Media containers and their formats (Part 2)
MKV (Matroska or Matryoshka) is the most popular multimedia container format that meets all modern requirements. Mainly focused on the H.264 codec family. Its main features include:
OSD menu creation;
divide the content into chapters;
fast backward through the file;
switch “on the fly” between audio and video tracks, as well as subtitles.
Therefore, it is a package that can contain many video, audio and subtitle sequences, allowing you to store a movie with all the additional materials in a single file, while providing a high level of navigation through the multimedia content. . It is also worth noting that MKV has high error resistance, modular scalability, and supports streaming materials over the Internet.
The wide popularization of this format is facilitated by the fact that it is an open source project. That is, for personal use, it is completely free. Currently, the most commonly used files with the “.mkv” extension are high definition video files, typically with multiple audio tracks and channels of subtitles.
MP4 (MPEG-4 Part 14) is another modern file format for storing digital video and audio streams, which is part of the MPEG-4 standard. It has almost all the same features as MKV. But MP4 has an advantage: files in this format can be played on almost any device, from smartphones to game consoles. MKV, in addition to personal computers, is compatible only with the most modern media centers.
Don’t forget the fact that MP4 is a “native” format for all Apple products from iPhone to Mac. So if you are a fan of “apple” iron, then it is better to collect and store your collection of home videos in MP4.
It should be noted that the MP4 container, unlike MKV, has a number of limitations and cannot contain video of the MPEG-1, MPEG-2 and WMV standards, as well as audio in AC-3 (Dolby Digital) and WMA formats.
VOB (Versioned Object Base) is the main container used to store multimedia content on DVD. It can contain multiple MPEG-2 video streams, up to nine audio tracks, up to 32 channels with subtitles and an OSD.
FLV (Flash Video) is a media container used to place and stream video clips on the global Internet. Used by many of the major video hosting services such as RuTube, YouTube, Vimeo, Flickr, and others. The video stream in the FLV file is generally encoded using the H.263 or H.264 codecs, and the audio is MP3 or AAC.
MOV is a file format developed by Apple to store videos, graphics, animations, and 3D. It owes its appearance to QuickTime media playback technology.
TS and M2 TS are specialized containers for storing HD video. TS is used in IPTV and DVB digital television transmission. It is true that this container cannot contain subtitles at all. M2TS is a standard container for Blu-Ray video, which can include video and audio streams provided by the BD-ROM standard, as well as subtitles in PGS graphic format.
