Multimedia Container Formats
A container format is a file format that can contain various types of data, compressed in a manner of standardized codecs. The container file is simply used to identify and interleave the different data types inside it.
Advanced container formats such as Ogg and MKV can support audio, video, subtitles, chapters, and meta-data (tags), along with the synchronization information needed for playback.
The most popular multimedia containers are:
- AVI (standard Microsoft Windows container).
- MOV (standard QuickTime container).
- MP4 (standard container for the MPEG-4 multimedia portfolio).
- Ogg (standard container for Xiph.org codecs).
- Matroska (not standard for any codec or system, but it is an open standard).
- ASF (standard container for Microsoft WMA and WMV).
- RealMedia (standard container for RealVideo and RealAudio).
The differences between various container formats arise from five main issues:
- Popularity; how widely supported a container is. This is the reason that the AVI format is still the most popular format.
- Overhead. This is the difference in file-size between two files with the same content in a different container. For a two-hour film, when in AVI, the file may be up to 10MB larger than when in Matroska.
- Support for advanced codec functionality. Older formats such as AVI do not support new codec features like B-frames, VBR audio, VFR natively, although the format may be tweaked to add support, creating compatibility problems.
- Support for advanced content, such as chapters, subtitles, meta-tags, user-data.
- Support of streaming media, media streaming on demand via the Internet.
Below in this page you can see a full comparative table between several container formats.
Format Comparison
| AVI | MP4 | OGG | MKV | ASF | |
| Standard owner | Microsoft | MPEG | Xiph.org | Matroska.org | Microsoft |
| B-frames support | by tweaks | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| VBR audio | Yes* | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Variable frame rate | No | Yes | No | Yes | No |
| Chapters | No | No | Yes | Yes | No |
| Subtitles | No | ttxt | Ogg Writ | Anything | No |
| Streamable | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
* ACM cannot handle VBR audio streams in AVI files. Thus, software using ACM (Audio Compression Manager) to read audio from AVI files will not be able to handle VBR audio streams correctly, even though such files are compliant to the AVI file specification. This is a limitation of the ACM, not of the AVI file format.
AVI
Audio-Video Interleave (AVI) is a multimedia container format introduced by Microsoft in 1992, as part of the Video for Windows technology. These files contain both audio and video data in a standard container that allows simultaneous playback. Most AVI files also use the file format extensions developed by the Matrox OpenDML group in February 1996. These files are supported by Microsoft, and are known unofficially as 'AVI 2.0'.
MOV
A QuickTime MOV file contains one or more tracks, each of which store a particular type of data, such as audio, video, effects, or subtitles. Each track in turn contains track media, either the digitally encoded media stream (using a specific codec such as Cinepak, Sorenson codec, MP3, JPEG, DivX, or PNG) or a data reference to the media stored in another file or elsewhere on a network. It also has an 'edit list' that indicates what parts of the media to use.
The ability to contain abstract data references for the media data, and the separation of the media data from the media offsets and the track edit lists means that QuickTime is particularly suited for editing, as it is capable of importing and editing in place (without data copying) other formats such as AIFF DV, MP3, MPEG-1, and AVI.
MP4
MPEG-4 Part 14 or MP4 is a container file format specified as a part of the ISO/IEC MPEG-4 international standard. It is used to store media types defined by the ISO/IEC Moving Picture Experts Group, and can be used to store other media types as well.
MP4 allows streaming over the internet. It also allows multiplexing of multiple video and audio streams in one file, variable frame- and bit-rates, subtitles and still images.
Ogg
Ogg Media Container is developed by Xiph.org as the framework of a larger initiative aimed at developing a set of components for the coding and decoding of multimedia content which are both freely available and freely re-implementable in software.
The term Ogg often incorrectly refers to the Vorbis audio codec. Other prominent components of Ogg are its video codec Theora, and the speech audio compression format, Speex.
If you are wondering about the OGM format, refer to this page for detailed information. DivXLand.org suggests to use the Matroska container, since OGM is no longer developed.
Matroska
Matroska aims to be the standard for multimedia container formats. It incorporates features you would expect from a modern container format, like:
The Matroska file extensions are:
To open Matroska files, you need to install either the DivX Total Pack or the Matroska Pack filter. For extended information regarding the Matroska container format, visit its website.
