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Stefan34479412uq6u
Participant
December 27, 2023
Answered

GPS location metadata format in movies for import into LR classic

  • December 27, 2023
  • 2 replies
  • 1007 views

Movies shot with an iPhone contain the GPS location in a format that LR classic can understand when importing these files.

 

Movies shot with a "normal" camera do not contain GPS data. I wan't to add a GPS location to movies before importing them into LR (e.g., with `exiftool`), because LR is not able to save GPS locations to movies.

 

Some research suggested to use "Keys:GPSCoordinates" for exiftool (`exiftool -Keys:GPSCoordinates="{latitude},{longitude} {path}`).  When I add GPS coordinates this way, macOS and the Photos.app show that location. However, when I import the same file into LR classig, no GPS coordinates are shown. It works as expected with iPhone movies, so I don’t think it’s an issue with the import settings (and I also made sure to have no import/metadata preset enabled).

 

I compared the metadata of an iPhone movie an a "camera" movie with `ffprobe` and `exiftool` but I don’s see any obvious differences.  The major exception is the missing altitude in the "camera" movie, but passing "0" as altitude in the `exiftool` command shown above doesn’t change anything.

 

In which format does LR expected GPS coordinates in movies to be in order to properly import them?

    This topic has been closed for replies.
    Correct answer johnrellis

    I too observe that GPS coordinates set with "exiftool -keys:gpscoordinates=..." on MP4 videos aren't imported by LR, though they are with Quicktime videos. (DSLRs and other cameras typically produce MP4s, while Apple devices produce Quicktime.)

     

    I haven't dug deeply into the issue, but there are two possible explanations: 

     

    - LR could be handling Apple videos specially (it does this with capture date, for example).

     

    - Though the two formats are nearly identical, perhaps LR is treating them differently with respect to GPS coordinates.

     

    It's not likely Adobe would fix LR to handle this better -- Adobe effectively abandoned further support for video after LR 4.

     

    A workaround is to use the XMP metadata fields rather than the Quicktime fields:

     

    exiftool -xmp:gpslatitude="36 deg 22' 0.48\" N" -xmp:gpslongitude="121 deg 15' 47.52\" W" -xmp:gpsaltitude="354.89 m" MVI_0514.MP4

     

     

    I've successfully tested this with a few MP4s in my LR 13.1. Beware that fewer apps will recognize the XMP GPS fields than the Quicktime GPS fields.

    2 replies

    johnrellis
    johnrellisCorrect answer
    Legend
    December 28, 2023

    I too observe that GPS coordinates set with "exiftool -keys:gpscoordinates=..." on MP4 videos aren't imported by LR, though they are with Quicktime videos. (DSLRs and other cameras typically produce MP4s, while Apple devices produce Quicktime.)

     

    I haven't dug deeply into the issue, but there are two possible explanations: 

     

    - LR could be handling Apple videos specially (it does this with capture date, for example).

     

    - Though the two formats are nearly identical, perhaps LR is treating them differently with respect to GPS coordinates.

     

    It's not likely Adobe would fix LR to handle this better -- Adobe effectively abandoned further support for video after LR 4.

     

    A workaround is to use the XMP metadata fields rather than the Quicktime fields:

     

    exiftool -xmp:gpslatitude="36 deg 22' 0.48\" N" -xmp:gpslongitude="121 deg 15' 47.52\" W" -xmp:gpsaltitude="354.89 m" MVI_0514.MP4

     

     

    I've successfully tested this with a few MP4s in my LR 13.1. Beware that fewer apps will recognize the XMP GPS fields than the Quicktime GPS fields.

      S
      Stefan34479412uq6uAuthor
      Participant
      December 28, 2023

      This works! 🙂  You can only use decimal coordinates:

       

      exiftool -xmp:gpslatitude=53.21 -xmp:gpslongitude=8.7654 PATH_TO_MP4
      johnrellis
      johnrellis
      Legend
      December 28, 2023

      "You can only use decimal coordinates:"

       

      I'm able to use degrees/minutes/seconds, e.g. 

       

      $ exiftool -xmp:gpslatitude="36 22 0.48 N" -xmp:gpslongitude="121 15 47.52 W" -xmp:gpsaltitude="354.89 m" MVI_0514.MP4
    1 image files updated
$ exiftool -gpsposition MVI_0514.MP4
GPS Position: 36 deg 22' 0.48" N, 121 deg 15' 47.52" W

$ exiftool -xmp:gpslatitude="36 deg 22' 0.48\" N" -xmp:gpslongitude="121 deg 15' 47.52\" W" -xmp:gpsaltitude="354.89 m" MVI_0514.MP4
    1 image files updated
$ exiftool -gpsposition MVI_0514.MP4
GPS Position: 36 deg 22' 0.48" N, 121 deg 15' 47.52" W

       

      But you've got to be careful about quoting the command line.

      JohanElzenga
      Community Expert
      JohanElzengaCommunity Expert
      Community Expert
      December 27, 2023

      I use Jeffrey Friedl's 'Geoencoding Support' plugin (http://regex.info/blog/lightroom-goodies/gps). It saves GPS location data to movies just fine if you have a GPX tracklog. Make sure you check the capture date of the videos and change them if needed. Lightroom often reads these wrongly because of poor specification of these data.

       

      -- Johan W. Elzenga
      S
      Stefan34479412uq6uAuthor
      Participant
      December 28, 2023

      The link seems to be broken, unfortunately.  I only get a "Not found".

      johnrellis
      johnrellis
      Legend
      December 28, 2023

      Friedl's web site is arguing with some web browsers, including Chrome, about the use of HTTPS.  Copy/paste this exact link, rather than clicking on it:

       

      http://regex.info/blog/lightroom-goodies/gps

       

      If that doesn't work, switching to another browser (e.g. Firefox or Safari) usually does.

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