[help req]Getting file information

I'm new to these forums and new to CODECs in general, however, I know a bit about programming. I have been tasked with looking at the wrapper(?) inforation on a media file, lets say mp4 for now, to get the basic information like name of the content, encoding used, etc...

I've been diggina round and have found some rather large projects that must be doing this, however, the source is unfriendly (to be kind) in general as far as it's documentation goes. I've also founds standards and specs on various CODECs, and they too are quite complex. I would have thought that someone would have slready done what I"m trying to do and written a nice primer (or howto I suppose) on the header information on these files.

So, this seeming to be the place for very wise brain-power I'll pose my main questions here:

Is there a good resource for learning the header(?) infomration from various media files?
If not, how does one generally figure it out on their own? Trial and error, or pour through the ancient grimoires written in middle english on the subject?

Thank you in advance for any help!
Adam

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