| Full name | ISO/IEC 14496-12:2003. Information technology -- Coding of audio-visual objects -- Part 12: ISO Base Media File Format (formal name).
ISO/IEC 15444-12:2004. Information technology -- JPEG 2000 image coding system -- Part 12: ISO base media file format (formal name).
ISO base media file format (common name) |
| Description | Base format for media file formats, designed to contain time-based audio-visual information in a flexible, extensible format that facilitates interchange, management, editing, and presentation of the media. This presentation may be 'local' to the system containing the presentation or may be via a network or other stream delivery mechanism. The file structure is object-oriented; a file can be decomposed into constituent objects very simply, and the structure of the objects inferred directly from their type. The file format is designed to be independent of any particular network protocol while enabling efficient support for them in general. (Paraphrased from the specification, p. vi) |
| Production phase | Generally used for middle- and final-state archiving or end-user delivery. |
| Relationship to other formats | |
| Has subtype | MJP2_FF, Motion JPEG 2000 File Format |
| Has subtype | MP4_FF_2, MPEG-4 File Format, version 2 |
| Has subtype | MP4_FF_AVCE, MPEG-4 File Format for AVC (Extensions; Part 15) |
| Has subtype | JP2_FF, JPEG 2000 Part 1 (Core) jp2 File Format |
| Has subtype | JPX_FF, JPEG 2000 Part 2 (Extensions) jpf File Format |
| Has subtype | JPM_FF, JPEG 2000 Part 1 (Compound) jpm File Format |
| Disclosure | Fully disclosed. Developed jointly by the Motion Pictures Expert Group (MPEG) and the Joint Photographic Experts Group (JPEG), two working groups within the ISO/IEC committee structure formally known as ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC 29. |
| Documentation | ISO/IEC 14496-12:2003. Information technology -- Coding of audio-visual objects -- Part 12: ISO Base Media File Format.
ISO/IEC 15444-12:2004. Information technology -- JPEG 2000 image coding system -- Part 12: ISO base media file format. |
| Adoption | JPEG 2000 still image implementations using JP2_FF are being widely adopted. The breadth of adoption of implementations of JPX_FF and JPM_FF is unknown to the compiler of this document. For moving image implementations, there is some adoption of MP4_FF_2; the breadth of adoption of other moving image implementations is unknown to the compiler of this document. At this writing (June 2005), Motion JPEG 2000 encoding, which would use MJP2_FF, does not appear to be widely adopted. Professional broadcasters appear to favor standards from SMPTE, e.g., MXF. |
| Licensing and patent claims | The specification identifies Apple and Matsushita Electric Industrial Co. as holders of relevant patents, adding that "the holders of these patent rights have assured the ISO and IEC that they are willing to negotiate licenses under reasonable and non-discriminatory terms." The specification also cautions that "some of the elements . . . may be the subject of patent rights other than those identified." |
| Transparency | ISO_BMFF itself is transparent as a wrapper. Transparency of subtypes is determined by the encoding of the wrapped content. |
| Self-documentation | The structure includes boxes and headers that contain the technical metadata needed to manage the media streams. Other boxes may contain descriptive ("bibliographic") metadata; for example, see MJP2_FF. Comments welcome. |
| External dependencies | None. |
| Technical protection considerations | None. Files may employ an optional IPR (Intellectual Property Rights) box that indicates whether an item is protected and provides an identifier; see JP2_FF. |
| General | Annex A of the ISO_BMFF specification (both versions) provides a narrative overiew of the format and its structure. Meanwhile, the specification for MJP2_FF states that there is "a family of specifications with common formatting. The other family members include the JPEG2000 single image format, JP2; the MPEG-4 file format, MP4; and the QuickTime file format, on which MP4 and this specification are based. These specifications [for MJP2_FF] share a common definition for the structure of a file (a sequence of objects, called boxes here and atoms in MP4 and QuickTime), and a common definition of the general structure of an object (the size and type)." |
| History | As indicated in the preceding note, ISO_BMCC is derived from Apple's QuickTime. The Apple connection was celebrated in an item in MacWeek, February 16, 1998: "QuickTime received a ringing endorsement last week when a consortium of high-tech companies announced that the International Organization for Standardization, better known as ISO, had adopted QuickTime's file format as a centerpiece of MPEG-4, the forthcoming multimedia standard." (http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0MWK/is_n7_v12/ai_20331478) |
