The ISO base media file format (ISOBMFF) is a
container file format
A container format (informally, sometimes called a wrapper) or metafile is a file format that allows multiple data streams to be embedded into a single file, usually along with metadata for identifying and further detailing those streams. Not ...
that defines a general structure for files that contain time-based
multimedia
Multimedia is a form of communication that uses a combination of different content forms such as text, audio, images, animations, or video into a single interactive presentation, in contrast to tradition ...
data such as video and audio.
It is standardized in
ISO
ISO is the most common abbreviation for the International Organization for Standardization.
ISO or Iso may also refer to: Business and finance
* Iso (supermarket), a chain of Danish supermarkets incorporated into the SuperBest chain in 2007
* Iso ...
/
IEC
The International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC; in French: ''Commission électrotechnique internationale'') is an international standards organization that prepares and publishes international standards for all electrical, electronic and r ...
14496-12, a.k.a.
MPEG-4
MPEG-4 is a group of international standards for the compression of digital audio and visual data, multimedia systems, and file storage formats. It was originally introduced in late 1998 as a group of audio and video coding formats and related tec ...
Part 12, and was formerly also published as ISO/IEC 15444-12, a.k.a.
JPEG 2000
JPEG 2000 (JP2) is an image compression standard and coding system. It was developed from 1997 to 2000 by a Joint Photographic Experts Group committee chaired by Touradj Ebrahimi (later the JPEG president), with the intention of superseding the ...
Part 12.
It is designed as a flexible, extensible format that facilitates interchange, management, editing and presentation of the media. The presentation may be local, or via a network or other stream delivery mechanism. The file format is designed to be independent of any particular network protocol while enabling support for them in general.
The format has become very widely used for media file storage and as the basis for various other media
file format
A file format is a standard way that information is encoded for storage in a computer file. It specifies how bits are used to encode information in a digital storage medium. File formats may be either proprietary or free.
Some file formats ...
s (e.g. the
MP4 and
3GP container formats), and its widespread use was recognized by a
Technology & Engineering Emmy Award
The Technology and Engineering Emmy Awards, or Technology and Engineering Emmys, are one of two sets of Emmy Awards that are presented for outstanding achievement in engineering development in the television industry. The Technology and Engineer ...
presented on 4 November 2021 by the
National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences
The National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences (NATAS) is an American professional service organization founded in 1955 for "the advancement of the arts and sciences of television and the promotion of creative leadership for artistic, edu ...
.
History
The ISO base media file format is directly based on
Apple
An apple is an edible fruit produced by an apple tree (''Malus domestica''). Apple fruit tree, trees are agriculture, cultivated worldwide and are the most widely grown species in the genus ''Malus''. The tree originated in Central Asia, wh ...
's
QuickTime container format.
It was developed by
MPEG
The Moving Picture Experts Group (MPEG) is an alliance of working groups established jointly by International Organization for Standardization, ISO and International Electrotechnical Commission, IEC that sets standards for media coding, includ ...
(in
ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC 29, originally Working Group 11 MPEG, currently Working Group 3 MPEG Systems). The first MP4 file format specification was created on the basis of the QuickTime format specification published in 2001.
The MP4 file format known as "version 1" was published in 2001 as ISO/IEC 14496-1:2001, as revision of the MPEG-4 Part 1: Systems.
In 2003, the first version of the MP4 file format was revised and replaced by MPEG-4 Part 14: MP4 file format (ISO/IEC 14496-14:2003), commonly known as MPEG-4 file format "version 2".
The MP4 file format was generalized into the ISO base media file format (ISO/IEC 14496-12:2004 or ISO/IEC 15444-12:2004), which defines a general structure for time-based media files. It is used as the basis for other file formats in the family such as MP4, 3GP, and
Motion JPEG 2000
Motion JPEG 2000 (MJ2 or MJP2) is a file format for motion sequences of JPEG 2000 images and associated audio, based on the MP4 and QuickTime format. Filename extensions for Motion JPEG 2000 video files are .mj2 and .mjp2, as defined in RFC 3 ...
).
Historically, the text was also published as ISO/IEC 15444-12 (JPEG 2000 Part 12), although the JPEG 2000 version of the standard was withdrawn in January 2017 since it was redundant with the MPEG-4 publication.
Extensions
![Relations between ISO MP4 3GPP and 3GPP2 file format](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b7/Relations_between_ISO_MP4_3GPP_and_3GPP2_file_format.svg)
The ISO base media file format is designed as an extensible file format. A list of all registered extensions for the ISO base media file format is published on the official registration authority website, www.mp4ra.org.
