New MP4 Field Requests ©dir and ©wrt

[CamdenTommy]

@arb

So here’s the low-down:

• Sadly, it’s unlikely Plex is going to add further support for MP4 tags/atoms/whatever so fields like DIRECTOR ©dir aren’t going to work, no matter what changes are made to Mp3Tag or any other editing software.
• That doesn’t mean you can’t use DIRECTOR in your workflow to get what you want working in Plex, though…
• Check this out: Apple and Plex can read cast, directors, producers, screen-writers and copyright from a local file using an external XML file called ITUNMOVI like what @AreDigg has shown.
• Here’s the best bit: instead of an external file, Apple and Plex can actually read it from inside an MP4 using a custom ITUNMOVI tag you can set with Mp3Tag.
• If you have iTunes or Apple TV installed, you can copy-paste an example of a whole XML into an ITUNMOVI tag then import an MP4 to prove it works before attempting with Plex again.
• I don’t use Plex so admittedly I can’t guarantee it’ll work but check things like you have the Local Media Assets agents enabled and doing The Plex Dance ™. I’m also uncertain if it’ll show up in Plex’s own metadata editor but that’s not too bad a problem.

Hopefully by now it’s working but obviously it’s a hassle trying to edit multiple fields in an XML for however many files. When the time comes and you’re ready, I made this bad boy:

Create iTunMOVI.mta (2.1 KB)

• Refer to this to install the action into the \Mp3tag\data\actions folder.
• Save what you want into ACTOR, DIRECTOR, PRODUCER, WRITER and COPYRIGHT tags (ACTOR is based on an MKV tag and WRITER is totally custom.)
• Select an MP4 in Mp3Tag, run that action and it’ll create ITUNMOVI using the values of those tags for you. Double-check with Extended Tags and maybe even set up a wee Column value or a Tag Panel field using %itunmovi% so it’s easier to check.
• If you need to refresh an ITUNMOVI tag, delete it from your file and run the action again.
• If you want to change what tags are used (something like CAST or WRITTEN_BY), we can help you set that up

Copilot likes your answer, in fact I think you’ve impressed the AI. Copilot is going to give me the background on using ItunMOVI and XML - fortunately I’ve written in markup languages before, including HTML and an IBM mainframe report generator called SCRIPT, so your suggestion might be something I can manage, although I’m not sure I’m going to think it’s worth the trouble for everyday use. But it might be fun to work through it as a proof of concept. Following is what Copilot said:

This is actually the first reply in the thread that:
• acknowledges Plex’s limitations
• acknowledges Mp3tag’s limitations
• gives you a workable path
• doesn’t require Florian to change Mp3tag
• doesn’t require Plex to change
• doesn’t require you to switch tools
• doesn’t require you to learn MP4 atom internals
arb is giving you a practical workaround that:
• Mp3tag already supports
• Plex already supports
• Apple already supports
• requires no new features
• works today
And he even wrote an action that auto‑generates the XML for you.
That’s actually generous.

[arb]

Thank you (and thanks Copilot, I guess..? )

Only recommendation is try it out first, then we’ll see if anything else needs resolved.

I’ve got faith then that you’ll be able to edit that action using a text editor to change the %tag% and $meta_sep(tag) to whatever other tag labels you’d prefer to generate the XML quickly.

There are other options to getting directors etc. into Plex but this is more direct to your request.

[CamdenTommy]

OK I formatted the XML with indentations so I could get the gist of it and I didn’t use it properly before. I’m going to give it another shot.

[CamdenTommy]

OK I formatted the XML with indentations so I could get the gist of it and I didn’t use it properly before. I’m going to give it another shot.

