Multimedia container format

Draft

Definition

• “A container format is a computer file format that can contain various types of data, compressed by means of standardized audio/video codecs. The container file is used to identify and interleave the different data types. Simpler container formats can contain different types of audio codecs, while more advanced container formats can support multiple audio and video streams, subtitles, chapter-information, and meta-data (tags) - along with the synchronization information needed to play back the various streams together.” (Digital container format (Wikipedia), retrieved 15:56, 20 March 2007 (MET))

See also:

• Codec
• Digital video
• Video editing
• Video streaming

Usage contexts

• Multimedia animations, in particular of SMIL type, but modern formats (e.g. MPEG-4 include things like avatar animations.
• Video streaming (may include animations). See also Podcasting.
• Virtual environments made with vector graphics, but include video streams.
• CD Roms (may include all of the above)
• Videoconferencing

Popular Formats

Recommended for HTML5

• WebM - A video format designed to provide a royalty-free, high-quality open video compression format for use with HTML5 video. Read Wikipedia's WebM.
• MPEG-4 part 14, also called MP4. Read Wikipedia MPEG-4 Part 14.
• Ogg-Vorbis (Wikipedia Ogg). The only open source format.

Other web formats

• Flash (Wikipedia - Flash). Adobe

Other

• ASF (for the WMV format) and older AVI, part of Windows Media (Wikipedia - Windows Media)
• Quicktime (Wikipedia QuickTime) A MP4 implementation sponsored by Apple.
• RealAudio (Wikipedia RealAudio)

Links

• Digital container format (Wikipedia)
• Comparison of container formats (Wikipedia).
• A gentle introduction to video encoding by Mark Pilgrim
• Miro Video Converter Convert almost any video to MP4, WebM, Ogg