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began updated translation by <nell@skrzynka.pl> (work-in-progress)
author gabucino
date Sun, 16 Dec 2001 11:51:02 +0000
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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)
19 <LI> supports <A HREF="documentation.html#3.3">reading from stdin</A>, or network via HTTP
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>
32 Video <B>formats</B> are: MPG, AVI, ASF.<BR>
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
48 <P><B><A NAME=2.1.1.1>2.1.1.1. MPEG files</A></B></P>
49
50 <P>
51 <LI>MPG : this is the most <B>basic</B> form of MPEG file formats. Contains
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,
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>
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>
61 </P>
62
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
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
71 rescale it during encoding.</P>
72
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$oft, the <B>AVI (Audio Video Interleaved)</B> is a
77 widespread multipurpose format, currently used mostly for DivX and DivX4
78 videos. Has many known drawbacks, and inabilities (for example in streaming).
79 Has support for one video stream, and 99 audio streams. Can be as big as
80 2Gb. There exists an extension for it to be bigger, called <B>OpenDMS</B>.
81 M$ currently strongly discourages its use and propagates ASF/WMV. Not if
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
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
116 most AVI encoders/multiplexers create bad files if using VBR audio. Only 2
117 exception (known by me): NaNDub and <A HREF="encoding.html">MEncoder</A>.</P>
118
119
120 <P><B><A NAME=2.1.1.3>2.1.1.3. ASF/WMV files</A></B></P>
121
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>
129
130
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
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>
138
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
144
145 <P><B><A NAME=2.1.1.5>2.1.1.5. VIV files</A></B></P>
146
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>
156 and <A HREF=codecs.html#2.2.2.4>VIVO audio codec</A> sections for installation
157 instructions.</P>
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>