Spotlight, iTunes, metadata, and mp4's???

claire_elis

Registered
So, I have been researching for days trying to find a solution to my 'problem' and I'm at wit's end! ANy suggestions would be GREATLY appreciated!

Background: I am trying to setup a system in my workplace that allows me to create a searchable video archive. This archive is made up of clips that WE have created; clips exported from eyeTV in .mp4 format, then place din folders according to date.

I want a system that allows me to attach a whole series of keywords to a video upon/just after export from eyeTV, then use some app that searches metadata tags (ie: Spotlight!) to do a search and find it.


So far I have:
- Tried using itunes >> importing video, entering keywords in "description" and then looking in Spotlight to see if it shows up. It doesnt. Spotlight doesnt seem to search this particular itunes tag, and my attempts to learn WHICH itunes tags spotlight DOES search have been unsuccessful.

- Considered Atomic Parsely: But if assigning keywords in Itunes doesnt work, why would this?.....

- considered Lostify: Ditto the above question...

- tried adding "description" info in eyeTV before exporting. But it just seems to dissapear into some great abyss post-export.

- contacted eyeTV: they suggested VLC, but for the life of me I couldnt figure out how to use it to add metadata.

- Looked at MeD's movie manager.. maybe... havent tested it yet...


The thing is, I'm trying to avoid having to 'import' my videos into yet ANOTHER app (such as iVideo) in order to create an archive, I'd really rather just have a simple way to add tags, then search+find. But Really, whatever solution will be simplest and most effective is what I am looking for.

oh, AND i have to keep a eye to the future; if we create an archive of 1000s of videos and then need to use a new archiving technology 3 years from now, and re-enter 5 keywords for each video..... :eek: Thats why I was focusing on metadata rather than archiving apps.

help?!
 
Hi,

I think I have the solution:

On MetaX website, you can download free app MetaX that contains a Spotlight plug-in capable of digging in the MP4 and M4V files and index all meta tags.

Making them searchable with Spotlight.

1. Download MetaX, and verify the Spotlight plug-in is installed.
You should have a file called MetaX Spotlight Plugin.mdimporter in your /Library/Spotlight/ folder.

2. Use your favorite metadata editor to add tags. I recommend to use SimpleMovieX, because it supports templates, so it's really fast to add tags when most of them are the same, and few of them change from file to file. Besides that, it works both for MOV and MP4, and supports files bigger than 4GB.

3. Start compiling your own video archive. Search is now much easier.

Regards, BJ
 
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