Read a video file's metadata
How long, how big, how sharp — the basics of a clip without opening an editor or uploading anything.
Tools used in this guide
The job
Before transcoding or uploading you want duration, resolution, and a sense of the bitrate. The browser's own video element reads container metadata without decoding the stream.
Drop and read
Any format the browser understands — MP4, WebM, MOV — up to 500 MB. Report shows duration, pixel size, aspect ratio, megapixels, and the file's average bitrate.
Worked example
A 45 MB, 30 s, 1920×1080 clip reports ≈ 12 Mbps file bitrate — high for web delivery, a candidate for recompression.
Where it stops
Bitrate is size ÷ time — the container average, not per-track or per-scene. Codec names, frame rate, and audio layout aren't exposed by the video element.