command linelinuxvideo
I'd like to see from command line all informations pertaining to a given video file, including length, quality, bitrate, resolution, audio and video formats, number and language of audio streams and subtitles, and so on; the more, the best.
Right now I must resort on the "information" tab of VLC because even Dolphin file manager isn't helping me with this: it shows me only some of these informations and just for some formats (i.e. .mkv doesn't seem supported that way).
Most players will have a way of giving this information. It may also be provided by the OS, depending on which one you are using (Windows 7 shows it in the status pane).
In any case, what you can do is to install a shell-extension like MediaInfo to give you this information on demand.
Further to Crazy Buddy's answer, have a look at using CoreAVC in conjunction with MPC-HC (or even MPC-BE, a fork of the project). CoreAVC, while a commercial solution, includes a rendering engine that is unmatched by VLC or codecs included with the CCCP.
If you go this route, you'll need to load the CoreAVC .ax files (codec files) in the External Filters section of MPC, and you'll need to set it to "prefer". Here is a seudo-example I found on the web: 
Best Answer
Give mediainfo a try. On the command line type
mediainfo input.mkv. For more detailed video informationmediainfo --fullscan input.mkv.Output example:
General Unique ID : 239093944660469735839645243666869007606 (0xB3DFD199E22F0E7CBAE1FE52206834F6) Complete name : input.mkv Format : Matroska Format version : Version 2 File size : 39.6 MiB Duration : 20s 288ms Overall bit rate mode : Variable Overall bit rate : 16.4 Mbps Movie name : My best movie Encoded date : UTC 2012-11-10 16:42:02 Writing application : mkvmerge v5.8.0 ('No Sleep / Pillow') built on Sep 2 2012 15:37:04 Writing library : libebml v1.2.3 + libmatroska v1.3.0 Produzent : ??? ??????? Thanks to : Bruce Davey Lead performer : Rudy Youngblood Remixed by : ©???? Video ID : 1 Format : AVC Format/Info : Advanced Video Codec Format profile : High@L4.0 MultiView_Count : 2 Format settings, CABAC : Yes Format settings, ReFrames : 2 frames Format settings, GOP : M=2, N=13 Muxing mode : Header stripping Codec ID : V_MPEG4/ISO/AVC Duration : 20s 280ms Bit rate mode : Variable Bit rate : 15.8 Mbps Maximum bit rate : 16.0 Mbps Width : 1 920 pixels Height : 1 080 pixels Display aspect ratio : 16:9 Frame rate mode : Constant Frame rate : 25.000 fps Color space : YUV Chroma subsampling : 4:2:0 Bit depth : 8 bits Scan type : Interlaced Scan order : Top Field First Bits/(Pixel*Frame) : 0.304 Stream size : 38.2 MiB (96%) Title : Sony Hardware Video H.264 Encoder Language : English Default : Yes Forced : No Audio ID : 2 Format : AC-3 Format/Info : Audio Coding 3 Mode extension : CM (complete main) Format settings, Endianness : Big Muxing mode : Header stripping Codec ID : A_AC3 Duration : 20s 288ms Bit rate mode : Constant Bit rate : 256 Kbps Channel(s) : 2 channels Channel positions : Front: L R Sampling rate : 48.0 KHz Bit depth : 16 bits Compression mode : Lossy Delay relative to video : -80ms Stream size : 634 KiB (2%) Title : Sony Hardware Audio AC3 Encoder Language : Russian Default : Yes Forced : No Text ID : 3 Format : PGS Muxing mode : zlib Codec ID : S_HDMV/PGS Codec ID/Info : The same subtitle format used on BDs/HD-DVDs Title : Sony Hardware PGS Encoder Language : English Default : Yes Forced : No