Chapter 6. Containers

Chapter 6. Containers

6.1. Video formats

6.1.1. MPEG files

6.1.2. AVI files

6.1.3. ASF/WMV files

6.1.4. QuickTime/MOV files

6.1.5. VIVO files

6.1.6. FLI files

6.1.7. RealMedia (RM) files

6.1.8. NuppelVideo files

6.1.9. yuv4mpeg files

6.1.10. FILM files

6.1.11. RoQ files

6.1.12. OGG/OGM files

6.1.13. SDP files

6.1.14. PVA files

6.1.15. NSV files

6.1.16. Matroska files

6.1.17. NUT files

6.1.18. GIF files

6.2. audio formats

6.2.1. MP3 files

6.2.2. OGG/OGM files (Vorbis)

6.2.3. CD audio

6.2.4. XMMS

It is important to clarify a common mistake. When people see a file with a .AVI 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 can contain MPEG-1 video.

You see, a codec is not the same as a container format. Examples of video codecs are: MPEG-1, MPEG-2, MPEG-4 (DivX), Indeo5, 3ivx. Examples of container formats are: MPG, AVI, ASF.

In theory, you can put an OpenDivX video and MP3 audio into an MPG container. However, most players will not play it, since they expect MPEG-1 video and MP2 audio (unlike AVI, MPG does not have the necessary fields to describe its video and audio streams). Or you might put MPEG-1 video into an AVI file. FFmpeg and MEncoder can create these files.