[ The registration authority for code-points (identifier values) in "MP4 Family" files is Apple Inc. and it is named in Annex D (informative) in MPEG-4 Part 12.] Codec designers should register the codes they invent, but the registration is not mandatory and some of invented and used code-points are not registered. When someone is creating a new specification derived from the ISO base media file format, all the existing specifications should be used both as examples and a source of definitions and technology. If an existing specification already covers how a particular media type is stored in the file format (e.g. MPEG-4 audio or video in MP4), that definition should be used and a new one should not be invented.
MPEG
The Moving Picture Experts Group (MPEG) is an alliance of working groups established jointly by International Organization for Standardization, ISO and International Electrotechnical Commission, IEC that sets standards for media coding, includ ...
has standardized a number of specifications extending the ISO base media file format: The MP4 file format (ISO/IEC 14496-14) defined some extensions over ISO base media file format to support MPEG-4
MPEG-4 is a group of international standards for the compression of digital audio and visual data, multimedia systems, and file storage formats. It was originally introduced in late 1998 as a group of audio and video coding formats and related tec ...
visual/audio codecs and various MPEG-4 Systems features such as object descriptors and scene descriptions. The MPEG-4 Part 3
MPEG-4 Part 3 or MPEG-4 Audio (formally ISO/IEC 14496-3) is the third part of the ISO/IEC MPEG-4 international standard developed by Moving Picture Experts Group. It specifies audio coding methods. The first version of ISO/IEC 14496-3 was publish ...
(MPEG-4 Audio) standard also defined storage of some audio compression formats. Storage of MPEG-1/2 Audio (MP3
MP3 (formally MPEG-1 Audio Layer III or MPEG-2 Audio Layer III) is a coding format for digital audio developed largely by the Fraunhofer Society in Germany, with support from other digital scientists in the United States and elsewhere. Origin ...
, MP2, MP1
MPEG-1 Audio Layer I, commonly abbreviated to MP1, is one of three audio formats included in the MPEG-1 standard. It is a deliberately simplified version of MPEG-1 Audio Layer II (MP2), created for applications where lower compression efficiency ...
) in the ISO base media file format was defined in ISO/IEC 14496-3:2001/Amd 3:2005. The Advanced Video Coding (AVC) file format (ISO/IEC 14496-15) defined support for H.264/MPEG-4 AVC video compression. The High Efficiency Image File Format
High Efficiency Image File Format (HEIF) is a container format for storing individual digital images and image sequences. The standard covers multimedia files that can also include other media streams, such as timed text, audio and video.
HEI ...
(HEIF) is an image container format using the ISO base media file format as the basis. While HEIF can be used with any image compression format, it specifically includes the support for HEVC
High Efficiency Video Coding (HEVC), also known as H.265 and MPEG-H Part 2, is a video compression standard designed as part of the MPEG-H project as a successor to the widely used Advanced Video Coding (AVC, H.264, or MPEG-4 Part 10). In compari ...
intra-coded images and HEVC-coded image sequences taking advantage of inter-picture prediction.
Some of the above-mentioned MPEG standard extensions are used by other formats based on ISO base media file format (e.g. 3GP). The 3GPP file format (.3gp) specification also defined extensions to support H.263 video, AMR-NB
The Adaptive Multi-Rate (AMR, AMR-NB or GSM-AMR) audio codec is an audio compression format optimized for speech coding. AMR speech codec consists of a multi-rate narrowband speech codec that encodes narrowband (200–3400 Hz) signals at var ...
, AMR-WB
Adaptive Multi-Rate Wideband (AMR-WB) is a patented wideband speech audio coding standard developed based on Adaptive Multi-Rate encoding, using a similar methodology to algebraic code-excited linear prediction (ACELP). AMR-WB provides improved ...
, AMR-WB+ audio and 3GPP Timed Text in files based on the ISO base media file format. The 3GPP2 file format (.3g2) defined extensions for usage of EVRC Enhanced Variable Rate CODEC (EVRC) is a speech codec used in CDMA networks. It was developed in 1995 to replace the QCELP vocoder which used more bandwidth on the carrier's network, thus EVRC's primary goal was to offer the mobile carriers more cap ...
, SMV or 13K (QCELP
Qualcomm code-excited linear prediction (QCELP), also known as Qualcomm PureVoice, is a speech codec developed in 1994 by Qualcomm to increase the speech quality of the IS-96A codec earlier used in CDMA networks. It was later replaced with EVRC ...
