Digital Media. Native audio/still picture/video formats

Professionals and private individuals alike have to produce, manipulate, store, manage, exchange, broadcast and distribute audio media – still images – digital video "encoded" in various formats, called "essence" formats, and encapsulated in extremely numerous and varied storage and transport "container formats".

This "Panorama of digital media" dossier, comprising six articles, aims to provide a definition, description of the characteristics, mapping and classification of these different digital media formats.

This first article [TE 5 364] details the "digital native format". It is the result of a discontinuous, coded measurement of the amplitude of continuous, proportional analog quantities generated by sound or image recording equipment. These analog quantities correspond to the intensity of sound or light vibrations perceived by our senses of hearing and sight. This measurement, "digitization", is specified by precise parameters, which are detailed in this article for each of the audio, still image and video media. It is this native digital format that determines the original quality of digital media.

The second article [TE 5 366] presents an overview of digital compression formats for audio, still images and video, which reduce the amount of data in native formats, making them easier to store and distribute.

The third article [TE 5 368] provides an introduction to the characteristics of container formats used to encapsulate audio, still images or video, either in native format or, more often, in compression format.

The fourth article [TE 5 369] describes container formats dedicated to media storage, in particular around fifty file formats, among the most widely used in the media and audiovisual world, as well...