Material Exchange Format (MXF) is a container format for professional digital video and audio media defined by a set of

SMPTE The Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers (SMPTE) (, rarely ), founded by Charles Francis Jenkins in 1916 as the Society of Motion Picture Engineers or SMPE, is a global professional association of engineers, technologists, and e ...

standards. A typical example of its use is for delivering advertisements to TV stations and tapeless archiving of broadcast TV programs. It is also used as part of the

Digital Cinema Package A Digital Cinema Package (DCP) is a collection of digital files used to store and convey digital cinema (DC) audio, image, and data streams. The term was popularized by Digital Cinema Initiatives, Digital Cinema Initiatives, LLC in its original ...

for delivering movies to commercial theaters.

Summary

MXF, when used in the form of "Operational Pattern OP1A" or "OPAtom", can be used as a ''container'', ''wrapper'' or ''reference file'' format which supports a number of different streams of coded "

essence Essence () has various meanings and uses for different thinkers and in different contexts. It is used in philosophy and theology as a designation for the property (philosophy), property or set of properties or attributes that make an entity the ...

", encoded in any of a variety of

video Video is an Electronics, electronic medium for the recording, copying, playback, broadcasting, and display of moving picture, moving image, visual Media (communication), media. Video was first developed for mechanical television systems, whi ...

and audio compression formats, together with a

metadata Metadata (or metainformation) is "data that provides information about other data", but not the content of the data itself, such as the text of a message or the image itself. There are many distinct types of metadata, including: * Descriptive ...

wrapper which describes the material contained within the MXF file. Other "Operational Patterns" can contain or reference multiple materials, just like a simple timeline of a video editing program. MXF has full timecode and metadata support and is intended as a platform-agnostic stable standard for future professional video and audio applications. MXF was developed to carry a subset of the Advanced Authoring Format (AAF) data model, under a policy known as the Zero Divergence Directive (ZDD). This theoretically enables MXF/AAF workflows between non-linear editing (NLE) systems using AAF and cameras, servers, and other devices using MXF.

Usage

From 2004 onwards, MXF was in the process of evolving from standard to deployment. The breadth of the standard was subject to lead to interoperability problems, as vendors implement different parts of the standard or interpret misleading parts of the standard differently. MXF is fairly effective at the interchange of D10 (IMX) material, mainly because of the success of the Sony eVTR and Sony's eVTR RDD to SMPTE. Workflows combining the eVTR, Avid NLE systems, and broadcast servers using MXF in coordination with AAF are now possible. Long- GOP

MPEG-2 MPEG-2 (a.k.a. H.222/H.262 as was defined by the ITU) is a standard for "the generic coding of moving pictures and associated audio information". It describes a combination of lossy video compression and lossy audio data compression methods ...

material interchange between video servers is possible, as broadcasters develop application specifications they expect their vendors to implement. As of autumn 2005, there were major interoperability problems with MXF in broadcast

post-production Post-production, also known simply as post, is part of the process of filmmaking, video production, audio production, and photography. Post-production includes all stages of production occurring after principal photography or recording indivi ...

use. The two data-recording camera systems which produced MXF at that time,

Sony is a Japanese multinational conglomerate (company), conglomerate headquartered at Sony City in Minato, Tokyo, Japan. The Sony Group encompasses various businesses, including Sony Corporation (electronics), Sony Semiconductor Solutions (i ...

's XDCAM and Panasonic's DVCPRO P2, produced mutually incompatible files due to opaque sub-format options obscured behind the MXF file extension. Without advanced tools, it was impossible to distinguish these incompatible formats. Some of the incompatibilities were addressed and ratified in the 2009 version of the standard. MXF is used as the audio and video packaging format for

(DCP). It is also used in the STANAG specification documents. The file extension for MXF files is ".mxf". The Macintosh File Type Code registered with Apple for MXF files is "mxf ", including a trailing space.

Tools

MXF converters

This list represents some examples of free and open source products that support the MXF standard: *

FFmpeg FFmpeg is a free and open-source software project consisting of a suite of libraries and programs for handling video, audio, and other multimedia files and streams. At its core is the command-line ffmpeg tool itself, designed for processing vide ...

