comparison DOCS/formats.html @ 5395:c8e3d5241531

applied Diego's patch

5394:cc405b698747

<FONT CLASS="text">

<P><B><A NAME=2.1>2.1. Supported formats</A></B></P>

<P>It is important to clarify a common mistake. When people see a file with a
<B>.AVI</B> extension, they immediately conclude that it is not a MPEG file.
That is not true. At least not entirely. Contrary to popular belief such a file
<B>can</B> contain MPEG1 video.</P>

<P>You see, a <B>codec</B> is not the same as a <B>file format</B>.<BR>
Video <B>codecs</B> are: MPEG1, MPEG2, DivX, Indeo5, 3ivx.<BR>
Video <B>formats</B> are: MPG, AVI, ASF.<BR>
</P>

<P>In theory, you can happily put an OpenDivX video and MP3 audio
into a <B>MPG</B> format file. Most players will not play it, though, since
they expect MPEG1 video and MP2 audio (<B>.MPG</B> does not have the
necessary fields to describe its video and audio streams, like <B>.AVI</B>
does). Or you might put MPEG1 video into an .AVI file. <A HREF="http://ffmpeg.sourceforge.net">FFmpeg</A>
and <A HREF="encoding.html">MEncoder</A> can create these files.</P>

<P>In contrast to that audio <B>codecs</B> and audio <B>formats</B> are basically the same terms.</P>


<P><B><A NAME=2.1.1>2.1.1. Video formats</A></B></P>


<P><B><A NAME=2.1.1.1>2.1.1.1. MPEG files</A></B></P>

<P>
<LI>MPG : This is the most <B>basic</B> form of the MPEG file formats. It contains
MPEG1 video, and MP2 (MPEG-1 layer 2) or rarely MP1 audio.</LI>
<LI>DAT : This is the very same format as MPG with a different extension. It is used
on <B>Video CD</B>s. Due to the way VCDs are created and Linux is designed,
the DAT files cannot be played nor copied from VCDs as regular files. You have
to use the <CODE>-vcd</CODE> option to play the Video CD.</LI>
<LI>VOB : This is the MPEG file format on <B>DVD</B>s. It is the same as MPG, plus the
capability to contain subtitles or non-MPEG (AC3) audio. It contains encoded MPEG2
video and usually AC3 audio, but DTS, MP2 and uncompressed LPCM are allowed, too.<BR>
<B>Read the <A HREF="cd-dvd.html#4.2">DVD section</A> !</B></LI>
</P>

<P>Series of frames form independent groups in MPEG files. This means that you
can cut/join an MPEG file with standard file tools (like dd, cut), and it
remains completely functional.</P>

video. It has many known drawbacks and shortcomings (for example in streaming).
It supports one video stream and 0 to 99 audio streams and can be as big as
2GB. There exists an extension allowing bigger files called <B>OpenDMS</B>.
M$ currently strongly discourages its use and encourages ASF/WMV. Not that
anybody cares.<BR>
<B>NOTE</B>: DV cameras can create two types of AVI formats. One is common and
playable, the other is neither.</P>

<P>There are two kinds of AVI files:
<UL>
  <LI><B>Interleaved</B>: Audio and video content is interleaved. This is the
    standard usage. Recommended and mostly used. Some tools create interleaved
    AVIs with bad sync. <B>MPlayer</B> detects these as interleaved, and this
    climaxes in loss of A/V sync, probably at seeking. These files should be
    played as non-interleaved (with the <CODE>-ni</CODE> option).</LI>
  <LI><B>Non-interleaved</B>: First comes the whole video stream, then the whole
    audio stream. It thus needs a lot of seeking, making playing from network or
    CD-Rom difficult.</LI>
</UL>
</P>

<P><B>MPlayer</B> supports two kinds of timings for AVI files:
<UL>
  <LI><B>bps-based</B>: It is based on the bitrate/samplerate of the video/audio stream. This
    method is used by most players, including avifile and windows media player.
    Files with broken headers, and files created with VBR audio but not
    VBR-compliant encoder will result in A/V desync with this method (mostly at
    seeking).</LI>
  <LI><B>interleaving-based</B>: It does not use the bitrate value of the header, instead
    it uses the relative position of interleaved audio and video chunks, making
    badly encoded files with VBR audio playable.</LI>
</UL>
</P>

<P>Any audio and video codec is allowed, but note that VBR audio is not well
supported by most players. The file format makes it possible to use VBR
audio, but most players expect CBR audio, thus they fail with VBR. VBR is
uncommon and Microsoft's AVI specs only describe CBR audio. I also noticed that

<P>ASF (active streaming format) comes from Microsoft. They developed two
variants of ASF, v1.0 and v2.0. v1.0 is used by their media tools (windows
media player and windows media encoder) and is very secret. v2.0 is published
and patented :). Of course they differ, there is no compatibility at all (it is
just another legal game). <B>MPlayer</B> supports only v1.0, as nobody has ever seen
v2.0 files :) . Note, that .ASF files nowdays come with the extension .WMA or
.WMV.</P>