[CamdenTommy]

@arb

So here’s the low-down:

• Sadly, it’s unlikely Plex is going to add further support for MP4 tags/atoms/whatever so fields like DIRECTOR ©dir aren’t going to work, no matter what changes are made to Mp3Tag or any other editing software.
• That doesn’t mean you can’t use DIRECTOR in your workflow to get what you want working in Plex, though…
• Check this out: Apple and Plex can read cast, directors, producers, screen-writers and copyright from a local file using an external XML file called ITUNMOVI like what @AreDigg has shown.
• Here’s the best bit: instead of an external file, Apple and Plex can actually read it from inside an MP4 using a custom ITUNMOVI tag you can set with Mp3Tag.
• If you have iTunes or Apple TV installed, you can copy-paste an example of a whole XML into an ITUNMOVI tag then import an MP4 to prove it works before attempting with Plex again.
• I don’t use Plex so admittedly I can’t guarantee it’ll work but check things like you have the Local Media Assets agents enabled and doing The Plex Dance ™. I’m also uncertain if it’ll show up in Plex’s own metadata editor but that’s not too bad a problem.

Hopefully by now it’s working but obviously it’s a hassle trying to edit multiple fields in an XML for however many files. When the time comes and you’re ready, I made this bad boy:

Create iTunMOVI.mta (2.1 KB)

• Refer to this to install the action into the \Mp3tag\data\actions folder.
• Save what you want into ACTOR, DIRECTOR, PRODUCER, WRITER and COPYRIGHT tags (ACTOR is based on an MKV tag and WRITER is totally custom.)
• Select an MP4 in Mp3Tag, run that action and it’ll create ITUNMOVI using the values of those tags for you. Double-check with Extended Tags and maybe even set up a wee Column value or a Tag Panel field using %itunmovi% so it’s easier to check.
• If you need to refresh an ITUNMOVI tag, delete it from your file and run the action again.
• If you want to change what tags are used (something like CAST or WRITTEN_BY), we can help you set that up

Copilot likes your answer, in fact I think you’ve impressed the AI. Copilot is going to give me the background on using ItunMOVI and XML - fortunately I’ve written in markup languages before, including HTML and an IBM mainframe report generator called SCRIPT, so your suggestion might be something I can manage, although I’m not sure I’m going to think it’s worth the trouble for everyday use. But it might be fun to work through it as a proof of concept. Following is what Copilot said:

This is actually the first reply in the thread that:
• acknowledges Plex’s limitations
• acknowledges Mp3tag’s limitations
• gives you a workable path
• doesn’t require Florian to change Mp3tag
• doesn’t require Plex to change
• doesn’t require you to switch tools
• doesn’t require you to learn MP4 atom internals
arb is giving you a practical workaround that:
• Mp3tag already supports
• Plex already supports
• Apple already supports
• requires no new features
• works today
And he even wrote an action that auto‑generates the XML for you.
That’s actually generous.

@AreDigg

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>directorsnameMP3Tag Director

Thanks to everyone who contributed — I appreciate the explanations, examples, and the ITUNMOVI workaround. After working through the details, I think I finally understand what’s going on.
The short version is:
the limitation isn’t in Mp3tag. It’s in Plex’s MP4 metadata support.
Mp3tag can write the fields I need, and the MP4 container supports the atoms for Director/Writer, but Plex doesn’t ingest those atoms. Plex only reads a small subset of MP4 metadata plus the legacy ITUNMOVI XML block. That explains why the DIRECTOR and WRITER fields never show up in Plex regardless of how they’re tagged.
The ITUNMOVI approach does work as a proof of concept, and I appreciate the action that was shared. But since it requires generating a full XML block per file, it’s not a practical long‑term solution for my workflow.
So while the underlying problem isn’t solved, I now understand that Mp3tag isn’t the right place to solve it. The bottleneck is Plex’s limited MP4 ingestion, not Mp3tag’s tagging capabilities.
Thanks again to everyone who helped clarify this, especially arb and AreDigg. I’m going to consider the thread resolved from the Mp3tag side.

[arb]

Just to ask and quickly try and help, what’s impractical about attaching XML per file in regards to your workflow? While it looks complicated at first glance and I was honestly a bit deterred (still annoyed a company like Plex can’t just support basic metadata )… there’s really not much data storage required and there’s basically no other options that allow using metadata saved directly into the MP4 file itself.

Please, by all means explore the other options Plex uses to read and display metadata about a director. There are solutions but they require far more work or at least more research outside the realm of MP4 metadata.

Do consider that the action provided is designed to simplify inserting the DIRECTOR tag - that you’ve stated you already use to store this metadata - into a valid XML format then automatically inserts the XML into an ITUNMOVI tag so that Plex can finally recognise your DIRECTOR metadata. It’s effectively the easiest solution to your problem.

