Comparison of video container formats
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Parts of this article (those related to License status) need to be updated.(November 2013) |
This table compares features of container formats (video file formats). To see which multimedia players support which container format, look at comparison of media players.
Information
Name and file extension | Proprietor / developer | License | Variable bit rate audio | Variable frame rate | Chapters | Captions / subtitles | Video coding formats | Audio coding formats | Metadata / tags | Menus[1] | Streaming | Attachment support[2] | 3D, codecs | 3D, container | Hardware players |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
3GP | 3GPP | ? | Yes | Yes | ? | 3GPP Timed Text | H.263, MPEG-4 Part 2 and H.264/MPEG-4 AVC | AMR-NB, AMR-WB, AMR-WB+, AAC, HE-AAC and HE-AAC v2 | ? | No | Yes[3] | ? | ? | ? | ? |
3G2 | 3GPP2 | ? | Yes | Yes | ? | 3GPP Timed Text | H.263, MPEG-4 Part 2 and H.264/MPEG-4 AVC | AMR-NB, AMR-WB, AAC, HE-AAC, EVRC, EVRC-B, EVRC-WB, 13K (QCELP), SMV or VMR-WB | ? | No | Yes | ? | ? | ? | ? |
Advanced Systems Format (.asf, .wma, .wmv) | Microsoft | Proprietary, patent encumbered | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Almost anything through VFW or DMO; H.264/AVC is problematic | Almost anything through ACM or DMO; Vorbis is problematic | Yes | No | Yes | ? | ? | ? | Yes |
AVI | Microsoft | ? | Yes[4] | Yes[5] | Yes, via third party modifications | Yes, via third party modifications | Almost anything through VFW | Almost anything through ACM; Vorbis is problematic [6] | Yes through RIFF chunks | No | No | No | ? | No | Yes |
DivX Media Format (.divx) | DivX, Inc. | ? | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | MPEG-4 Part 2 video encoded to meet DivX profiles | MP3, PCM, AC-3 | ? | Yes | Yes | ? | ? | ? | Yes |
EVO | DVD Form | Patent encumbered | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | MPEG-2 Part 2, H.264/MPEG-4 AVC, VC-1 | AC-3, E-AC-3, Dolby TrueHD, LPCM, DTS, DTS-HD, MPEG-2 Part 3 | ? | Yes | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
F4V (Flash Video) | Adobe Systems | Patent encumbered | ? | Yes | ? | ? | H.264/MPEG-4 AVC | MP3, AAC, HE-AAC[7] | Yes | No | Yes | ? | ? | ? | ? |
FLV (Flash Video) | Adobe Systems | Patent encumbered | ? | Yes | No | No | Sorenson, VP6, Screen Video, H.264/MPEG-4 AVC[8][9] | MP3, Nellymoser, ADPCM, LPCM, AAC,[10] Speex[11] | Yes | No | Yes | ? | ? | ? | ? |
Matroska (.mkv, .mk3d, .mka, .mks, .webm) | CoreCodec, Inc.[12] | Freely licensed[13] | Yes[14] | Yes[14] | Yes[15] | Yes[16] | Virtually anything | Virtually anything | Yes[17] | Pending[18] | Yes[19] | Yes[20] | Yes[21] | Yes[21] | Yes[22] |
MCF | Community | BSD-style license for specs, GNU for tools | Yes | Yes | Yes[23] | Yes[23] | Not fully specified | Not fully specified | Yes | Possible[24] | Yes[25] | Yes[23] | ? | ? | No |
MP4 | MPEG | Patent encumbered | Yes | Yes | In specially formatted text track (QuickTime); 2) In userdata atom (started by Nero Digital) can't interact with the sceneDescription, or via segmentDescriptor | ttxt, VobSubs with private objectTypeIndication not usable with the sceneDescription (started by Nero), BIFS | HEVC/MPEG-H Part 2/H.265,MPEG-2 Part 2, MPEG-4 ASP, H.264/MPEG-4 AVC, H.263, VC-1, Dirac, others[26] | MPEG-2/4 (HE)-AAC, MPEG-1/2 Layers I, II, III (MP3), AC-3, Apple Lossless, ALS, SLS, Vorbis(with private objectTypeIndication), others[26] | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? | Yes |
MPEG Video File (.mpg, .mpeg) | MPEG | Patent encumbered | Yes | Yes | No | No | MPEG-1, MPEG-2[27] | MPEG-1 Layers I, II, III (mp3), other formats only in private streams: LPCM[28] | No | No | Yes | ? | ? | ? | Yes |
