Video
Formats related to video and multimedia.
Introduction
- For an excellent introduction to the issues around audio and video formats, see A Primer on Codecs for Moving Image and Sound Archives - and 10 Recommendations for Codec Selection & Management PDF version
- Basics of streaming protocols
Pure video formats
These formats are "monolithic" video formats, meaning that the file format and the encoding of the video data are tied to each other.
See also Graphics#Animated image formats, and the #Video application formats section below.
- Ace Film
- Bink Video (BIK)
- The Complete Animator Film
- CFAST Disney Animation Studio
- Cyber Paint Sequence
- DPX
- FLIC (FLI/FLC; animation format used by older Autodesk products)
- GRASP GL animation format
- IFF-DEEP
- MTV Movie (.MTV)
- MTV Video (.AMV)
- PSMF
- Smacker/SMK (created by RadGameTools; mostly used in games)
- WTV
Video container formats
These formats are only containers for video, which can contain videos in many different encodings (or even other data like audio).
See also the #Video application formats section below, for some higher-level container-like formats.
- ASF
- EBML
- FLV
- ISO Base Media File Format
- MPEG Program Stream (.mpg)
- MPEG Transport Stream
- M2TS (MPEG-2 based packet format used on Blu-ray Discs)
- MXF
- Ogg
- RealMedia
- Replay
- RIFF
- Webex Recording Format
- WOT
Single-stream container formats
- MPEG Elementary Stream
- Packetized Elementary Stream (packet format within MPEG streams)
Video stream formats
A.k.a. codecs, these formats are raw bitstream formats commonly contained in one of the above containers (though some can be used on their own, in one way or another).
- 3ivx (this is just a fourcc for an MPEG-4 variant)
- Apple Intermediate Codec
- AV1
- Cineform
- Cinepak
- Daala
- Dirac
- DivX (this is essentially MPEG-4 with some quirks)
- FFV1
- H.261 - See MPEG-1
- H.262 - See MPEG-2
- H.264 (MPEG-4 AVC)
- HEVC (H.265)
- HuffyYUV
- Indeo
- Moving Blocks - Acorn Replay stream
- MSU Lossless Video Codec
- NSV Nullsoft Streaming Video
- QuickTime Animation
- Sorenson Video Codec
- TechSmith Screen Capture Codec
- Theora
- Thor
- VC-1
- VC-3
- VP8
- VP9
- XviD (MPEG-4 variant)
Video application formats
An application format is a name for a set of restrictions and extensions to a standard container format. It may (or may not) be restricted to a small set of stream formats. Some such formats are called profiles.
- 3G2
- 3GP
- AVC (file format)
- DVR-MS
- Enhanced VOB
- F4V
- MJ2
- MK3D
- MKV
- MP4, M4V
- Ogg Skeleton
- Ogg Theora - See Theora
- OGM
- OGV - See Ogg
- Protected Interoperable File Format (PIFF)
- RealMedia Variable Bitrate
- RealVideo - See RealMedia
- RIFF Multimedia Movie (.mmm)
- VOB
- WebM
- WMV
Standards suites
Metadata formats
Subtitle formats
- CMML (Continuous Media Markup Language)
- CVD (An SVCD subtitle format)
- DVD subtitle format
- DXFP (Distribution Format Exchange Profile)
- EBU STL
- EBU Timed Text
- JACOsub (Subtitles for Amiga video)
- Kate (OGG Kate subtitle format)
- Matroska subtitles
- OGT (Philips Overlay Graphics Text)
- SAMI subtitle format (SMI)
- Spruce subtitle format (STL)
- Structured Subtitle Format (SSF)
- SubRip text file format (SRT)
- SubStation Alpha (SSA, ASS)
- SUP (HD-DVD subtitle format)
- Universal Subtitle Format (USF)
- VobSub subtitle format (.sub, .idx)
- WebVTT (Web Video Text Tracks Format)
- XSUB (XSUB subtitle format)
Interactive media files
(generally accompany video streams and other multimedia, tying them together in a presentation or user-interaction as on a disc)
- BDMV (Blu-ray disc files for user interactivity)
- CLPI (Blu-ray disc clip info files)
- MPLS (Blu-ray disc playlists)
Video Developer/Editor files
- Heroglyph Project Format
- Kdenlive
- OpenShot
- Sony Vegas
- Sony Vegas project format (.veg)
- Sony Vegas Movie Studio project format (.vf)
- Sony Vegas window layout format (.vegaswindowlayout)
- Wax
- Wink
- Winmorph
Video streaming services
Television broadcast formats
Also see Chyron for on-screen graphics.
See Radio for more details of how such broadcasts are transmitted.
3D video
Uncategorized
These formats might eventually get sorted into the above categories, or might not quite fit in any of them.
- AVS
- Canon XF-AVC
- Canopus ProCoder
- Cinema Craft Encoder
- CinemaDNG
- Elecard
- FIASCO
- InterVideo
- JPEG XS
- Lenel Video
- Lotus ScreenCam movie (.scm)
- MainConcept
- NSD (Nero Super Video CD)
- RTP
- SheerVideo
- VDR (VirtualDub)
Software
Refer to:
Links
- MultimediaWiki: Video Codecs
- MultimediaWiki: Container Formats
- The trajectory of television
- HTML5 video tag
- MPC-HC: media player for Windows handling just about all video/audio formats
- LG Smart TVs logging USB filenames and viewing info to LG servers
- Lossless vs. corruption (video)
- Library of Congress Recommended Format Specifications: Moving Image Works
- Video Quality Report (from Google) - shows how your Internet connection fares with streaming video
- Excel sheet that plays video and audio
- MediaInfo: software that shows metadata for audio/video files
- HTML5 video guide
- Video metadata standardization project
- A Compressed View of Video Compression
