From 270336b1c51bd8e77fc9cedc076feae30bcf1bbb Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: gabucino It is important to clarify a common mistake. When people see a file with a
-.AVI extension, they immediately conclude that it is not a MPEG file.
+.AVI extension, they immediately conclude that it is not an MPEG file.
That is not true. At least not entirely. Contrary to popular belief such a file
can contain MPEG1 video. You see, a codec is not the same as a file format. In theory, you can happily put an OpenDivX video and MP3 audio
-into a MPG format file. Most players will not play it, though, since
-they expect MPEG1 video and MP2 audio (.MPG does not have the
-necessary fields to describe its video and audio streams, like .AVI
-does). Or you might put MPEG1 video into an .AVI file. FFmpeg
+ In theory, you can put an OpenDivX video and MP3 audio
+into an MPG format file. However, most players will not play it, since
+they expect MPEG1 video and MP2 audio (unlike AVI, MPG does not have the
+necessary fields to describe its video and audio streams).
+Or you might put MPEG1 video into an AVI file. FFmpeg
and MEncoder can create these files. In contrast to that audio codecs and audio formats are basically the same terms.
-Video codecs are: MPEG1, MPEG2, DivX, Indeo5, 3ivx.
-Video formats are: MPG, AVI, ASF.
+Examples of video codecs are: MPEG1, MPEG2, DivX, Indeo5, 3ivx.
+Examples of file formats are: MPG, AVI, ASF.
-
MPEG files come in different guises:
+ +-vcd
option to play the Video CD.Series of frames form independent groups in MPEG files. This means that you
can cut/join an MPEG file with standard file tools (like dd, cut), and it
@@ -72,26 +73,26 @@ It supports one video stream and 0 to 99 audio streams and can be as big as
2GB. There exists an extension allowing bigger files called OpenDMS.
M$ currently strongly discourages its use and encourages ASF/WMV. Not that
anybody cares.
-NOTE: DV cameras can create two types of AVI formats. One is common and
+NOTE: DV cameras can create two types of AVI formats. One is common and
playable, the other is neither.
There are two kinds of AVI files: +
There are two kinds of AVI files:
-ni
option).MPlayer supports two kinds of timings for AVI files: +
MPlayer supports two kinds of timings for AVI files:
Any audio and video codec is allowed, but note that VBR audio is not well supported by most players. The file format makes it possible to use VBR @@ -116,22 +116,22 @@ variants of ASF, v1.0 and v2.0. v1.0 is used by their media tools (windows media player and windows media encoder) and is very secret. v2.0 is published and patented :). Of course they differ, there is no compatibility at all (it is just another legal game). MPlayer supports only v1.0, as nobody has ever seen -v2.0 files :) . Note, that .ASF files nowdays come with the extension .WMA or +v2.0 files :). Note that ASF files nowadays come with the extension .WMA or .WMV.
-These are from the Macintosh. They usually have a .QT or .MOV extension. Note +
These formats were designed by Apple. They usually have a .QT or .MOV extension. Note
that since the MPEG4 group chose QuickTime as the recommended file format
-for MPEG4, their .MOV files come with a .MPG or .MP4 extension (Interestingly
-the video and audio streams in these files are real .MPG and .AAC files. With the
--dumpvideo/-dumpaudio
options you can even extract them!).
-dumpvideo
and -dumpaudio
options you can even extract them!).
Codecs: Any codec is allowed, both CBR and VBR. Note: most new QuickTime files use -Sorensen video and QDesign Music audio. These formats are completely -secret, and only Apple's QuickTime player is able to play these files (on -win/mac only).
+Sorensen video and QDesign Music audio. These formats have not been +disclosed and will probably remain so in the future, making Apple's QuickTime +player the only player able to play these files (on Windows/Mac OS only). @@ -144,8 +144,8 @@ and most files lack even keyframes, so forget seeking! of VIVO/2.0 files is a modified, nonstandard h.263v2. The audio is the same, it may be g.723 (standard), or Vivo Siren. -See the VIVO video codec -and VIVO audio codec sections for installation +
See the VIVO video codec +and VIVO audio codec sections for installation instructions.
@@ -169,7 +169,7 @@ and RealAudio codecs.NuppelVideo
-is a TV grabber tool (AFAIK:). MPlayer can read its .nuv
+is a TV grabber tool (AFAIK:). MPlayer can read its .NUV
files (only NuppelVideo 5.0). Those files can contain uncompressed YV12,
YV12+RTJpeg compressed, YV12 RTJpeg+lzo compressed, and YV12+lzo compressed
frames. MPlayer decodes (and also encodes them with MEncoder to