Sustainability of Digital Formats
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Identification and description

Full name	ISO/IEC 14496-15:2004. Information technology -- Coding of audio-visual objects -- Part 15: Advanced Video Coding (AVC) File Format (formal name) MPEG-4 AVC file format (common name)
Description	The third MPEG-4 file format developed by the Motion Picture Experts Group (MPEG). The format's object-based design defines a set of tools that present binary coded representation of individual audiovisual objects, text, graphics, and synthetic objects. (See Notes below.) This format wraps Advanced Video Coding (AVC) with certain extensions, described in MPEG-4_AVC_EXT. Without those extensions, AVC may be wrapped in MP4_FF_2. The extensions described here predate the FRExt (Fidelity Range Extensions), being finalized in 2005 and represented by four new profiles: MPEG-4_AVC_HP, MPEG-4_AVC_H10P, MPEG-4_AVC_H422P, and MPEG-4_AVC_H444P.
Production phase	Generally a final-state (end-user delivery) format.
Relationship to other formats
Subtype of	ISO_BMFF, ISO Base Media File Format
Has subtype	MP4_FF_AVCE_AVCE, MPEG-4 File Format for AVC (Ext), with Non-FRExt Extended AVC Coding

Local use

LC experience or existing holdings
LC preference

Sustainability factors

Disclosure	Open standard. Developed by ISO technical program JTC 1/SC 29 (WG11), aka the Motion Picture Experts Group (MPEG), Coding of audio, picture, multimedia and hypermedia information. See http://www.iso.org/iso/en/stdsdevelopment/techprog/workprog/ TechnicalProgrammeSCDetailPage.TechnicalProgrammeSCDetail?COMMID=148.
Documentation	ISO/IEC 14496-15:2004. Information technology -- Coding of audio-visual objects -- Part 15: Advanced Video Coding (AVC) File Format. See complete list of ISO MPEG-4 documents in the description of MP4_FF_2.
Adoption	Unknown to the compiler of this document
Licensing and patent claims	See MP4_FF_2
Transparency	Depends upon included encodings, but all MPEG-4 encodings depend upon algorithms and tools to read and require sophistication to build tools.
Self-documentation	See MP4_FF_2
External dependencies	See MP4_FF_2
Technical protection considerations	See MP4_FF_2

Quality and functionality factors (video)

Video elements
Normal rendering for video	See MP4_FF_2
Clarity (support for high image resolution)	See MPEG-4_AVC_EXT
Functionality beyond normal video rendering	See MP4_FF_2
Sound elements
Fidelity (support for high audio resolution)	See MP4_FF_2
Support for multiple sound channels	See MP4_FF_2
Functionality beyond normal rendering for sound	Not investigated at this time.

File type signifiers

Tag type	Value	Note
Filename Extension	mp4
Internet Media Type	video/mp4	Most frequently cited MIME type; for more information see MP4_FF_2. The compiler of this document welcomes comments on the use of MIME types for various MPEG-4 file formats.
Magic numbers		None
File type brand	avc1	ISO_BMFF includes a file type box that contains major and minor brands (identifiers); this brand is specified in Part 15, Section 5 (ISO/IEC 14496-15:2004. Information technology -- Coding of audio-visual objects -- Part 15: Advanced Video Coding (AVC) File Format, p. 13), only when certain AVC extensions are used.

Notes

General	The four file formats associated with the ISO/IEC 14496 family of specifications are: • MP4_FF_1, "version 1" from the 2001 edition of Part 1 • MP4_FF_2, "version 2," from Part 14 • MP4_FF_AVCE, for Advanced Video Coding extensions, this document, from Part 15 • MP4_XMT, "textual format" from Part 11 For more extensive information about MPEG-4 file formats, see MP4_FF_2
History

Format specifications

URLs
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• ISO/IEC 14496-15:2004. Information technology -- Coding of audio-visual objects -- Part 15: Advanced Video Coding (AVC) File Format

Useful references

URLs
• MIME Type Registration for MPEG-4 by Y Lim (net&tv) and D. Singer (Apple Computer), July 2004 (http://community.roxen.com/developers/idocs/drafts/draft-lim-mpeg4-mime-02.html)
• RFC 3640: RTP Payload Format for Transport of MPEG-4 Elementary Streams (http://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc3640.txt) from the IETF (Internet Engineering Task Force, http://www.ietf.org/)
• RFC 3016: RTP Payload Format for MPEG-4 Audio/Visual Streams (http://www.rfc-archive.org/getrfc?rfc=3016) from the IETF (Internet Engineering Task Force, http://www.ietf.org/)

See also references in MP4_FF_2

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