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.

Contents

[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

  1. ^ 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.
  2. ^ 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.
  3. ^ 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.
  4. ^ a b Through an updated x264/ffdshow filter it is possible to view H.264 in an AVI file.
  5. ^ 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.
  6. ^ H.264/MPEG-4 AVC support is available in Flash Player 9.
  7. ^ AAC support is available in Flash Player 9.
  8. ^ 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.
  9. ^ http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?t=140723
  10. ^ "Ogg Metadata". Xiph Wiki. 2005-12-20. http://wiki.xiph.org/Metadata. Retrieved on 2007-08-31. 
  11. ^ 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.
  12. ^ As specified by SMPTE Recommended Practices 2025–2007, "VC-1 Bitstream Storage in the ISO Base Media File Format."

[edit] See also

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