MPEG program stream PS (.m2p, .ps) | MPEG | Patent encumbered | Yes | ? | Only in private streams — used in VOB files on DVDs | Only in private streams — used in VOB files on DVDs | MPEG-1, MPEG-2, MPEG-4 Part 2,[27] VC-1, H.264[29] | MPEG-1 Layers I, II, III (mp3), other formats only in private streams: AAC, AC-3, LPCM, DTS[28] | No | Only in private streams — used in VOB files on DVDs | ? | ? | ? | ? | Yes |
MPEG transport stream TS (.ts) | MPEG | Patent encumbered | Yes | Yes | No | possible via ETSI EN 300 743 | MPEG-1, MPEG-2 Part 2, MPEG-4 ASP, H.264, other formats in private streams: VC-1, Dirac[30] | MPEG-1 Layers I, II, III (mp3), AAC, other formats in private streams: AC-3, LPCM, DTS[30] | No | No | Yes | ? | ? | ? | Yes |
BDAV MPEG-2 transport stream (.m2ts) | Blu-ray Disc Association | Proprietary | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | MPEG-2 Part 2, H.264, VC-1 | AC-3, DTS, LPCM, Dolby Digital Plus, DTS HD, Dolby Lossless | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes[31] |
MXF | SMPTE | ? | Yes | Yes | ? | Yes | Virtually anything | Virtually anything | Yes | No | ? | ? | ? | ? | No |
Ogg | Xiph.org | Patent-free, Free software implementations available | Yes | Yes | Yes | Ogg Writ, Ogg Kate | Theora, Dirac, OggUVS, MNG and others,[32][33] and almost anything else via VFW | Vorbis, FLAC, Speex, Opus, OggPCM,[32][33] and almost anything else via ACM | CMML, Ogg Skeleton, Vorbis comment[34] | No | Yes | ? | ? | ? | Yes |
QuickTime (.mov, .qt) | Apple | Proprietary | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | MPEG-2 (OS X Lion or later),
MPEG-4 Part 2, H.264, H.263, H.261, Apple ProRes, Apple Pixlet, Cinepak, Component Video, DV, DVC Pro 50, Graphics, Motion JPEG, Photo JPEG, QuickTime Animation, Sorenson Video 2, Sorenson Video 3[35] |
AAC (MPEG-4 Audio),
HE-AAC, Apple Lossless, MP3, AMR Narrowband, MS ADPCM, QDesign Music 2, Qualcomm PureVoice (QCELP), IMA 4:1, MACE 3:1 (Mac OS X v10.6.x only), MACE 6:1 (Mac OS X v10.6.x only), ALaw 2:1, ULaw 2:1[35] |
Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
RMVB | RealNetworks | Proprietary | ? | Yes | ? | Yes | RealVideo 8, 9, 10 | (HE)-AAC, Cook Codec, Vorbis, RealAudio Lossless | ? | No | Yes | ? | ? | ? | ? |
VOB+IFO | DVD Forum | Proprietary | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | MPEG-2 Part 2, MPEG-1 Part 2 | AC-3, LPCM, DTS, MPEG-2 Part 3, MPEG-1 Layer II | No | Yes | No | No | No | No | Yes |
Name and file extension | Proprietor / developer | License | Variable bit rate audio | Variable frame rate | Chapters | Captions / subtitles | Video coding formats | Audio coding formats | Metadata / tags | Menus[1] | Streaming | Attachment support[2] | 3D, codecs | 3D, container | Hardware players |
Formats supported
Audio formats supported
Lossy compression | No compression | Lossless compression | |||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
MP3 | WMA | Vorbis | Opus | AAC | AC-3 | DTS | PCM | LPCM | FLAC | ALAC | MLP / Dolby TrueHD | DTS-HD | |
AVI | Yes | Yes[36] | Not officially | ? | Yes[37] | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No | No | ? |
Matroska | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
MP4 | Yes | Yes | Not officially | Yes | Yes | Yes[38] | Yes | No | Yes | Not officially[39] | Yes | No | Yes[40] |
MPG | Yes | ? | ? | No | ? | ? | ? | ? | Yes | ? | ? | ? | ? |
MXF | Yes | No | ? | ? | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No | Yes | Yes |
Ogg | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | No | No | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No | No |
QuickTime | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? | Yes | ? | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No |
Video formats supported
MPEG-1 | MPEG-2 | MPEG-4 (A)SP | H.264/ MPEG-4 AVC | H.265/ HEVC | VC-1/ WMV | Real Video | Theora | Microsoft MPEG4 V2 | VP8 | VP9 | MVC | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
