re·dact v.

5. obsolete To bring together in one unit; to combine or bring together into one. 15th–16th c.
6. obsolete To gather or organize works or ideas into a unified whole; to collect, order, or write in a written document or to put into a particular written form. 15th–17th c.
7. obsolete, rare To insert or assimilate into a written system or scheme. 16th c.

Bulk Metadata Editing for Media Files

Metadata are the things you normally never see, but always need. If they can be written into the file, they're always there when you need them, so you don't have to rely on scraping them from somewhere else. These tools were created to help you see, correct, and update whatever information is written into your media files.

The ƆBZ Redactor

Edit ComicInfo.xml metadata in CBZ comic archives — title, series, credits, and more — plus lookups against Comic Vine, the Grand Comics Database, and Bedetheque or your own offline GCD and ComicRack databases, spotting and shrinking oversized scans, CBR/CBT/CB7 conversion, duplicate finding, and a one-click Redact.

The ƎPUB Redactor

Bulk-edit EPUB ebook metadata for Kobo and other e-readers, with Google Books / Open Library lookups (online, or from a local Open Library database you build), Clean Up Authors, duplicate finding, cover generation, Table of Contents generation, and format conversion via Calibre.

The ɯP3 Redactor

Check MP3 file integrity, detect BPM and musical key, measure loudness, look albums up on MusicBrainz (online, or from a local database you build) and Discogs, find duplicate tracks, and bulk-edit tags across a whole library at once.

The Ʌideo Redactor

Bulk-edit MKV/MP4 metadata with TMDB lookups, offline lookups in a local IMDb database you build, season/episode matching, subtitle fetching, file checks and repair, duplicate finding, and poster art — for movies, TV, and everything in between.

Why these exist

Embedded metadata is growing more and more important, but there are very few programs available to the private consumer to make these changes on a larger file set.

Following the same editing principles as Mp3tag (Florian Heidenreich, 1999), this suite of tools allows you to change:

• Comics
• Books
• Videos
• Music in addition to Mp3tag, not as a replacement for it

They all share the redactor_common repo for a unified appearance and functionality. There are enough format-specific differences to keep them as four separate apps rather than one big one.

Formats

Each app edits one native format in place, and can also pull in other formats by converting them first — via the same well-known external tools an mp3tag/Calibre/ffmpeg user would already recognize:

What all four share

Because they share redactor_common, the same things work the same way in every app:

• Redact: one click runs an editable recipe on the selected files. Each changed file is saved in place and its original goes to the Recycle Bin. Guesses are applied only above a confidence threshold; the rest is listed under Needs review.
• Move into folders in Rename / Export / Move, under a library root, with undo; and metadata from the folder path, the same kind of pattern read in reverse.
• Export / Import Settings to carry your setup to another computer. Secrets are never included.
• Preferences (Tools > Preferences, Ctrl+,): one shared dialog for the everyday settings, with OK / Cancel / Apply and Reset to Defaults per page. Settings keep their old places, so Export / Import Settings is unaffected.
• Find Duplicates: in the ƎPUB (Repair menu), ɯP3 (Analyze menu) and Ʌideo (Media menu) Redactors it opens the same review dialog, which shows how strong each match is and why, selects nothing for you, remembers groups you mark “Not duplicates”, and never trashes every file of a group. The ƆBZ Redactor has its own duplicate finder, matching comics by their pages.
• Command palette (Ctrl+K), one standard menu layout (File, Edit, View, the app’s own menus, Tools, Help), Open in Default App, and Ctrl+S to save every changed file.
• Keys and tokens in the credential store: where an app uses an online service key (Comic Vine and GCD in the ƆBZ Redactor; TMDB, TheTVDB and OpenSubtitles in the Ʌideo Redactor; a Discogs token in the ɯP3 Redactor), it is stored in your operating system’s credential store, not in a settings file.
• Safe in-place saves: a file is replaced only after the new copy is written and verified, so a failed save never loses the original.
• Windows and Linux: every release has a standalone .exe and a self-contained Linux download, and the tests run on Linux as part of each release build.