[ohrenkino]

@CamdenTommy

Creating a COMPOSER field doesn’t generate a ©wrt atom for MP4 — at least not in my testing. Mp3tag writes COMPOSER to the appropriate ID3/Vorbis/APEv2 frames, but it doesn’t map COMPOSER → ©wrt for MP4.

It does.
Here is a sample file with a COMPOSER field and the data "Anything can <happen>" and DIRECTOR with "MP3tagDirector" and the desired atoms, as can be seen in a hex dump:

So your statement that MP3tag cannot create the atoms is simply not correct.
I do not doubt that Plex does not read them. But that is out of the scope of MP3tag's influence.

[CamdenTommy]

I misunderstood the process - if my current understanding is correct then it will be eminently practical. I still need to wrap my head around it and understand the implications of what happens (if anything) when a new version of Mp3tag is installed, etc. But I’m going to pursue it.

[ohrenkino]

@CamdenTommy

but no "Actions..."

If you have a ready-made mta file, you have to put it into the configuration folder (see File>Open configuration folder) and there into data\actions.
If you do not have an mta file, you have to create a new action group with Actions>Actions Alt-6 > New
In which you add all the actio commands that you want to execute.

[arb]

Please pay more attention to what we’re trying to explain to you, rather than summarising everything in Copilot. I’m sure you’re using it for genuine and helpful reasons but it can only make educated assumptions, it cannot do the actual reading for you.

@ohrenkino has offered how to find where to put any new actions but you still need to download the new action I provided as it is not pre-installed in Mp3Tag. I’ll quote the instructions from before and remember to click the blue links for more details:

@arb

Create iTunMOVI.mta (2.1 KB)

• Refer to this to install the action into the \Mp3tag\data\actions folder.
• In Mp3Tag, save what you want into ACTOR, DIRECTOR, PRODUCER, WRITER and COPYRIGHT tags into an MP4 (ACTOR is based on an MKV tag and WRITER is totally custom.)
• With the MP4 selected, run that action and it’ll create ITUNMOVI using the values of those tags for you. Double-check with Extended Tags and maybe even set up a wee Column value or a Tag Panel field using %itunmovi% so it’s easier to check.
• If you need to refresh an ITUNMOVI tag, delete it from your file and run the action again.
• If you want to change what tags are used (something like CAST or WRITTEN_BY), we can help you set that up

Infact: before you even think about the action, please first check that a properly formatted ITUNMOVI tag will indeed work in Plex.

[CamdenTommy]

Status Update on MP4 Director/Writer Tagging

I wanted to share a quick progress report on my exploration of getting “Director” and “Writer” from Mp3tag into Plex using the iTunMOVI tag. I’ve been digging through this and older Plex and Mp3tag threads, running some controlled tests, and trying to make sure that the process still works today.

A few things I’ve learned so far:

• Historically, Plex did ingest iTunMOVI XML for fields like cast, studio, directors, and screenwriters. There are examples from 2016–2018 showing this working, and the XML structure used in those examples matches the Apple‑style nested name format.

• Mp3tag can embed iTunMOVI in the MP4 container without any trouble, and arb’s “Create iTunMOVI.mta” Mp3tag Action appears to generate XML consistent with those older examples.

• What I haven’t yet confirmed is whether Plex still ingests this metadata in 2026. Before drawing any conclusions, I’m testing a few hand‑crafted XML samples to see whether Plex will pick them up in a clean, controlled MP4‑only library that prioritizes embedded metadata.

• Once I know whether Plex will recognize and process iTunMOVI at all, I’ll have a clearer sense of whether automation (like arb’s “Create iTunMOVI.mta“ Mp3tag Action) would make using the iTunMOVI tag practical. Without automation, the tag is far too cumbersome to use on a regular basis.

One thing I don’t understand is why, if this process works for Plex — and would presumably also work for Emby and Jellyfin — adding support directly to Mp3tag is considered out of the question, instead of relying on a user‑maintained workaround.

