Read BWF header

Help & Support
1

Is there a way of reading the metadata in the BWF (Broadcast Wave File) header of a .WAV file?

I want to have a column with the original date created, rather than the date a copy was created. I can find the info in an audio programme, such as Adobe Audition, but can't see how to get Directory Opus to display it.

Thanks,

David

2

I'm not familiar with BWF or the software for it, but if you can display the information in a column in Explorer then it can be displayed in Opus as well. It may require a shell extension be installed, which may or may not exist for the format.

A script add-in could potentially add a column as well, if the format is something which could be parsed via a script. It would require some programming, however.

3

Hi Leo,

WAV files are full fat audio files rather than the data reduced mp3s etc. A BWF (Broadcast Wave File) file is just a WAV file with a header containing metadata. Digital Audio software used for editing and mixing audio tends to be able to read this header.

I have opened a BWF WAV file in Notepad++ and here is an example of the date information contained in the header:
<BWF_ORIGINATION_DATE>2016-09-02</BWF_ORIGINATION_DATE>

Directory Opus is capable of reading the metadata contained in audio mp3s I was just curious to know if anything similar existed for WAV files, or is there a plug in I can use to extract that line of data from the header?

I cannot display the information in Explorer.

Liking version 12, especially the bigger back and up arrows - much easier with a tablet and big fingers!

Thanks,

David

4

An Opus plugin could be written (we provide an API for it, and example source code for several other audio/tag formats), but no one has made one so far.

Shell extensions (another type of plugin) can also be written to provide the data via Explorer columns, which can also be used in Opus. It's possible that already exists, but it's not a format I use myself so I don't know what's out there.

5

Thanks for the reply, Leo.

It might be interesting to see if it could be done. It might be beyond my capabilities but you never know. How would you recommend I proceed with developing an Opus plug in?

Thanks, David

6

Plugin SDK: gpsoft.com.au/DScripts/download.asp

Audio Tags plugin source code: pretentiousname.com/pnop_source/index.html