) voice compression formats. The JPEG 2000
JPEG 2000 (JP2) is an image compression standard and coding system. It was developed from 1997 to 2000 by a Joint Photographic Experts Group committee chaired by Touradj Ebrahimi (later the JPEG president), with the intention of superseding the ...
specification (ISO/IEC 15444-3) defined usage of Motion JPEG 2000
Motion JPEG 2000 (MJ2 or MJP2) is a file format for motion sequences of JPEG 2000 images and associated audio, based on the MP4 and QuickTime format. Filename extensions for Motion JPEG 2000 video files are .mj2 and .mjp2, as defined in RFC 3 ...
video compression and uncompressed audio ( PCM) in the ISO base media file format (.mj2). The "DVB File Format" (.dvb) defined by DVB Project allowed storage of DVB
Digital Video Broadcasting (DVB) is a set of international open standards for digital television. DVB standards are maintained by the DVB Project, an international industry consortium, and are published by a Joint Technical Committee (JTC) o ...
services in the ISO base media file format. It allows the storage of audio, video and other content in any of three main ways: encapsulated in a MPEG transport stream
MPEG transport stream (MPEG-TS, MTS) or simply transport stream (TS) is a standard digital container format for transmission and storage of audio, video, and Program and System Information Protocol (PSIP) data. It is used in broadcast systems ...
, stored as a reception hint track; encapsulated in an RTP stream, stored as a reception hint track or stored directly as media tracks. The MPEG-21
The MPEG-21 standard, from the Moving Picture Experts Group, aims at defining an open framework for multimedia applications. MPEG-21 is ratified in the standards ISO/IEC 21000 - Multimedia framework (MPEG-21).
MPEG-21 is based on two essential con ...
File Format (.m21, .mp21) defined the storage of an MPEG-21 Digital Item Digital Item is the basic unit of transaction in the MPEG-21 framework. It is a structured digital object, including a standard representation, identification and metadata.
A Digital Item may be a combination of resources like videos, audio trac ...
in the ISO base media file format, with some or all of its ancillary data (such as movies, images or other non-XML data) within the same file. The OMA DRM
OMA DRM is a digital rights management (DRM) system invented by the Open Mobile Alliance, whose members represent mobile phone manufacturers (e.g. Nokia, LG, Motorola, Samsung, Sony-Ericsson, BenQ-Siemens), mobile system manufacturers (e.g. Er ...
Content Format (.dcf) specification from Open Mobile Alliance
OMA SpecWorks, previously the Open Mobile Alliance (OMA) is a standards organization which develops open, international technical standards for the mobile phone industry. It is a nonprofit Non-governmental organization (NGO), not a formal governme ...
defined the content format for DRM
DRM may refer to:
Government, military and politics
* Defense reform movement, U.S. campaign inspired by Col. John Boyd
* Democratic Republic of Madagascar, a former socialist state (1975–1992) on Madagascar
* Direction du renseignement milita ...
protected encrypted media objects and associated metadata. There are also other extensions, such as ISMA ISMACryp specification for encrypted/protected audio and video, G.719 audio compression specification, AC3 and E-AC-3
Dolby Digital Plus, also known as Enhanced AC-3 (and commonly abbreviated as DDP, DD+, E-AC-3 or EC-3) is a digital audio compression scheme developed by Dolby Labs for transport and storage of multi-channel digital audio. It is a successor to D ...
audio compression, DTS audio compression, Dirac
Distributed Research using Advanced Computing (DiRAC) is an integrated supercomputing facility used for research in particle physics, astronomy and cosmology in the United Kingdom. DiRAC makes use of multi-core processors and provides a variety o ...
video compression, VC-1
SMPTE 421, informally known as VC-1, is a video coding format. Most of it was initially developed as Microsoft's proprietary video format Windows Media Video 9 in 2003. With some enhancements including the development of a new Advanced Profile, ...
video compression specification and others, which are named on the MP4 Registration authority's website.
There are some extensions of the ISO base media file format that were not registered by the MP4 Registration authority. Adobe Systems introduced the F4V file format for Flash Video
Flash Video is a container file format used to deliver digital video content (e.g., TV shows, movies, etc.) over the Internet using Adobe Flash Player version 6 and newer. Flash Video content may also be embedded within SWF files. There ar ...
in 2007 and said it is based on the ISO base media file format. The F4V file format was not registered by the MP4 registration authority, but the F4V technical specification is publicly available. This format can contain H.264 video compression and MP3 or AAC audio compression. In addition, F4V file format can contain data corresponding to the ActionScript Message Format and still frame of video data using image formats GIF
The Graphics Interchange Format (GIF; or , see pronunciation) is a bitmap image format that was developed by a team at the online services provider CompuServe led by American computer scientist Steve Wilhite and released on 15 June 1987. ...