AVI | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes[41] | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | ? |
Matroska | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes[42] |
MP4 | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes[43] | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
MXF | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? | Yes | No | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
Ogg | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? | Yes | No | Yes | ? | ? | ? | ? |
QuickTime | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes[44] | Yes | No | Yes | ? | ? | ? | ? |
Caption/subtitle formats supported
QuickTime | AVI | Ogg | Matroska | MP4 | MXF | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
MicroDVD | ? | No | No | Yes | ? | ? |
MPEG-4 Timed Text | ? | No | ? | Yes | Yes | ? |
MPSub | ? | No | ? | Yes | ? | ? |
SAMI | ? | ? | ? | Yes | ? | ? |
SubRip | ? | Yes, via third party modifications | Yes | Yes | No[45] | ? |
(Advanced) SubStation Alpha | ? | Yes, via third party modifications | ? | Yes | No | ? |
SubViewer | ? | ? | ? | Yes | ? | ? |
Universal Subtitle Format | ? | No | ? | Yes | ? | ? |
VobSub | ? | ? | ? | Yes[46] | ? | ? |
XSUB | ? | via DivX | ? | Yes | ? | ? |
This section needs expansion. You can help by adding to it. (October 2010) |
See also
Notes and references
- ^ a b The ability to display interactive menus as with DVDs
- ^ a b The ability to hold additional files such as fonts for subtitles, etc.
- ^ http://www.3gpp.org/DynaReport/26244.htm
- ^ ACM cannot handle VBR audio streams in AVI files. Thus, software using ACM to read audio from AVI files will not be able to handle VBR audio streams correctly, even though such files are compliant to the AVI file specification. This is a limitation of the ACM, not of the AVI file format.
- ^ Although AVI is not designed for variable framerates, it is possible to use them without creating a non-standard file by using 0-byte chunks for skipped frames. However it requires framerate to be set to Least common multiple of all framerates used, and produces slight overhead compared to true VFR.
- ^ Although FFmpeg has introduced a solution to put Vorbis audio into AVI files, this "extension" is not compatible with existing Vorbis decoders for DirectShow and ACM. Putting Vorbis in an AVI container is very problematic. The way Nandub stored Vorbis audio streams in AVI files occasionally caused desychronisation when seeking.
- ^ Adobe Systems Incorporated (November 2008). "Video File Format Specification, Version 10" (PDF). Adobe Systems Incorporated: 33. Retrieved 2009-08-03.
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(help) - ^ H.264/MPEG-4 AVC support is available in Adobe Flash Player 9 Update 3 (version 9.0.115.0 from December 2007) press release
- ^ H.264/MPEG-4 AVC What just happened to video on the web? "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2010-01-06. Retrieved 2009-08-12.
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suggested) (help)CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link) - ^ AAC support is available in Adobe Flash Player 9 Update 3 (version 9.0.115.0 from December 2007) press release
- ^ Adobe Systems Incorporated (November 2008). "Video File Format Specification, Version 10" (PDF). Adobe Systems Incorporated: 6. Archived from the original (PDF) on February 6, 2009. Retrieved 2009-08-03.
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suggested) (help) - ^ Although CoreCodec holds the copyrights and trademarks for the Matroska specification, the specifications are open to everybody. The source code of the libraries developed by the Matroska team is licensed under the LGPL and BSD licenses.
