About metadata



In a media player application, metadata shows the viewer information about the stream, provides searchable keywords, and injects useful, human-readable identifiers into the binary stream. Flash Media Live Encoder handles metadata differently depending on the file encoding:

  • For FLV files, Flash Media Live Encoder embeds metadata elements in the streams and media files that it creates.

  • For F4V files, Flash Media Live Encoder embeds only custom metadata—metadata that you add through the GUI—in the file. It sends standard metadata with the stream only.

Flash Media Live Encoder embeds the following custom metadata fields for FLV and F4V files, which you can populate with information for your media stream:

  • author

  • copyright

  • description

  • keywords

  • rating

  • title

Standard metadata differs slightly for FLV files and F4V files, and for whether the media is a file or a live stream; see FLV metadata and F4V metadata.

You can create your own metadata fields and delete any existing fields. See Add metadata values and Create and delete metadata fields.

Note: Metadata is not available in FLV or F4V files if Flash Media Live Encoder terminates abnormally during an encoding session.

FLV metadata

  • audiochannels

  • audiocodecid

  • audiodatarate

  • audiodevice

  • audioinputvolume

  • audiosamplerate

  • creationdate

  • duration (media files only)

  • fmleversion (Flash Media Live Encoder version) (media files only)

  • framerate

  • height

  • lastkeyframetimestamp (media files only)

  • lasttimestamp (media files only)

  • presetname

  • videocodecid

  • videodatarate

  • videodevice

  • videokeyframe_frequency

  • width

F4V metadata

Standard metadata for F4V files is sent with the encoded stream only. It is not embedded in the F4V file. Custom metadata—metadata fields that you add through the Flash Media Live Encoder GUI—is embedded in the F4V file. The custom metadata fields are author, copyright, description, keywords, rating, and title. Standard metadata fields are as follows:

  • audiochannels

  • audiocodecid

  • audiodatarate

  • audiodevice

  • audioinputvolume

  • audiosamplerate

  • avcprofile

  • avclevel

  • creationdate

  • framerate

  • height

  • presetname

  • videocodecid

  • videodatarate

  • videodevice

  • videokeyframe_frequency

  • width

Add metadata values

  1. From the Panel Options menu on the right side of the Encoding Options tabbed panel, select Metadata.

  2. Add values to any of the metadata fields. For example, to record a copyright date of 2010, enter 2010 in the Copyright metadata field.

Create and delete metadata fields

Any custom metadata fields that you add through the Flash Media Live Encoder GUI are embedded in an F4V file. Standard F4V metadata is not embedded.

  1. From the Panel Options menu on the right side of the Encoding Options tabbed panel, select Metadata.

  2. To add a new metadata field to the list, click the + icon and enter a field name. Do not add field names that are already included in the standard metadata set.

  3. To delete an existing field from the list, select the field and click the - icon.