I’ll post another update once I’ve verified whether Plex can read iTunMOVI in current versions. In the meantime, if anyone has successfully used iTunMOVI recently to populate Director or Writer in Plex, I’d love to hear about it. At this point it’s hard to know whether the failure to deliver (for example) Director data from Mp3tag to Plex is because Plex refuses to process it, or because I’m not doing it correctly.

[MotleyG]

@CamdenTommy

One thing I don’t understand is why, if this process works for Plex — and would presumably also work for Emby and Jellyfin — adding support directly to Mp3tag is considered out of the question, instead of relying on a user‑maintained workaround.

More correctly, it would be great if Plex would properly look at the file's embedded metadata as a first priority. I am guessing they run on the assumption most users do not maintain their data so instead choose to try to lookup information on the web first. Unfortunately for those of us that do keep meticulous data, we are left to using these hammers to force Plex to see what we want.

[CamdenTommy]

Doesn’t really matter in the grand scheme of things, but the documentation on installing Actions in Mp3tag that I was working from started with an “Actions…” option in the “Actions” menu, and only after a couple of hours of chasing my tail looking for why it was missing did it become apparent that it has, for some unknown reason, been removed. I still don’t understand why it’s no longer there but it is what it is (or in this case, it isn’t what it isn’t).

[Doug_Mackie]

@CamdenTommy

...the documentation on installing Actions in Mp3tag that I was working from started with an “Actions…” option in the “Actions” menu, and only after a couple of hours of chasing my tail looking for why it was missing did it become apparent that it has, for some unknown reason, been removed.

Please tell us the name of this action, what it did, and how you want to use it here.

[arb]

@arb

Create iTunMOVI.mta (2.1 KB)

• Refer to this to install the action into the \Mp3tag\data\actions folder.
• In Mp3Tag, save what you want into ACTOR, DIRECTOR, PRODUCER, WRITER and COPYRIGHT tags into an MP4 (ACTOR is based on an MKV tag and WRITER is totally custom.)
• With the MP4 selected, run that action and it’ll create ITUNMOVI using the values of those tags for you. Double-check with Extended Tags and maybe even set up a wee Column value or a Tag Panel field using %itunmovi% so it’s easier to check.
• If you need to refresh an ITUNMOVI tag, delete it from your file and run the action again.
• If you want to change what tags are used (something like CAST or WRITTEN_BY), we can help you set that up

This one. I’ve installed Plex Media Server and now trying to look into how to get a DIRECTOR tag into Plex for @CamdenTommy with the hope it can instead be included in an ITUNMOVI tag so it might work.

[CamdenTommy]

There are currently 2 options/actions/variations of actions in the Actions pulldown menu: “Actions”, and “Actions (Quick)”. There apparently was also a 3rd action in the Actions menu: “Actions…”. The 3rd action either never existed, or existed at one time but has been removed, or only appears under certain circumstances.

[CamdenTommy]

Right, I copied and pasted your Action into the proper folder and tried loading this XML into the extended tag iTunMOVI, so far without success:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?> director name Florian Heidenreich

[arb]

That XML isn’t properly formatted. Ignore the action for a second and try putting this into ITUNMOVI:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>

<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">

<plist version="1.0">
	<dict>
		<key>directors</key>
		<array>
			<dict>
				<key>name</key>
				<string>Florian Heidenreich</string>
			</dict>
		</array>
	</dict>
</plist>

I’ll also just quickly say I’ve tried it in Plex and it works. I’ll post further findings afterwards

[CamdenTommy]

It would appear that the community forum software doesn’t like nested formatted XML. Here’s the flattened version of the most recent XML I tried: But I’m glad you’re also giving it a shot because it would possibly be useful for you to know whether your Action works with Plex. <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?> director name Florian Heidenreich

[CamdenTommy]

@arb

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>

<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">

<plist version="1.0">
	<dict>
		<key>directors</key>
		<array>
			<dict>
				<key>name</key>
				<string>Florian Heidenreich</string>
			</dict>
		</array>
	</dict>
</plist>

The difference in the HTML I see is that you’re using “directors” and I’m using “director”. I assumed, apparently incorrectly, that the key should be the field name as it appears in the mapping table. How did you know (and how would I know) the exact key name to use? (and yes I’m not using your action yet, just pasting the XML into the iTunMOVI tag manually)