Digital container format
lastmod 2018-07-26created 2015-09-044 edits
A container format or wrapper format is a metafile format that describes how different data elements and metadata coexist in a computer file.
Characteristics
Since a container file does not reveal how its data and metadata are encoded, a media program may open the file but fail to recognize the data inside. This is because the program lacks the decoding algorithm, i.e. the codec. By definition, a container format can hold any kind of data; the DLL of the Windows operating system is a typical example. However, most container formats are designed to hold only data with specific characteristics. Multimedia file formats are a typical example. Because audio and video streaming formats can be encoded or decoded with various algorithms (codecs), a container format often provides a single file format.
Multimedia container formats
Audio file containers
- AIFF ((IFF file format, mainly used on Mac OS)
- WAV (RIFF file format, mainly used on Windows)
- XMF (Extensible Music Format)
Image file containers
- FITS(Flexible Image Transport System)
- TIFF(Tagged Image File format)
Audio/video file containers
- 3GP (ISO-based multimedia file format. Widely used on mobile phones.)
- ASF (Microsoft's container format for WMA and WMV.)
- AVI (Standard container format of Microsoft Windows. Based on RIFF.)
- DVR-MS ("Microsoft Digital Video Recording", a proprietary video container format. Developed by Microsoft based on ASF.)
- Flash Video (FLV, F4V) (Video/audio container format developed by Adobe.)
- IFF (Platform-independent container format)
- Matroska (MKV) (An open standard and open-standard container format. Can hold virtually any data without codec or system restrictions.)
- QuickTime File Format (MOV, QT) (Apple's QuickTime video container.)
- Mpeg-PS (Standard container format for MPEG-1 and MPEG-2 elementary streams on reasonably reliable media such as disks.)
- Mpeg-TS (Standard container format for unreliable media such as digital broadcasting and transmission.)
- MP4 (Standard audio/video container format for the MPEG-4 multimedia portfolio.)
- Ogg (Standard container format for the Vorbis audio format and Theora video format, developed by the Xiph.Org Foundation.)
- RM (RealMedia; standard container format for RealVideo or RealAudio.)