ASF
Advanced Systems Format (formerly Advanced Streaming Format) is Microsoft's proprietary digital audio and video container format, especially designed for streaming media. ASF is part of the Windows Media framework.
The format does not specify how the video or audio should be encoded, but instead just specifies the structure of the video/audio stream. What this means is that ASF files can be encoded with basically any audio/video codec and still would be in ASF format. This is similar to the function performed by the QuickTime, AVI, or Ogg formats.
The most common filetypes contained within an ASF file are Windows Media Audio (WMA) and Windows Media Video (WMV).
RealMedia
RealMedia is a multimedia container format created by RealNetworks. It is typically used in conjunction with RealVideo and RealAudio compression and is popular for streaming content over the internet.
RM content can be played with RealPlayer, or with any DirectShow based player by installing third party filters such as RealAlternative.
Audio-Video Interleave (AVI) is a multimedia container format introduced by Microsoft in 1992, as part of the Video for Windows technology. These files contain both audio and video data in a standard container that allows simultaneous playback. Most AVI files also use the file format extensions developed by the Matrox OpenDML group in February 1996. These files are supported by Microsoft, and are known unofficially as 'AVI 2.0'.
MOV
A QuickTime MOV file contains one or more tracks, each of which store a particular type of data, such as audio, video, effects, or subtitles. Each track in turn contains track media, either the digitally encoded media stream (using a specific codec such as Cinepak, Sorenson codec, MP3, JPEG, DivX, or PNG) or a data reference to the media stored in another file or elsewhere on a network. It also has an 'edit list' that indicates what parts of the media to use.
The ability to contain abstract data references for the media data, and the separation of the media data from the media offsets and the track edit lists means that QuickTime is particularly suited for editing, as it is capable of importing and editing in place (without data copying) other formats such as AIFF DV, MP3, MPEG-1, and AVI.
MP4
MPEG-4 Part 14 or MP4 is a container file format specified as a part of the ISO/IEC MPEG-4 international standard. It is used to store media types defined by the ISO/IEC Moving Picture Experts Group, and can be used to store other media types as well.
MP4 allows streaming over the internet. It also allows multiplexing of multiple video and audio streams in one file, variable frame- and bit-rates, subtitles and still images.
Ogg
Ogg Media Container is developed by Xiph.org as the framework of a larger initiative aimed at developing a set of components for the coding and decoding of multimedia content which are both freely available and freely re-implementable in software.
The term Ogg often incorrectly refers to the Vorbis audio codec. Other prominent components of Ogg are its video codec Theora, and the speech audio compression format, Speex.
If you are wondering about the OGM format, refer to this page for detailed information. DivXLand.org suggests to use the Matroska container, since OGM is no longer developed.
Matroska
Matroska aims to be the standard for multimedia container formats. It incorporates features you would expect from a modern container format, like:
- Fast seeking in the file
- High error recovery
- Chapter entries
- Selectable subtitle streams
- Selectable audio streams
- Modularly Extendable
- Streamable over internet (HTTP and RTP audio / video streams)
- DVD-style menus
The Matroska file extensions are:
- .mkv: generally video files, as well those containing audio (movies) or video only.
- .mka: audio only files, can contain any supported audio compresion format, such as MP2, MP3, Vorbis, AAC, AC3, DTS, PCM.
- .mks: a so called 'elementary' matroska stream containing any subtitles stream.
To open Matroska files, you need to install either the DivX Total Pack or the Matroska Pack filter. For extended information regarding the Matroska container format, visit its website.
ASF
Advanced Systems Format (formerly Advanced Streaming Format) is Microsoft's proprietary digital audio and video container format, especially designed for streaming media. ASF is part of the Windows Media framework.
The format does not specify how the video or audio should be encoded, but instead just specifies the structure of the video/audio stream. What this means is that ASF files can be encoded with basically any audio/video codec and still would be in ASF format. This is similar to the function performed by the QuickTime, AVI, or Ogg formats.
The most common filetypes contained within an ASF file are Windows Media Audio (WMA) and Windows Media Video (WMV).
