Digital Video Trinity

Why “Trinity”?

1 video file ≥ 3 formats (*).
Better would be to name all 3 components.

(*) …except silent movies 😉️

File Suffix = Container

Statements like:
“The videos are in MOV format.” or:
“The camera creates [MP4,MXF,AVI,MOV] files.”
usually only say something about the container format.

What’s a Container?

“A container format (informally, sometimes called a wrapper) […] is a file format that allows multiple data streams to be embedded into a single file, usually along with metadata for identifying and further detailing those streams.”

Source: Wikipedia: Container format (computing)

What’s a Container Format?

Think of a regular paper folder… It’s a wrapper around content. Contains Metadata. Structures the content streams.

What’s a Coding Format?

“coding format (or sometimes […] compression format) is a content representation format for storage or transmission of digital […] content (such as in a data file or bitstream).” — Source: Wikipedia: Video Coding Format

What’s a Codec?

“codec is a device or computer program which encodes or decodes a data stream or signal.” — Source: Wikipedia: Codec

Example:

• Coding Format = h.264 (MPEG-4 AVC)
• Codec = x264

What’s a Codec?

Think of a human language…

• It’s coded information.
• There may be dialects.
• Different people may
  “speak / understand” differently.

Format Naming

Triplet notation greatly helps reducing confusion:

• H.264 / AAC in MP4
• FFV1 / PCM in MKV (Matroska)
• ProRes / PCM in MOV (Quicktime)
• DPX / WAV (PCM) in a folder
• etc

Let’s look inside! :)

VLC / MediaInfo

Website: videolan.org/vlc

Website: mediaarea.net/MediaInfo

Characteristics / Properties

Questions?

Comments?

More to know about digital AV:

• Format Naming
• Basic
• Advanced
• Extra