Mercurial > mplayer.hg
annotate DOCS/formats.html @ 3662:1e0052d8c532
Argh, forgot to make variable static...
| author | mswitch |
|---|---|
| date | Sat, 22 Dec 2001 16:22:32 +0000 |
| parents | ef38487113b1 |
| children | 053ea3e7c5d8 |
| rev | line source |
|---|---|
| 2745 | 1 <HTML> |
| 2 <BODY BGCOLOR=WHITE> | |
| 3 | |
| 4 <FONT face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size=2> | |
| 5 | |
| 6 | |
| 7 <P><B><A NAME=2.1>2.1. Supported formats</A></B></P> | |
| 8 | |
| 9 <P><B>MPlayer</B> can read/play from the following devices/formats:<BR> | |
| 10 <UL> | |
| 11 <LI> <A HREF="#2.1.1.1">VCD</A> (Video CD) directly from CD-ROM or from CDRwin's .bin image file | |
| 12 <LI> <A HREF="#2.1.1.1">DVD</A>, directly from your DVD disk, using libdvdread for decryption | |
| 13 <LI> <A HREF="#2.1.1.1">MPEG 1/2</A> System Stream (PS/PES/VOB) and Elementary Stream (ES) file | |
| 14 formats | |
| 15 <LI> <A HREF="#2.1.1.2">RIFF AVI</A> file format | |
| 16 <LI> <A HREF="#2.1.1.3">ASF/WMV</A> 1.0 file format | |
| 17 <LI> <A HREF="#2.1.1.4">QT/MOV</A> file format with (un)compressed headers | |
| 18 <LI> <A HREF="#2.1.1.5">VIVO</A> format (.viv files) | |
| 2761 | 19 <LI> supports <A HREF="documentation.html#3.3">reading from stdin</A>, or network via HTTP |
| 2745 | 20 </UL></P> |
| 21 | |
| 22 <P>Note: about realmedia (.ra/.rm) support read the FAQ!</P> | |
| 23 | |
| 24 <P>It's important to clarify a popular mistake. When people see a file with | |
| 25 <B>.AVI</B> extension, they instantly declare that isn't an MPEG file. | |
| 26 That's not true. At least not entirely. If you tell them that such a file | |
| 27 can contain MPEG1 video, they laugh at you. Feel free to kick their dumbass | |
| 28 faces, then tell them to RTFM.</P> | |
| 29 | |
| 30 <P>You see, a <B>codec</B> isn't equal to a <B>file format</B>.<BR> | |
| 31 Video <B>codecs</B> are: MPEG1, MPEG2, DivX, Indeo5, 3ivx.<BR> | |
| 2865 | 32 Video <B>formats</B> are: MPG, AVI, ASF.<BR> |
| 2745 | 33 </P> |
| 34 | |
| 35 <P>In theory, you can happily put an OpenDivX video and MP3 audio | |
| 36 into a <B>.MPG</B> format file. Though most players won't play it, since | |
| 37 they expect MPEG1 video and MP2 audio (<B>.MPG</B> doesn't have the | |
| 38 necessary fields to describe its video and audio streams, like <B>.AVI</B> | |
| 39 does). Or put MPEG1 video to an .AVI. For example <A HREF="http://ffmpeg.sourceforge.net">ffmpeg</A> can | |
| 40 create these files.</P> | |
| 41 | |
| 42 <P>Audio <B>codecs</B> and <B>formats</B> are basically the same terms.</P> | |
| 43 | |
| 44 | |
| 45 <P><B><A NAME=2.1.1>2.1.1. Video formats</A></B></P> | |
| 46 | |
| 47 | |
| 2865 | 48 <P><B><A NAME=2.1.1.1>2.1.1.1. MPEG files</A></B></P> |
| 2745 | 49 |
| 50 <P> | |
| 51 <LI>MPG : this is the most <B>basic</B> form of MPEG file formats. Contains | |
| 2865 | 52 MPEG1 video, and MP2 (MPEG-1 layer 2) audio, or rarely MP1.</LI> |
| 53 <LI>DAT : this is the very same format as MPG, just different extension. Used | |
| 54 on <B>Video CD</B>s. Due to the nature VCDs are created and Linux is designed, | |
| 2745 | 55 the DAT files can't be played nor copied from VCDs. You have to use the |
| 56 <CODE>-vcd</CODE> option to play the VideoCD.</LI> | |
| 2865 | 57 <LI>VOB : this is the MPEG file format on <B>DVD</B>s. The same as MPG, plus |
