Install avimetaedit with Homebrew

Project links

• Homepage

Commands and aliases

• avimetaedit

Project history

AVI MetaEdit originated in the cultural-heritage preservation world. The official MediaArea page says it was initially funded by the U.S. National Archives and Records Administration, supported by FADGI, designed and led by AVPreserve, and developed by MediaArea.

The upstream code history reflects that origin: the MediaArea repository is a fork of the U.S. National Archives `AVI-MetaEdit` repository, which was created in 2012. MediaArea's fork was created in 2015 and remains the active maintenance and release surface referenced by the product page.

The CLI and GUI histories record version 1.0.0 on 2012-01-18 and version 1.0.1 on 2017-09-26, with later MediaArea repository activity continuing for build, large-file, and platform maintenance.

Adoption history

AVI MetaEdit's adoption is more institutional than hobbyist: its official page names NARA, FADGI, AVPreserve, and MediaArea, and its features line up with audiovisual archive workflows rather than general video playback.

MediaArea provides binaries for Windows, macOS, Debian, Ubuntu, Fedora, Arch Linux, and source builds, while the batch input shows Homebrew packaging for the CLI. That mix makes it accessible to both preservation workstations and scripted Unix media pipelines.

How it is used

Users use AVI MetaEdit to inspect AVI structure, edit or embed LIST-INFO fields, import and export CORE documents as CSV or XML, validate rule sets, and calculate or embed MD5 data checksums. The options documentation also covers preferences that prevent overwrites, skip invalid files, and control OpenDML transformations.

The Homebrew package exposes the `avimetaedit` executable, making the project useful in automated metadata QA and repair flows where a GUI preservation tool also needs command-line packaging.

Why package nerds care

AVI MetaEdit is a good example of archival software entering general-purpose package managers. It is not a codec or player; it is a standards and metadata maintenance tool for a legacy container format that archives still need to preserve correctly.

The repo lineage also matters: NARA seeded the public-domain code, while MediaArea provides ongoing packaging, binaries, and maintenance. Package managers benefit from the current MediaArea surface while preserving the institutional origin.

Timeline

• 2012: U.S. National Archives repository created and version 1.0.0 history entry recorded.
• 2015: MediaArea fork created with homepage set to the MediaArea AVI MetaEdit page.
• 2017: Version 1.0.1 added current distribution packages and fixed macOS, metadata rewrite, and MD5 verification issues.
• 2026: MediaArea repository still receiving maintenance commits.

Related projects

• BWF MetaEdit, MOV MetaEdit, MediaInfo, MediaConch, QCTools, and DV Analyzer are related MediaArea preservation/media-analysis tools.
• FADGI and NARA are related preservation standards and institutional sources named by the official product page.

Sources

• https://github.com/MediaArea/AVIMetaEdit
• https://github.com/usnationalarchives/AVI-MetaEdit
• https://mediaarea.net/AVIMetaEdit
• https://raw.githubusercontent.com/MediaArea/AVIMetaEdit/master/History_CLI.txt
• https://raw.githubusercontent.com/MediaArea/AVIMetaEdit/master/History_GUI.txt