Digital Media: audio/image/video/multimedia container formats - Features

Professionals and private individuals alike have to produce, manipulate, store, manage, exchange, broadcast and distribute digital media "encoded" in various formats, called "essence" formats, and encapsulated in formats called "container formats".

This "Panorama of digital media" dossier, comprising six articles, aims to define, map and classify these different digital media formats.

The first article [TE 5 364] details the parameters of the "digital native format", which is the result of a discontinuous, coded measurement of the amplitude of continuous, proportional analog quantities generated by sound or image recording equipment.

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, presented here, introduces the functions, features, content and structure of container formats for encapsulating 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 more than fifty file formats, among the most widely used in the media and audiovisual world, as well as some recording formats on optical or magnetic media.

The fifth article [TE 5 370] describes container formats...