| 58 capability to contain subtitles, or non-MPEG (AC3) audio. Contains encoded MPEG2 | |
| 59 video, and usually AC3 audio, but MP2 is allowed too.<BR> | |
| 60 <B>Read the <A HREF="cd-dvd.html#4.2">DVD section</A> !</B></LI> | |
| 2745 | 61 </P> |
| 62 | |
| 2865 | 63 <P>In MPEG files, series of frames are grouped together, and are independent |
| 64 from the other groups. What this means is you can cut/join an MPEG file with | |
| 65 standard file-tools (like dd, cut), and it remains completely functional.</P> | |
| 66 | |
| 2761 | 67 <P>One important feature for MPGs is that they have a field to describe |
| 68 the aspect ratio of the video stream within. For example SVCDs have | |
| 69 480x480 resolution video, and in the header that field is set to 4:3, so | |
| 70 it's played at 640x480. AVI files don't have this field, so one has to | |
| 2865 | 71 rescale it during encoding.</P> |
| 2761 | 72 |
| 2745 | 73 |
| 74 <P><B><A NAME=2.1.1.2>2.1.1.2. AVI files</A></B></P> | |
| 75 | |
| 76 <P>Designed by Micro$oft, the <B>AVI (Audio Video Interleaved)</B> is a | |
| 77 widespread multipurpose format, currently used mostly for DivX and DivX4 | |
| 78 videos. Has many known drawbacks, and inabilities (for example in streaming). | |
| 79 Has support for one video stream, and 99 audio streams. Can be as big as | |
| 80 2Gb. There exists an extension for it to be bigger, called <B>OpenDMS</B>. | |
| 2761 | 81 M$ currently strongly discourages its use and propagates ASF/WMV. Not if |
| 2745 | 82 anybody cares.<BR> |
| 83 <B>NOTE</B> : DV cameras can create two types of AVI format, one is the usual and | |
| 84 playable, the other is neither.</P> | |
| 85 | |
| 2865 | 86 <P>There are two kinds of AVI files: |
| 87 <UL> | |
| 88 <LI><B>Interleaved</B> : audio and video content is interleaved. This is the | |
| 89 standard usage. Recommended and mostly used. Some tools create interleaved | |
| 90 AVIs with bad sync. <B>MPlayer</B> detects these as interleaved, and this | |
| 91 climaxes in loss of A/V sync, probably at seeking. These files should be | |
| 92 played as non-interleaved (with the <CODE>-ni</CODE> option).</LI> | |
| 93 <LI><B>Non-interleaved</B> : bad. First come the whole video stream, then the whole | |
| 94 audio stream, thus needs a lot of seeking. It's very bad when playing from | |
| 95 network or CDROM.</LI> | |
| 96 </UL> | |
| 97 </P> | |
| 98 | |
| 99 <P>MPlayer supports 2 kind of timing for AVI files: | |
| 100 <UL> | |
| 101 <LI><B>bps-based</B> : it is based on bitrate/samplerate of video/audio stream. This | |
| 102 method is used by most players, including avifile and windows media player. | |
| 103 Files with broken headers, and files created with VBR audio but not | |
| 104 VBR-compliant encoder will result in A/V desync with this method (mostly at | |
| 105 seeking).</LI> | |
| 106 <LI><B>interleaving-based</B> : it doesn't use bitrate value of the header, instead | |
| 107 it uses the relative position of interleaved audio and video chunks. Makes | |
| 108 some badly encoded file with VBR audio playable.</LI> | |
| 109 </UL> | |
| 110 </P> | |
| 111 | |
| 112 <P>Any audio and video codec is allowed, but note that VBR audio isn't well | |
| 113 supported by most of the players. The file format makes it possible to use VBR | |