RealMedia
RealMedia is a multimedia container format created by RealNetworks. It is typically used in conjunction with RealVideo and RealAudio compression and is popular for streaming content over the internet.
RM content can be played with RealPlayer, or with any DirectShow based player by installing third party filters such as RealAlternative.
REF
http://www.divxland.org/en/article/15/multimedia_container_formats
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/3GP_and_3G2
http://www.reganam.com/3gp-video-format.htm
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OTayZD-0j54
http://edutechwiki.unige.ch/en/Video_streaming
http://edutechwiki.unige.ch/en/Multimedia_container_format
3GP is a new multimedia container format which is defined as Third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP). This format is used for 3G UMTS multimedia services. It is used in 3G mobile phones but some 2G phones also support 3GP file format. The Technical Specifications for 3Gp are found in ETSI 3GPP technical specification. 3GP is required for IP multimedia subsystem (IMS), Multimedia Messaging Service (MMS), Multimedia broadcast/multicast services (MBMS) and transparent end to end packet streaming services (PSS).It is a third generation video standard that incorporates mp3,mp4,3gpp and 3gp.
3GP stores video streams in MPEG-4 or H 263 format while audio streams are stored AMR-NB or AAC-LC format. 3GP defines the image sizes and bandwidth requirements as a result the content fits the small mobile screen efficiently. Unlike the MP3 format, 3GP format includes both video and audio streams. Thus both video and audio currents are stored in a single file for this format.
The 3GP format is actually a multimedia format. The extension .3gp clearly shows that this technology is mainly incorporated in 3rd generation mobile phones. It is based on ISO base media file format. This format was defined to minimize the storage and bandwidth requirements so that mobile phones can store and download these files. A 3GP always follows the big-endian format so that the most significant byte is stored and transferred first. The 3GP format is mainly intended to use for mobile phones and devices capable of handling multimedia. Most of the mobile phone records and then play back the video using this 3GP format. A specific player is required in order to watch you mobile made 3GP videos on the PC.
The basis for 3GP file format is MPEG-4 part 12 of ISO.Some older versions didn’t support all the capabilities defined in MPEG-4 part 12 but new versions fully support MPEG-4 part 12. This format is closely related to MPEG-4 part 14 (MP4) format because MPEG-4 part 14 is also based on MPEG-4 part 12. The file extension for 3GP files is .3gp.3GP files can be viewed on PC using software like QuickTime or real player etc. In 3GP file format various things like audio, video and bit rate information is stored in a single file. Due to the compressed nature of 3GP format the size of 3GP file is very small as it is to be stored on a mobile or similar device. As stated earlier, the file with extension ‘.3gp’ stores the video content in the Mp4 format and the audio data in AMR format.
Now a day’s mobile phone and internet industry is growing fast and quick .Some websites allow the users to download content directly in to their mobile .So websites usually prefer the 3GP format for videos so that it can be easily downloaded and played in the users’ mobile. As a result the demand for 3GP videos is increasing day by day. So we can say that 3GP format is a sensation for mobile users as users can now easily browse internet and videos on websites. Also large multimedia files can be transferred easily and video conferencing is very easy now. The 3GP format is supported by all the systems like windows, MACs and Linux.
3GP stores video streams in MPEG-4 or H 263 format while audio streams are stored AMR-NB or AAC-LC format. 3GP defines the image sizes and bandwidth requirements as a result the content fits the small mobile screen efficiently. Unlike the MP3 format, 3GP format includes both video and audio streams. Thus both video and audio currents are stored in a single file for this format.
The 3GP format is actually a multimedia format. The extension .3gp clearly shows that this technology is mainly incorporated in 3rd generation mobile phones. It is based on ISO base media file format. This format was defined to minimize the storage and bandwidth requirements so that mobile phones can store and download these files. A 3GP always follows the big-endian format so that the most significant byte is stored and transferred first. The 3GP format is mainly intended to use for mobile phones and devices capable of handling multimedia. Most of the mobile phone records and then play back the video using this 3GP format. A specific player is required in order to watch you mobile made 3GP videos on the PC.