, an

open source Open source is source code that is made freely available for possible modification and redistribution. Products include permission to use and view the source code, design documents, or content of the product. The open source model is a decentrali ...

project added support for muxing and demuxing of MXF and MXF D-10 in FFmpeg 0.5, released in March 2009. :* Note that up to 2019, FFmpeg implements only the base MXF standard but does not provide vendor specific profiles, e.g. one cannot produce a MXF File that is compatible to Sony XDCAM devices due to missing header metadata entries (for further information se
ffmpeg trac ticket 5097
*

GStreamer GStreamer is a Pipeline (computing), pipeline-based multimedia framework that links together a wide variety of media processing systems to complete complex workflows. For instance, GStreamer can be used to build a system that reads files in one f ...

is an open source Material Exchange Format (MXF) library. Pitivi uses this tool. * VSDC is a free video editor for open and edit mxf file. * Ingex is an open-source ( GPL) suite of software for the digital capture of audio and video data, developed and heavily used by the

BBC The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...

. SDI capture is supported, as well as real-time

transcoding Transcoding is the direct digital-to-digital conversion of one encoding to another, such as for video data files, audio files (e.g., MP3, WAV), or character encoding (e.g., UTF-8, ISO/IEC 8859). This is usually done in cases where a target ...

(with MXF). Portions of the suite also act as a network file server for media files, as well as archiving to LTO-3 data tape.

The MXF standards

Base documents

* SMPTE 377M: The MXF File Format Specification (the overall master document) * SMPTE EG41: MXF Engineering Guide (A guide explaining how to use MXF) * SMPTE EG42: MXF Descriptive Metadata (A guide explaining how to use descriptive metadata in MXF)

Operational patterns

* SMPTE 390M: OP-Atom (a very simple and highly constrained layout for simple MXF files) * SMPTE 378M: OP-1a (the layout options for a minimal simple MXF file) * SMPTE 391M: OP-1b * SMPTE 392M: OP-2a * SMPTE 393M: OP-2b * SMPTE 407M: OP-3a, OP-3b * SMPTE 408M: OP-1c, OP-2c, OP-3c

Generic containers

* SMPTE 379M: Generic Container (the way that essence is stored in MXF files) * SMPTE 381M: GC-MPEG (how to store

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 ...

essence data in MXF using the Generic Container) * SMPTE 383M: GC-DV (how to store DV essence data in MXF using the Generic Container) * SMPTE 385M: GC-CP (how to store SDTI-CP essence data in MXF using the Generic Container) * SMPTE 386M: GC-D10 (how to store SMPTE D10 essence data in MXF using the Generic Container) * SMPTE 387M: GC-D11 (how to store SMPTE D11 essence data in MXF using the Generic Container) * SMPTE 382M: GC-AESBWF (how to store

AES/EBU AES3 is a standard for the exchange of digital audio signals between professional audio devices. An AES3 signal can carry two channels of pulse-code-modulated digital audio over several transmission media including balanced lines, unbalance ...

and Broadcast Wave audio essence data in MXF using the Generic Container) * SMPTE 384M: GC-UP (how to store Uncompressed Picture essence data in MXF using the Generic Container) * SMPTE 388M: GC-AA (how to store A-law coded audio essence data in MXF using the Generic Container) * SMPTE 389M: Generic Container Reverse Play System Element * SMPTE 394M: System Item Scheme-1 for Generic Container * SMPTE 405M: Elements and Individual Data Items for the GC SI Scheme 1

Metadata, dictionaries and registries

* SMPTE 380M: DMS1 (a standard set of descriptive metadata to use with MXF files) * SMPTE 436M: MXF Mappings for VBI Lines and Ancillary Data Packets * SMPTE RP210: SMPTE Metadata Dictionary (the latest version is availabl
here
) * SMPTE RP224: Registry of SMPTE Universal Labels

Availability of standards

SMPTE'
top standards page
has information, for the ordering of CD-ROMs, which would hold formal copy of the SMPTE standards. Judging by SMPTE's index, all of the standards, referenced above, would be contained on those CD-ROMs, as available fro
SMPTEIRT Test Center
contains up-to-date information on the status of the SMPTE documents.

References

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 their ...

)
US Library of Congress Digital Preservation Program: MXF Format Description Properties
{{SMPTE standards Audiovisual introductions in 2004 Computer-related introductions in 2004 Broadcasting standards Computer file formats Film and video technology SMPTE standards