Hello, when testing ingest of a folder with DC metadata, all is going ok except an M4A audio file which renders as ‘Video’ in the automated ‘Type’ field. The metadata I have uploaded for this file has the type (MIME type) as audio/mp4. Is it rendering as video because I have this wrong, or because M4A is just a strange format? The audio file is playable in Preservica. Thanks in advance for any help or insight!
Hi Kelly, Yes M4A is an interesting one as it uses the MP4 container format and to date PRONOM doesn’t distinguish between many different formats that use that container - this means the the file instances will ID as fmt/199 - MP4, which is associated with our video renderer.
I’m keen to improve identification of M4A - would it be possible to provide me with an example or two: david.clipsham (at) preservica.com?
David
File Format Analyst
Hi David, thanks so much for the reply!
Of course, will send you some examples. Is it best to screengrab from in preservica to show you how it’s displaying, or do you mean of the actual M4A files.
Yes, DROID didn’t characterise it as anything so checking on PRONOM I input the type as audio/mp4. Ah I understand about the container now - thank you!
Will send you an email today. Thanks!
Kelly
Thanks Kelly, yes just a couple of M4A example files would be great. I have some of my own, but want to make sure yours have the same characteristics for format identification.
David
For any observers, Kelly has provided me with some examples and I’ve tested with some of my own also. I’ve submitted a request to add M4A as a new entry in PRONOM: New format: M4A Audio · Issue #144 · digital-preservation/PRONOM_Research. Once that has been added I’ll then be able to merge it in to Preservica, and add any required functionality, e.g. audio playback, appropriate migration pathways.
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