| 114 audio, but most players expect CBR audio, thus they fail with VBR. VBR is | |
| 115 unusual, and Microsoft's AVI specs only describe CBR audio. I also note, that | |
| 3027 | 116 most AVI encoders/multiplexers create bad files if using VBR audio. Only 2 |
| 2865 | 117 exception (known by me): NaNDub and <A HREF="encoding.html">MEncoder</A>.</P> |
| 118 | |
| 2745 | 119 |
| 120 <P><B><A NAME=2.1.1.3>2.1.1.3. ASF/WMV files</A></B></P> | |
| 121 | |
| 2865 | 122 <P>ASF (active streaming format) comes from Microsoft. They developed two |
| 123 variants of ASF, v1.0 and v2.0. v1.0 is used by their media tools (windows | |
| 124 media player and windows media encoder) and is very secret. v2.0 is published | |
| 125 and patented :). Of course they differ, there is no compatibility at all (it's | |
| 126 just another legal game). <B>MPlayer</B> supports only v1.0, as nobody has ever seen | |
| 127 v2.0 files :) . Note, that .ASF files nowdays come with the extension .WMA or | |
| 128 .WMV.</P> | |
| 2745 | 129 |
| 130 | |
| 2865 | 131 <P><B><A NAME=2.1.1.4>2.1.1.4. QuickTime/MOV files</A></B></P> |
| 132 | |
| 133 <P>These are from Macintosh. Usually have extensions of .QT or .MOV . Note | |
| 134 that since the MPEG4 Group chose QuickTime as the recommended file format | |
| 3027 | 135 for MPEG4, their .MOV files come with .MPG or .MP4 extension (interesting |
| 136 that in these files the video stream is a real .MPG file. With the | |
| 137 <CODE>-dumpvideo</CODE> option you can even extract it.).</P> | |
| 2745 | 138 |
| 2865 | 139 <P><B>Codecs</B>: any codecs allowed, both CBR and VBR. Note: most new mov files use |
| 140 <B>Sorenson</B> video and QDesign Music audio. These formats are completely | |
| 141 secret, and only Apple's quicktime player is able to play these files (on | |
| 142 win/mac only).</P> | |
| 143 | |
| 2745 | 144 |
| 145 <P><B><A NAME=2.1.1.5>2.1.1.5. VIV files</A></B></P> | |
| 146 | |
| 2865 | 147 <P><B>MPlayer</B> happily demuxes VIVO file formats. The format's big |
| 148 disadvantage is that it has no index block, nor fixed packetsize or sync bytes, | |
| 149 and most files lack even keyframes, so forget seeking!</P> | |
| 150 | |
| 151 <P>VIVO/1.0 files' video codec is standard <B>h.263</B> . The VIVO/2.0 files' | |
| 152 video codec is a modified, nonstandard <B>h.263</B> . Audio is the same, | |
| 153 it may be <B>g.723</B> (standard), or <B>Vivo Siren</B> .</P> | |
| 154 | |
| 155 <P>See the <A HREF=codecs.html#2.2.1.4>VIVO video codec</A> | |
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ef38487113b1
"Software AC3 decoding" section. Patch by Stephen Davies <steve@daviesfam.org>
gabucino
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changeset
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156 and <A HREF=codecs.html#2.2.2.4>VIVO audio codec</A> sections for installation |
| 2855 | 157 instructions.</P> |
| 2745 | 158 |
| 159 | |
| 160 <P><B><A NAME=2.1.2>2.1.2. Audio formats</A></B></P> | |
| 161 | |
| 162 <P>Currently <B>MPlayer</B> is still a <B>Movie</B> and not a <B>Media</B> | |
| 163 player, thus the pure audio formats (for example MP3, WAV, audio ASF) are | |
| 164 unplayable. Use <A HREF="http://www.xmms.org">xmms</A>, <A HREF="http://www.mpg123.de">mpg123</A> | |
| 165 or whatever.</P> | |
| 166 | |
| 167 </BODY> | |
| 168 </HTML> |