- ^ Anyone can use it or modify it for their own needs without paying any license or patents. http://www.matroska.org/info/legal/index.html
- ^ a b Matroska is designed to store VBR and VFR content. http://www.matroska.org/technical/guides/faq/index.html
- ^ Matroska supports simple chapters and nested chapters. http://www.matroska.org/technical/specs/chapters/index.html
- ^ Matroska subtitle specification. http://www.matroska.org/technical/specs/subtitles/index.html
- ^ Matroska Menu Specifications
- ^ Matroska can be streamed over HTTP and RTP/RTSP, through it is not meant to be streamed over RTP, as the two have duplicate features. Matroska live streams are different from the files and some features of the file format are not supported in live streams. http://www.matroska.org/technical/streaming/index.html
- ^ Matroska can store any type of file. http://www.matroska.org/technical/specs/index.html#Attachment
- ^ a b Matroska 3D Specification
- ^ Companies producing Matroska-supporting hardware include Asus (ASUS Digital Media Player), OPPO Digital (Oppodigital.com OPPO BDP-83 Blue-ray Disc Player), Panasonic (Gizmodo.com, Samsung's 2009 HDTV Lineup Leaked), and LG (Asia.cnet.com How to select the right LG HDTV)
- ^ a b c MCF Specifications
- ^ Streaming for MCF
- ^ a b mp4ra.org — MP4 Registration authority. "Registered types — Codecs, MPEG-4 Registration authority". Retrieved 2009-07-28.
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: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link) - ^ a b ISO (2000-12-01) ISO/IEC 13818-1 : 2000, Second edition Archived June 11, 2010, at the Wayback Machine Retrieved on 2009-07-25
- ^ a b DVD Resources for Open Source Development, DVD — MPEG differences, Retrieved on 2009-07-28
- ^ Kalva, Jae-Beom Lee, Hari (2008). The VC-1 and H.264 video compression standards for broadband video services (1 ed.). New York: Springer. ISBN 978-0-387-71042-6.
{{cite book}}
: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) - ^ a b SMPTE Registration Authority, LLC — registration authority for MPEG-2 format identifiers Archived 2010-01-28 at the Wayback Machine Retrieved on 2009-07-06
- ^ M2ts#Software support
- ^ a b "MIME Types and File Extensions". XiphWiki. Retrieved 2009-10-24.
- ^ a b "RFC 5334 — Ogg Media Types". IETF. September 2008. Retrieved 2009-10-24.
- ^ "Ogg Metadata". Xiph Wiki. 2005-12-20. Retrieved 2007-08-31.
- ^ a b [1].
- ^ Older types of RealAudio (including ATRAC3)use constant bitrate compression, and therefore are fully compatible with the ancient ACM interface. Newest type of RealAudio is actually AAC, which never has been a problem to the DirectShow-based decoders.
- ^ There is a value in the stream headers, called dwSampleSize, which is 0 in order to trigger VBR stream seeking. This is officially documented in the MSDN and not a hack, bug or whatever. The way MP3-VBR and AAC are stored in AVI are specified and completely compliant with the AVI file specification.
- ^ According to "ETSI TS 102 366 v1.2.1 - Digital Audio Compression (AC-3, Enhanced AC-3) Standard, Annex F"
- ^ Encapsulation of FLAC in ISO Base Media File Format Xiph.Org Foundation
- ^ "MP4 Registration Authority". ISO. Retrieved 2013-10-10.
- ^ Again, B-frames in an AVI file are a problem only for the ancient Video-for-Windows API, not for the AVI container itself.
- ^ Stereo 3D in Matroska can be handled with codecs like MVC.
- ^ As specified by SMPTE Recommended Practices 2025–2007, "VC-1 Bitstream Storage in the ISO Base Media File Format."
- ^ "Using HEIF or HEVC media on Apple Devices". Using HEIF or HEVC media on Apple Devices - Apple Support. Retrieved 4 October 2017.
- ^ Difficult to locate this in plain english but confirmed from #ffmpeg.
- ^ The requirement for muxing VobSub into matroska is v7 subtitles.