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OK, you ripped a DVD you own using an application like Handbrake or downloaded a video file so you can add it to iTunes and play it on your iPod, iPhone or Apple TV. What you may have realized is the ID3 tagging system in iTunes is a bit limited. In fact it does not allow you to add information for some fields at all such as description and rating. Here is were MetaX comes in. It automatically retrieves tag information from Amazon and Yahoo!
MetaX is a meta-data tagger for MP4 and QuickTime movie files. It uses a modified version of Atomic Parsley at it’s core to write the tags. MetaX will automatically search the internet for movie posters and search IMDb for movie and TV show information (Amazon and Yahoo). MetaX can use your iSight camera as a bar scanner to a lot of the work for you. Scan your DVD barcode and MetaX will search for the tags.
Files can be added to your iTunes library automatically after writing tags. Your tag data is automatically archived, and can be exported to share with your friends. MetaX also supports a preset feature so you do not have to add tags for TV shows as you get each episode. MetaX includes a plugin found in preferences that allows you at re-write the tags for movies and TV shows you already have in iTunes.
MetaX can directly write meta data tags to mp4, m4v, m4a, m4b, m4p, and mov files. Other formats such as avi can only be tagged if they are first placed inside a QuickTime mov container. This can be done with QuickTime Pro.
I found the application to work pretty well and be very useful. I did experience some bugs however. The bar scanner did not always work for me. It could not write ever file I asked it to, but this is to be expected since the files I was testing came from various sources. Most times it worked well. I found MetaX better than the other tagging apps I have tried.
MetaX 2.3.5 is available as a free download for Mac OS X Leopard and MetaX 2.3.0 is Tiger compatible. If you find the software helpful make a donation to the developer.
Two other tagging solutions for the Mac are vID Infiltr8 and Lostify.
