright (c)
2007-2012 the Libav developers   built on Nov  6 2012 16:51:33 with
gcc 4.6.3 Input #0, mov,mp4,m4a,3gp,3g2,mj2, from 'somefile.mp4':  
Metadata:
    major_brand     : avc1
    minor_version   : 0
    compatible_brands: isomavc1
    creation_time   : 2012-08-10 15:01:14   Duration: 00:01:02.55, start: 0.000000, bitrate: 682 kb/s
    Stream #0.0(und): Video: h264 (High), yuv420p, 1904x1040 [PAR 1:1 DAR 119:65], 680 kb/s, 19.18 fps, 20 tbr, 20 tbn, 40 tbc
    Metadata:
    creation_time   : 2012-08-10 15:01:14

To add to Thunar custom action, in relation to what was suggested here, the analog formula to add would be:

gnome-terminal --window-with-profile=new1 -e "avprobe %f"

Source: Command to see media file info in terminal? (then, duplicated).

And also you have:

You can use MPlayer to get that information.

$ mplayer -vo null -ao null -identify -frames 0 foo.avi

Source: https://superuser.com/questions/55780/linux-command-line-tool-to-get-bitrate-of-divx-xvid

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1  
On MacOSX /w Homebrew: brew install libav will get you the avprobe binary. – Darian Moody Jul 1 '15 at 11:29
    
On a side note, why would avprobe send its output to stderr instead of stdout? – Jose Gómez Apr 24 '16 at 16:08
up vote 15 down vote

There are several ways to achieve this. Here are three methods, using three different utilities.

Using exiftool

  1. Install libimage-exiftool-perl using the command sudo apt-get install libimage-exiftool-perl.
  2. Run exiftool /path/to/file

  3. The output you get is similar to this:

    ExifTool Version Number         : 9.04
File Name                       : filename.avi
Directory                       : Path/To/File
File Size                       : ### MB
File Modification Date/Time     : 2013:04:14 10:46:51+04:00
File Access Date/Time           : 2013:05:19 09:21:08+04:00
File Permissions                : rwxrwxr--
File Type                       : AVI
MIME Type                       : video/x-msvideo
Frame Rate                      : 25
Max Data Rate                   : 0 kB/s
Frame Count                     : 105154
Stream Count                    : 2
Stream Type                     : Video
Video Codec                     : xvid
Video Frame Rate                : 25
Video Frame Count               : 105154
Quality                         : 10000
Sample Size                     : Variable
Image Width                     : 640
Image Height                    : 360
Planes                          : 1
Bit Depth                       : 12
Compression                     : XVID
Image Length                    : 1382400
Pixels Per Meter X              : 0
Pixels Per Meter Y              : 0
Num Colors                      : Use BitDepth
Num Important Colors            : All
Audio Codec                     : 
Audio Sample Rate               : 41.67
Audio Sample Count              : 175252
Encoding                        : MP3
Num Channels                    : 2
Sample Rate                     : 48000
Avg Bytes Per Sec               : 16000
Bits Per Sample                 : 0
Stream Name                     : filename.audio
Duration                        : 1:10:06
Image Size                      : 640x360

Source: http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=474839&p=2851338#post2851338

Using ffmpeg

  1. Install ffmpeg using the command sudo apt-get install ffmpeg.
  2. Run ffmpeg -i /path/to/file

  3. The output you get is similar to this:

    Input #0, avi, from 'Path/To/File':
  Duration: 01:10:06.16, start: 0.000000, bitrate: 1172 kb/s
    Stream #0.0: Video: mpeg4 (Advanced Simple Profile), yuv420p, 640x360 [PAR 1:1 DAR 16:9], 25 tbr, 25 tbn, 25 tbc
    Stream #0.1: Audio: mp3, 48000 Hz, stereo, s16, 128 kb/s
    Metadata:
       title           : filename.audio

Source: http://www.commandlinefu.com/commands/view/2207/get-video-information-with-ffmpeg

Using mplayer

  1. Install mplayer using the command sudo apt-get install mplayer.
  2. Run mplayer -vo null -ao null -identify -frames 0 /path/to/file

  3. The output you get is similar to this:

    Playing Path/To/File.
libavformat version 53.21.1 (external)
Mismatching header version 53.19.0
AVI file format detected.
ID_VIDEO_ID=0
[aviheader] Video stream found, -vid 0
ID_AUDIO_ID=1
[aviheader] Audio stream found, -aid 1
VIDEO:  [XVID]  640x360  12bpp  25.000 fps  1031.9 kbps (126.0 kbyte/s)
Load subtitles in Path/To/File
ID_FILENAME=Path/To/File
ID_DEMUXER=avi
ID_VIDEO_FORMAT=XVID
ID_VIDEO_BITRATE=1031880
ID_VIDEO_WIDTH=640
ID_VIDEO_HEIGHT=360
ID_VIDEO_FPS=25.000
ID_VIDEO_ASPECT=0.0000
ID_AUDIO_FORMAT=85
ID_AUDIO_BITRATE=127992
ID_AUDIO_RATE=0
ID_AUDIO_NCH=0
ID_START_TIME=0.00
ID_LENGTH=4206.16
ID_SEEKABLE=1
ID_CHAPTERS=0
==========================================================================
Opening video decoder: [ffmpeg] FFmpeg's libavcodec codec family
libavcodec version 53.35.0 (external)
Mismatching header version 53.32.2
Unsupported PixelFormat 61
Unsupported PixelFormat 53
Unsupported PixelFormat 81
Selected video codec: [ffodivx] vfm: ffmpeg (FFmpeg MPEG-4)
==========================================================================
ID_VIDEO_CODEC=ffodivx
==========================================================================
Requested audio codec family [mpg123] (afm=mpg123) not available.
Enable it at compilation.
Opening audio decoder: [ffmpeg] FFmpeg/libavcodec audio decoders
AUDIO: 48000 Hz, 2 ch, floatle, 128.0 kbit/4.17% (ratio: 16000->384000)
ID_AUDIO_BITRATE=128000
ID_AUDIO_RATE=48000
ID_AUDIO_NCH=2
Selected audio codec: [ffmp3float] afm: ffmpeg (FFmpeg MPEG layer-3 audio)
==========================================================================
AO: [null] 48000Hz 2ch floatle (4 bytes per sample)
ID_AUDIO_CODEC=ffmp3float
Starting playback...


Exiting... (End of file)
ID_EXIT=EOF

Source: https://superuser.com/a/55802

share|improve this answer
    
exiftool is good for simple the output format, for example I wanted to see video codecs of my AVI files, and highlight those in "divx", and obtained with this script: exiftool * | grep "Video Codec\|File Name" | grep --color -E '^|divx' – Pisu Nov 26 '16 at 16:30

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