GPS location metadata format in movies for import into LR classic

[Stefan34479412uq6u]

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?

[JohanElzenga]

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.

[Stefan34479412uq6u]

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

[johnrellis]

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.

[johnrellis · Accepted solution]

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.

[Stefan34479412uq6u]

This works! 🙂  You can only use decimal coordinates:

exiftool -xmp:gpslatitude=53.21 -xmp:gpslongitude=8.7654 PATH_TO_MP4

[johnrellis]

"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.

[Stefan34479412uq6u]

Oh, my bad.  I ment "also" – you can also use decimal numbers 🙂