, JPEG and PNG.
Microsoft Corporation announced a file format based on the ISO base media file format in 2009 called ISMV (Smooth Streaming format), also known as Protected Interoperable File Format (PIFF). As announced, this format can for example contain VC-1, WMA, H.264 and AAC compression formats. Microsoft published a Protected Interoperable File Format (PIFF) specification in 2010. It defined another usage of multiple encryption and DRM systems in a single file container. PIFF brand was registered by the MP4 registration authority in 2010. Some extensions used by this format (e.g. for WMA support) were not registered. Usage of the WMA compression format in the ISO base media file format was not publicly documented.
Technical details
The ISO base media file format includes timing, structure, and media information for timed sequences of media data, such as audio-visual presentations. The file structure is object-oriented. A file can be decomposed into basic objects very simply, and the structure of the objects is implied from their type.
Files conforming to the ISO base media file format are formed as a series of objects, called "boxes". All data is contained in boxes, and there is no other data within the file. This includes any initial signature required by the specific file format. The "box" is an object-oriented building block defined by a unique type identifier and length. It was called an "atom" in some specifications (e.g. the first definition of the MP4 file format).
A presentation (motion sequence) may be contained in several files. All timing and framing (position and size) information must be in the ISO base media file, and the ancillary files may essentially use any format.
File type box
In order to identify the specifications to which a file based on the ISO base media file format complies, "brands" are used as identifiers in the file format. These are set in a box named file type box ("ftyp"), which must be placed in the beginning of the file. It is somewhat analogous to the so-called fourcc
A FourCC ("four-character code") is a sequence of four bytes (typically ASCII) used to uniquely identify data formats. It originated from the OSType or ResType metadata system used in classic Mac OS and was adopted for the Amiga/Electronic Arts I ...
code, used for a similar purpose for media embedded in AVI container format. A brand might indicate the type of encoding used, how the data of each encoding is stored, constraints and extensions that are applied to the file, the compatibility, or the intended usage of the file. Brands are a printable four-character codes. A file type box contains two kinds of brands. One is "major_brand", which identifies the specification of the best use for the file. It is followed by "minor_version", an informative 4-byte integer for the minor version of the major brand. The second kind of brand is "compatible_brands", which identifies multiple specifications to which the file complies. All files shall contain a file type box, but for compatibility reasons with an earlier version of the specification, files may be conformant to ISO/IEC base media file format and not contain a file type box. In that case they should be read as if they contained an ''ftyp'' with major and compatible brand "mp41" (MP4 v1 – ISO 14496-1, Chapter 13). Some in-use brands (ftyps) are not registered and can be found on some webpages.
A multimedia file structured upon ISO/IEC base media file format may be compatible with more than one concrete specification, and it is therefore not always possible to speak of a single "type" or "brand" for the file. In this regard, the utility of the Multipurpose Internet Mail Extension type and file name extension is somewhat reduced. In spite of that, when a derived specification is written, a new file extension will be used, a new MIME type and a new Macintosh file type.
Streaming
The ISO/IEC base media file format supports streaming
Streaming media is multimedia that is delivered and consumed in a continuous manner from a source, with little or no intermediate storage in network elements. ''Streaming'' refers to the delivery method of content, rather than the content it ...
of media data over a network as well as local playback. A file that supports streaming includes information about the data units to stream (how to serve the elementary stream An elementary stream (ES) as defined by the MPEG communication protocol is usually the output of an audio encoder or video encoder. An ES contains only one kind of data (e.g. audio, video, or closed caption). An elementary stream is often referred t ...
data in the file over streaming protocols). This information is placed in additional tracks of the file called "hint" tracks. Separate "hint" tracks for different protocols may be included within the same file. The media will play over all such protocols without making any additional copies or versions of the media data. Existing media can be easily made streamable for other specific protocols by the addition of appropriate hint tracks. The media data itself need not be reformatted in any way. The streams sent by the servers under the direction of the hint tracks, need contain no trace of file-specific information. When the presentation is played back locally (not streamed), the hint tracks may be ignored. Hint tracks may be created by an authoring tool or may be added to an existing file (presentation) by a hinting tool. In media authored for progressive download, the moov box, which contains the index of frames, should precede the movie data mdat box.[.]
References
External links
* – The Codecs Parameter for "Bucket" Media Types
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{{MPEG
Digital container formats
ISO/IEC standards
MPEG-4 Part 12
The ISO base media file format (ISOBMFF) is a container file format that defines a general structure for files that contain time-based multimedia data such as video and audio.
It is standardized in ISO/IEC 14496-12, a.k.a. MPEG-4 Part 12, and wa ...