<P><B><A NAME=2.1.1.4>2.1.1.4. QuickTime/MOV files</A></B></P>

<P>These are from the Macintosh. They usually have a .QT or .MOV extension. Note
that since the MPEG4 group chose QuickTime as the recommended file format
for MPEG4, their .MOV files come with a .MPG or .MP4 extension (Interestingly
the video and audio streams in these files are real .MPG and .AAC files. With the
<CODE>-dumpvideo/-dumpaudio</CODE> options you can even extract them!).</P>

<P><B>Codecs</B>: Any codec is allowed, both CBR and VBR. Note: most new QuickTime files use
<B>Sorensen</B> video and QDesign Music audio. These formats are completely
secret, and only Apple's QuickTime player is able to play these files (on
win/mac only).</P>


<P><B><A NAME=2.1.1.5>2.1.1.5. VIV files</A></B></P>

<P><B>MPlayer</B> happily demuxes VIVO file formats. The biggest disadvantage of

<P>The video codec of VIVO/1.0 files is standard <B>h.263</B>. The video codec
of VIVO/2.0 files is a modified, nonstandard <B>h.263v2</B>. The audio is the same,
it may be <B>g.723</B> (standard), or <B>Vivo Siren</B>.</P>

<P>See the <A HREF=codecs.html#2.2.1.4>VIVO video codec</A>
and <A HREF=codecs.html#2.2.2.4>VIVO audio codec</A> sections for installation
instructions.</P>


<P><B><A NAME=2.1.1.6>2.1.1.6. FLI files</A></B></P>

<P><B><A NAME=2.1.1.8>2.1.1.8. NuppelVideo files</A></B></P>

<P><A HREF="http://mars.tuwien.ac.at/~roman/nuppelvideo">NuppelVideo</A>
is a TV grabber tool (AFAIK:). <B>MPlayer</B> can read its <CODE>.nuv</CODE>
files (only NuppelVideo 5.0). Those files can contain uncompressed YV12,
YV12+RTJpeg compressed, YV12 RTJpeg+lzo compressed, and YV12+lzo compressed
frames. <B>MPlayer</B> decodes (and also <B>encodes</B> them with MEncoder to
DivX/etc!) them all. Seeking is being implemented.</P>

5395:c8e3d5241531

<FONT CLASS="text">

<P><B><A NAME=2.1>2.1. Supported formats</A></B></P>

<P>It is important to clarify a common mistake. When people see a file with a
<B>.AVI</B> extension, they immediately conclude that it is not an MPEG file.
That is not true. At least not entirely. Contrary to popular belief such a file
<B>can</B> contain MPEG1 video.</P>

<P>You see, a <B>codec</B> is not the same as a <B>file format</B>.<BR>
Examples of video <B>codecs</B> are: MPEG1, MPEG2, DivX, Indeo5, 3ivx.<BR>
Examples of file <B>formats</B> are: MPG, AVI, ASF.<BR>
</P>

<P>In theory, you can put an OpenDivX video and MP3 audio
into an <B>MPG</B> format file. However, most players will not play it, since
they expect MPEG1 video and MP2 audio (unlike <B>AVI</B>, <B>MPG</B> does not have the
necessary fields to describe its video and audio streams).
Or you might put MPEG1 video into an AVI file. <A HREF="http://ffmpeg.sourceforge.net">FFmpeg</A>
and <A HREF="encoding.html">MEncoder</A> can create these files.</P>



<P><B><A NAME=2.1.1>2.1.1. Video formats</A></B></P>


<P><B><A NAME=2.1.1.1>2.1.1.1. MPEG files</A></B></P>

<P>MPEG files come in different guises:</P>

<UL>
<LI>MPG: This is the most <B>basic</B> form of the MPEG file formats. It contains
MPEG1 video, and MP2 (MPEG-1 layer 2) or rarely MP1 audio.</LI>
<LI>DAT: This is the very same format as MPG with a different extension. It is used
on <B>Video CD</B>s. Due to the way VCDs are created and Linux is designed,
the DAT files cannot be played nor copied from VCDs as regular files. You have
to use the <CODE>-vcd</CODE> option to play the Video CD.</LI>
<LI>VOB: This is the MPEG file format on <B>DVD</B>s. It is the same as MPG, plus the
capability to contain subtitles or non-MPEG (AC3) audio. It contains encoded MPEG2
video and usually AC3 audio, but DTS, MP2 and uncompressed LPCM are allowed, too.<BR>
<B>Read the <A HREF="cd-dvd.html#4.2">DVD section</A> !</B></LI>
</UL>