Sources at a glance

None of the four apps needs an outside source to edit, check or convert files. Where an app can look metadata up, it does so in three ways: from an online service, from a local database built from files you download yourself, or from the file itself (its name, folder, tags or text). Nothing is bundled and nothing is downloaded automatically; online sources are asked only when you run a lookup. Where a service needs a key or token, you register for it yourself and the app keeps it in your operating system’s credential store. Each app’s page has the full detail under “Where the metadata comes from”.

Online sources

Asked only when you run a lookup. Some need a free key or token that you register for yourself.

Local (offline) sources

Built from files you download and supply yourself; nothing is fetched for you. Details for each on its own page.

From the file itself

Six of the sources can be turned into an offline database that you build yourself from a file you download. The local databases, one by one lists the file each one needs, where it is used in the apps, how big it gets and its licence.

All of this is optional. With no key, no database and no network, every app still edits, checks and converts your files. Redact (above) uses a local database first when one is set up, then the online sources for whatever is still empty, and applies only matches above its confidence threshold.

Data and licences

The data belongs to the services and projects below, not to these apps. Local databases are your own private copy, built from files you download under each source’s own terms. Notices the sources ask for:

• Grand Comics Database (ƆBZ): comics.org states that GCD data is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 (CC BY-SA 4.0). Credit the Grand Comics Database, link the licence and say if you changed anything; data derived from it that you share must carry the same licence. GCD data is the work of GCD’s volunteers.
• Open Library (ƎPUB): Open Library says its catalogue was dedicated to the public domain by the libraries that donated it and that contributions are CC0 (its FAQ). No attribution is required.
• ISFDB (ƎPUB, next release): the Internet Speculative Fiction Database says its content is available under a Creative Commons Attribution licence. Credit the ISFDB and its contributors, whose work the series, series numbers and book data are; the app credits it under Help > Credits. The local database is your own private copy of the backup you download.
• MusicBrainz (ɯP3): only the core data, which is CC0 (public domain), is read from the dump. MusicBrainz’s other data (tags and genres, ratings, annotations) is under a non-commercial licence and is never used, so the offline lookup gives no genre.
• Discogs (ɯP3): the app shows a “Data from Discogs” note on Discogs data. This application uses Discogs’ API but is not affiliated with, sponsored or endorsed by Discogs.
• IMDb (Ʌideo): Information courtesy of IMDb (https://www.imdb.com). Used with permission. IMDb’s datasets are for personal, non-commercial use only; you may keep a local copy for your own use, but they must not be altered, republished, resold or repurposed to make a database for others, and IMDb may withdraw permission at any time. See IMDb’s conditions of use.
• TMDB (Ʌideo): This website uses TMDB and the TMDB APIs but is not endorsed, certified, or otherwise approved by TMDB.
• TheTVDB (Ʌideo): Metadata provided by TheTVDB. Please consider contributing missing information there, or supporting them directly.
• Comic Vine, Bedetheque, Google Books, Open Library’s web API, Calibre, AcoustID, Cover Art Archive, LRCLIB and OpenSubtitles: used through their public services under their own terms; you are bound by those terms when you use your own keys or run a lookup.

Get the tools

All four are free, open-source, and run on Windows and Linux (each release has a standalone .exe and a Linux download). Each app's page below has its full feature list and a link to the latest release:

• The ƆBZ Redactor — CBZ / ComicInfo.xml metadata editor
• The ƎPUB Redactor — EPUB ebook metadata editor
• The ɯP3 Redactor — MP3 tag & integrity tool
• The Ʌideo Redactor — MKV/MP4 metadata editor

Credits

The ƆBZ Redactor was inspired by two older comic-archive tools. ZenCBR’s behavior was studied; its code was never copied, and no code from either tool is used.

• ZenCBR by Shannon Larratt (2012), for scene-tag handling and name cleaning.
• CbxConverter by tomek-o, for the Size column and the Resize Images options.