Sunday, July 12, 2009

Media Formats

What is MP3?
MPEG layer 3 is a type of audio codec where processed by significant compression from the original audio source with very little loss in sound quality. The compression up to 12:1 produces a very little degradation. Tighter compression can be achieved, but it will effect in sound degradation results.

What is AVI?
Audio Video Interleaved. A computer graphics animation format used in Microsoft(tm) Video for Windows. This format interleaves digitized video frames (or computer-generated frames) and synchronized audio in one file.

What is MIDI?
(Musical Instrument Digital Interface). Standard specifications that enable electronic instruments such as the synthesizer, sampler, sequencer, and drum machine from any manufacturer to communicate with one another and with computers.

What is RM and RMVB?
RM stands for Real Media. Real Media is one of the most popular formats for streaming content on the Internet, RealMedia includes the RealAudio codec for sound clips and RealVideo codec for movies. RealAudio and RealVideo files are often given the common RealMedia ".RM" file extension. RealMedia files are often heavily compressed so they can stream over dial-up Internet connections.

What is ASF?
Advanced Streaming Format (formerly Active Streaming Format). A Microsoft file and data stream format for multimedia data including audio, video, still images, and other data types. Also referred to as Windows Media format.

What is MOV?
Apple QuickTime Movie file format.

What is MPG & MPEG?
Short for Moving Picture Experts Group, and pronounced m-peg, is a working group of the ISO. The term also refers to the family of digital video compression standards and file formats developed by the group. MPEG generally produces better-quality video than competing formats, such as Video for Windows, Indeo and QuickTime. MPEG files previously on PCs needed hardware decoders (codecs) for MPEG processing. Today, however, PCs can use software-only codecs including products from RealNetworks, QuickTime or Windows Media Player.

What is WMV?
The Windows Media Video codec (.wmv) is a subset of Microsoft's Advanced Systems Format (ASF) container format. WMV files can be played by players such as MPlayer or Windows Media Player, the latter being only available for Microsoft Windows and Macintosh systems. WMV is a closed source, propriety codec that cannot be manipulated. It is not suggested for editing.

What is WMA?
Short for Windows Media Audio, a Microsoft file format for encoding digital audio files similar to MP3 though can compress files at a higher rate than MP3. WMA files, which use the ?wma?file extension, can be of any size compressed to match many different connection speeds, or bandwidths.

What is 3GP?
3GP - is the new mobile phone video file format.
3GPP, 3GPP2 are the new worldwide standard for the creation, delivery and playback of multimedia over 3rd generation, high-speed wireless networks. Defined by the 3rd Generation Partnership Project and 3rd Generation Partnership Project 2 respectively, these standards seek to provide uniform delivery of rich multimedia over newly evolved, broadband mobile networks (3rd generation networks) to the latest multimedia-enabled wireless devices. Tailored to the unique requirements of mobile devices, 3GPP and 3GPP2 take advantage of MPEG-4, the standard for delivery of video and audio over the Internet.

What is MP4?
Similar to how MP3 files work by compressing audio files without affecting the audio's quality, MP4 works the same way, but with video files and with added complexity. The large video files of both motion and audio is compressed into a single and simple file. MP4 is commonly known as MPEG-4 AVC (Advanced Video Coding). This new technology have hopes to decrease the size of the video, which in turns minimizes the risk of running out of space with older computers, making it easier to work with for the users.