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Comparison of container formats
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This table compares features of container formats. Note that DirectShow filters allow playing on any DirectShow-based player, including Windows Media Player. To see which multimedia players support which container format, look at comparison of media players.
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[edit] Information
| Name and file extension, if different | Standard owner | Support for B-frames | Variable bit rate audio | Variable frame rate | Chapters | Subtitles | Video formats supported | Audio formats supported | Metadata/Tags supported | Supports Menus (like DVD) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3GP | 3GPP | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? | 3GPP Timed Text | MPEG-4, H.263 and H.264/MPEG-4 AVC | AMR-NB/WB, AMR-WB+ and (HE)-AAC | ? | No |
| Advanced Systems Format (.asf, .wma, .wmv) |
Microsoft | Yes | 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 | ? |
| AVI | Microsoft | Yes[1] | Yes[2] | Yes[3] | Yes, via third party modifications | Yes, via third party modifications | Almost anything through VFW; H.264/AVC is problematic due to the limited B-frame support[4] | Almost anything through ACM; Vorbis is problematic [5] | not officially | No |
| DivX Media Format (.divx) | DivX, Inc. | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | MPEG-4 Part 2 video encoded to meet DivX profiles | MP3, PCM, AC-3 | ? | Yes |
| EVO | MPEG | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | MPEG-2 Part 2, H.264/MPEG-4 AVC, VC-1 | AC-3, E-AC-3, Dolby TrueHD, Linear PCM, DTS, DTS-HD, MPEG-2 Part 3 | ? | Yes |
| Flash Video (.flv) | Adobe Systems | Yes | ? | Yes | No | No | Sorenson, VP6, Screen Video, H.264/MPEG-4 AVC[6] | MP3, Nellymoser, ADPCM, raw PCM, AAC[7] | Yes | No |
| Matroska (.mkv, .mka) | public domain[8] | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | virtually anything | virtually anything | Yes | currently under development by corecodec.org[9] |
| MCF | BSD-style license for specs, GNU for tools | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | Yes | Yes | ? | No |
| MP4 | MPEG | Yes | Yes | Yes | 1) 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 | MPEG-1, MPEG-2, H.263, MPEG-4 ASP, VC-1/WMV, H.264/MPEG-4 AVC | MPEG-1 Layers I, II, III (MP3), MPEG-2/4 (HE)-AAC, AC-3, Vorbis (with privat objectTypeIndication), Apple Lossless | Yes | Yes |
| MPEG Video File (.mpg, .mpeg) | MPEG | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No | MPEG-1, MPEG-2 | MPEG-1 Layers I, II, III (mp3), LPCM | No | No |
| MPEG-2 PS Program Stream (.ps) | MPEG | Yes | Yes | ? | Only in VOB files on DVDs | Only in VOB files on DVDs | MPEG-1, MPEG-2 | MPEG-1 Layers I, II, III (mp3), AC-3, LPCM, DTS | No | Only in VOB files on DVDs |
| MPEG-2 TS Transport Stream (.ts) | MPEG | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | possible via ETSI EN 300 743 | MPEG-1, MPEG-2, MPEG-4 ASP, H.264, VC-1 | MPEG-1 Layers I, II, III (mp3), AC-3, LPCM, DTS, AAC | No | No |
| NUT | MPlayer team/NUT Project | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Virtually anything | Virtually anything | Yes | ? |
| Ogg/OGM | Xiph.org | Yes[1] | Yes | Yes | Yes | Ogg Writ, SRT and MicroDVD with OGMtools | Theora, almost anything through VFW | Vorbis, almost anything through ACM | Yes[10] | No |
| Quicktime (.mov, .qt) | Apple | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Limited to what is available to the QuickTime codec manager | Limited to what is available to Sound Manager or CoreAudio | Yes | No |
| RMVB | RealNetworks | Yes | ? | Yes | ? | Yes | RealVideo 8, 9, 10 | (HE)-AAC, Cook Codec, Vorbis, RealAudio Lossless | ? | No |
| VOB+IFO | DVD Forum | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | VobSub | MPEG-2 Part 2 | AC-3, Linear PCM, DTS, MPEG-2 Part 3, MPEG-1 Layer II | No | Yes |
| Standard owner | Support for B-frames | Variable bit rate audio | Variable frame rate | Chapters | Subtitles | Video formats supported | Audio formats supported | Metadata/Tags supported | Supports Menuing |
[edit] Media supported
[edit] Audio formats supported
| Lossy compression | Lossless compression | ||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| MP3 | WMA | RealAudio | Vorbis | Musepack | AAC | AC3 | DTS | APE | FLAC | ALAC | SHN | WV | |
| QuickTime | Yes | Yes | ? | Yes | ? | Yes | Yes | ? | ? | Yes | Yes | ? | ? |
| AVI | Yes | Yes | No | No | No | No | Yes | Yes | No | No | No | No | No |
| Matroska | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Scheduled [11] | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? | Yes | ? | ? | Yes |
| MP4 | Yes | No | No | No | ? | Yes | Yes | No | No | No | Yes | No | No |
[edit] Video formats supported
| MPEG-1 | MPEG-2 | MPEG-4 (A)SP | H.264 | VC-1/WMV | RealVideo | Theora | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| QuickTime | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? | Yes |
| AVI | Yes | Yes | Yes | Problematic, limited B-frame support[4] | Yes | No | Yes |
| OGM | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? | Yes |
| Matroska | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| MP4 | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes[12] | No | No |
[edit] Notes and references
- ^ a b B-frames are not natively supported so bitstream processing or "packing" is needed. Details on this can be found in MPEG-4 B-frames in AVI/VFW description.
- ^ 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.
- ^ a b Through an updated x264/ffdshow filter it is possible to view H.264 in an AVI file.
- ^ 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.
- ^ H.264/MPEG-4 AVC support is available in Flash Player 9.
- ^ AAC support is available in Flash Player 9.
- ^ The Matroska specs are put into the public domain, which means they are patent free and owned by everybody. The relevant, valid format specification is always the one found on matroska.org, the official homepage. Even if the Matroska specs are free, the code of the software tools for Matroska files can, nevertheless, be proprietary or follow a specific license (BSDL, GPL, LGPL, QPL, etc.), depending on the intentions of the programmer or the company behind them.
- ^ http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?t=140723
- ^ "Ogg Metadata". Xiph Wiki. 2005-12-20. http://wiki.xiph.org/Metadata. Retrieved on 2007-08-31.
- ^ Possible, but not implemented at this date. The developers are awaiting the release of Musepack 8.x, as this version will completely change the bitstream.
- ^ As specified by SMPTE Recommended Practices 2025–2007, "VC-1 Bitstream Storage in the ISO Base Media File Format."