The basis for 3GP file format is MPEG-4 part 12 of ISO.Some older versions didn’t support all the capabilities defined in MPEG-4 part 12 but new versions fully support MPEG-4 part 12. This format is closely related to MPEG-4 part 14 (MP4) format because MPEG-4 part 14 is also based on MPEG-4 part 12. The file extension for 3GP files is .3gp.3GP files can be viewed on PC using software like QuickTime or real player etc. In 3GP file format various things like audio, video and bit rate information is stored in a single file. Due to the compressed nature of 3GP format the size of 3GP file is very small as it is to be stored on a mobile or similar device. As stated earlier, the file with extension ‘.3gp’ stores the video content in the Mp4 format and the audio data in AMR format.
Now a day’s mobile phone and internet industry is growing fast and quick .Some websites allow the users to download content directly in to their mobile .So websites usually prefer the 3GP format for videos so that it can be easily downloaded and played in the users’ mobile. As a result the demand for 3GP videos is increasing day by day. So we can say that 3GP format is a sensation for mobile users as users can now easily browse internet and videos on websites. Also large multimedia files can be transferred easily and video conferencing is very easy now. The 3GP format is supported by all the systems like windows, MACs and Linux.
Despite the relative small size of 3GP format the quality of video is very good.3GP files can be easily converted to other formats like wmv,avi,mp4 etc with the help of different software which are easily available on the internet. One major conversion nowadays is from DVD to 3GP which allows you to watch your favorite DVD movies on wireless devices which supports 3GP format. Also FLV to 3GP conversion is a vital one these days. It enables you to download videos from internet websites like YouTube or some other and then change its format to #GP after which you will be able to watch that video on your cell phone or PDA.
Today the use of Cell phone has been increased enormously. More than 90% of these cell phones play videos in 3GP format. Thus you need to convert the videos before watching them in your cell phone. It is expected that in the near future full length and high quality videos are available from the internet in the 3GP format. This enables you to watch all the TV shows, different plays and much more on your cell phone screen.
If you are searching for videos that can be watched on your mobile phone, you might look for the cell phone’s company website for supported videos as your first option. There you may find some small videos or video trailers. Some companies make available these videos free for all while some may charge for downloading these videos, you can use 3GP Player to watch 3GP videos.
If you want to download full length 3GP videos, you may go to some specific 3GP videos websites. These websites offer you free 3GP videos which might include some funny ones, popular TV commercials and many more. You can easy download these 3GP videos and put them in your mobile phone. Moreover if you don’t find your required video anywhere on the internet than you might download some suitable converter like 3GP Converter which convert most of the latest formats into 3GP after which you can easily watch your favorite video on the cell phone.
Today the use of Cell phone has been increased enormously. More than 90% of these cell phones play videos in 3GP format. Thus you need to convert the videos before watching them in your cell phone. It is expected that in the near future full length and high quality videos are available from the internet in the 3GP format. This enables you to watch all the TV shows, different plays and much more on your cell phone screen.
If you are searching for videos that can be watched on your mobile phone, you might look for the cell phone’s company website for supported videos as your first option. There you may find some small videos or video trailers. Some companies make available these videos free for all while some may charge for downloading these videos, you can use 3GP Player to watch 3GP videos.
If you want to download full length 3GP videos, you may go to some specific 3GP videos websites. These websites offer you free 3GP videos which might include some funny ones, popular TV commercials and many more. You can easy download these 3GP videos and put them in your mobile phone. Moreover if you don’t find your required video anywhere on the internet than you might download some suitable converter like 3GP Converter which convert most of the latest formats into 3GP after which you can easily watch your favorite video on the cell phone.
3GP is the simplified version of the well-known Mp4 format. This is mainly to reduce the size of the original video to a considerable extent and thus can easily be seen in low memory mobile phones. The most common extensions in which 3GP files come are .3gp and .3g2. As 3GP files are the compressed form of Mp4 file, thus the size of 3GP file is significantly reduced. This makes the 3GP format perfect for the cell phones whose may not have a considerable memory.
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Compress high quality 3GP videos for mobiles — guide
Filed Under (guide, mobiles, sony ericsson, video) by Abbas on 03-09-2008
Tagged Under : guide, mobiles, sony ericsson, video
If you used to search the web for a 3GP version of your favorite video so that you could enjoy some high quality movies on your mobile phone, your search is over. No you won’t have to ask others to compress a video for your mobile phone because at the end of this tutorial, you’ll be able to compress any of your favorite video or movie to a high quality .3GP format movie yourself.