<P>Series of frames form independent groups in MPEG files. This means that you
can cut/join an MPEG file with standard file tools (like dd, cut), and it
remains completely functional.</P>

video. It has many known drawbacks and shortcomings (for example in streaming).
It supports one video stream and 0 to 99 audio streams and can be as big as
2GB. There exists an extension allowing bigger files called <B>OpenDMS</B>.
M$ currently strongly discourages its use and encourages ASF/WMV. Not that
anybody cares.<BR>
<B>NOTE:</B> DV cameras can create two types of AVI formats. One is common and
playable, the other is neither.</P>

<P>There are two kinds of AVI files:</P>
<UL>
  <LI><B>Interleaved:</B> Audio and video content is interleaved. This is the
    standard usage. Recommended and mostly used. Some tools create interleaved
    AVIs with bad sync. <B>MPlayer</B> detects these as interleaved, and this
    climaxes in loss of A/V sync, probably at seeking. These files should be
    played as non-interleaved (with the <CODE>-ni</CODE> option).</LI>
  <LI><B>Non-interleaved:</B> First comes the whole video stream, then the whole
    audio stream. It thus needs a lot of seeking, making playing from network or
    CD-Rom difficult.</LI>
</UL>

<P><B>MPlayer</B> supports two kinds of timings for AVI files:</P>
<UL>
  <LI><B>bps-based</B>: It is based on the bitrate/samplerate of the video/audio stream. This
    method is used by most players, including <A HREF="http://avifile.sourceforge.net">avifile</A>
    and windows media player.
    Files with broken headers, and files created with VBR audio but not
    VBR-compliant encoder will result in A/V desync with this method (mostly at
    seeking).</LI>
  <LI><B>interleaving-based</B>: It does not use the bitrate value of the header, instead
    it uses the relative position of interleaved audio and video chunks, making
    badly encoded files with VBR audio playable.</LI>
</UL>

<P>Any audio and video codec is allowed, but note that VBR audio is not well
supported by most players. The file format makes it possible to use VBR
audio, but most players expect CBR audio, thus they fail with VBR. VBR is
uncommon and Microsoft's AVI specs only describe CBR audio. I also noticed that

<P>ASF (active streaming format) comes from Microsoft. They developed two
variants of ASF, v1.0 and v2.0. v1.0 is used by their media tools (windows
media player and windows media encoder) and is very secret. v2.0 is published
and patented :). Of course they differ, there is no compatibility at all (it is
just another legal game). <B>MPlayer</B> supports only v1.0, as nobody has ever seen
v2.0 files :). Note that ASF files nowadays come with the extension .WMA or
.WMV.</P>


<P><B><A NAME=2.1.1.4>2.1.1.4. QuickTime/MOV files</A></B></P>

<P>These formats were designed by Apple. They usually have a .QT or .MOV extension. Note
that since the MPEG4 group chose QuickTime as the recommended file format
for MPEG4, their MOV files come with a .MPG or .MP4 extension (Interestingly
the video and audio streams in these files are real MPG and AAC files. With the
<CODE>-dumpvideo</CODE> and <CODE>-dumpaudio</CODE> options you can even extract them!).</P>

<P><B>Codecs</B>: Any codec is allowed, both CBR and VBR. Note: most new QuickTime files use
<B>Sorensen</B> video and QDesign Music audio. These formats have not been
disclosed and will probably remain so in the future, making Apple's QuickTime
player the only player able to play these files (on Windows/Mac OS only).</P>


<P><B><A NAME=2.1.1.5>2.1.1.5. VIV files</A></B></P>

<P><B>MPlayer</B> happily demuxes VIVO file formats. The biggest disadvantage of

<P>The video codec of VIVO/1.0 files is standard <B>h.263</B>. The video codec
of VIVO/2.0 files is a modified, nonstandard <B>h.263v2</B>. The audio is the same,
it may be <B>g.723</B> (standard), or <B>Vivo Siren</B>.</P>

<P>See the <A HREF="codecs.html#2.2.1.4">VIVO video codec</A>
and <A HREF="codecs.html#2.2.2.4">VIVO audio codec</A> sections for installation
instructions.</P>


<P><B><A NAME=2.1.1.6>2.1.1.6. FLI files</A></B></P>

<P><B><A NAME=2.1.1.8>2.1.1.8. NuppelVideo files</A></B></P>

<P><A HREF="http://mars.tuwien.ac.at/~roman/nuppelvideo">NuppelVideo</A>
is a TV grabber tool (AFAIK:). <B>MPlayer</B> can read its .NUV  
files (only NuppelVideo 5.0). Those files can contain uncompressed YV12,
YV12+RTJpeg compressed, YV12 RTJpeg+lzo compressed, and YV12+lzo compressed
frames. <B>MPlayer</B> decodes (and also <B>encodes</B> them with MEncoder to
DivX/etc!) them all. Seeking is being implemented.</P>