If you regularly watch videos on your mobile phone, you already know how pixelated and badly compressed most of those movies look. With this tutorial, we’ll follow some steps, use a nice compression software, and tune up a few things so that you’ll get videos with the the highest quality possible, and even that with a minor increase in the file size.
In order to compress the movie, first you’ll be needing this very nice audio/video compression tool called Super © video converter, to download it go here and you’ll see a very lengthy page, go to the very end of the page and you’ll see a link saying “start downloading Super (C)”, click on that link and you’ll be forward to a final page, where you can download the program (Yes, I know the download is a little awkward, but thats how the Super (C) wants people to go through their pages before they’re able to get a download).
After you’re done with downloading the setup for Super C video converter and install it. During the installation process, you might get a few messages just ignore them.
Once Super C is installed, open it up (if you’re on vista, you might need to right click on the icon and run it as an administrator). Super C will check some requirements that it needs, whatever message it gives, just press ok (as normally any current PC is ok to run Super C, unless you want to compress huge videos as then you’ll need more RAM and CPU power).
Since we’ll be compressing our videos to 3GP format, select “3GP” as the output format, MPEG4 as the video codec and AAC LC as the Audio codec just as shown in the pictur below.
After choosing the right options, now we have to select the video options. If you’re using a phone like Sony Ericsson’s K750, W700, W800, W810, W550 etc, then select the 176:144 “Video Scale Size” from the Video row, 25 frames per second, with 250 kbps bitrate.
If you’re using Sony Ericsson’s K790, K800, K810, K850, W850, W900 etc then because of the large screen and powerful mobile cpu you can choose 240:320 “Video Scale Size” (which’ll give you far superior video quality (as you can see from the top image of this post)). Same 25 frames/sec video speed and choose a bitrate of 450 kbps for the video, just like as shown in the screenshot below.
The next step is to select some nice audio options so that you can enjoy a good audio experience along with he nicely compressed 3GP video. Choose 22050 as the sampling frequency, 2 Channels and choose the bitrate to 96 kbps (if you’re using K750, W700, W800, W810 etc you can also choose 64kbps audio quality if you are going to compress very long videos like movies for example, it’ll save your mobile videos from lagging). Select the options as shown in the screenshot below.
After choosing these options, now all you have to do is to select your favorite movie or video, and get it encoded by Super C. To select the media file that you want to encode, (1) right click on the area below OUTPUT, as shown in the following image, and (2) click on “Add Multimedia Files”. A browse window should open up and now just locate and select the required video file.
Now you’ll see the video file in the list. In my case I’m compressing Alizee’s La Isla Bonita (very famous video of this hot and nice singer). After the video is in the list just click on “Encode (Active Files)”. Make sure the video is ticked in the list just like as shown below.
Now give Super C a little time to compress your video. The compression doesn’t take very long, time-taken depends on the video size and the compression options. After the compression process is done, your compressed 3GP file will be stored in C:/Program Files/eRight Software/Super/Output directory.
As you can see by the status bar screenshot below, Super C has compressed a 49MB file to a nice and neat, high quality 13MB 3GP file (320:240 version),
i’ve followed the 320:240 size as I wanted this video for my Sony Ericsson K790. For the 176:144 video phones like K750, W700, W800, W810 etc, the size of the compressed 3GP video file will be much smaller.
The end product will look something like this: 
I hope you’d love the end product This 3GP video is now worth watching over your cell phone over and over again. Oh and do comment about how you found this post, and of course, how hot do you think Alizee is?
This 3GP video is now worth watching over your cell phone over and over again. Oh and do comment about how you found this post, and of course, how hot do you think Alizee is?
video and audio parameters including video resolution, frame rate, encoder, bit rate, and audio sample rate, channel, encoder, bit rate, and volume so that you can the best video quality.
REF
http://techlighten.com/guide/compress-high-quality-3gp-videos-for-mobiles-guide/
http://www.video-compressor.com/3gp-video-compressor.html
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