Standards: Appendix E - File Extensions Vs. Container Formats
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This list of file container formats and their extensions is not exhaustive but it does describe the important ones whose standards are in everyday use in a broadcasting environment.
This is an Appendix to our series of articles on Standards.
Container formats such as AVI, MKV, MXF, QuickTime or MP4 can carry a variety of differently coded video and audio which is not apparent from their file extension. Open the file and inspect the headers to determine what the file actually contains. In a few rare cases, an alternative file extension can be used to indicate the content format. Some applications will be able to open these files but will not be able to render the content as they lack the codec support.
| Extension | Format |
|---|---|
| 3g2 | 3GPP2 mobile file |
| 3gp | 3GPP mobile file |
| aac | AAC coded audio |
| ac3 | Dolby AC3 surround sound file |
| aiff | Audio Interleave File Format extracted from a CD |
| alac | Apple Lossless Audio Codec |
| ape | Monkey Audio file |
| asf | Advanced Systems Format (alternative to wmv) |
| avi | Audio Video Interleave |
| caf | Apple Lossless Audio (ALAC) files (uncommon) |
| divx | DivX Media Format |
| dts | Digital Theatre Systems sound file |
| evo | Enhanced VOB |
| f4v | Flash Video file with H•264 video & AAC audio |
| flac | Free Lossless Audio Codec (FLAC) coded audio |
| flv | Flash Video file containing SWF encoded content. Deprecated and should not be used for new projects |
| m2p | MPEG program stream (Prefer this to using ps) |
| m2ts | BDAV MPEG-2 transport stream |
| m4a | MPEG-4 audio file |
| m4b | Audiobook and podcasts |
| m4p | MPEG-4 audio file containing AAC audio which is DRM protected by Apple FairPlay |
| m4r | Apple iPhone ringtones |
| m4v | MPEG-4 Part 14 video file (alternative to mp4) |
| mk3d | Matroška containing stereoscopic 3D video |
| mka | Matroška audio |
| mks | Matroška subtitles |
| mkv | Matroška video |
| mov | QuickTime File Format |
| mp3 | An MPEG file containing only a MPEG-1 Audio Layer 3 audio stream |
| mp4 | MPEG-4 Part 14 (generic alternative to m4v) |
| mpc | Musepack audio file |
| mpeg | See mpg |
| mpg | MPEG-1 or 2 video/audio |
| mts | Blu-ray BDAV MPEG-2 transport stream |
| mxf | Material Exchange Format |
| ofr | OptimFROG lossless coded audio |
| oga | Ogg audio file |
| ogg | Ogg audio/video file |
| ogm | Ogg media file |
| ogv | Ogg video file |
| ogx | Ogg multiplexed media files |
| opus | An Ogg format container containing Opus coded audio |
| ps | MPEG program stream (Do not confuse these with raw PostScript print stream files) |
| qt | Early QuickTime File Format (rarely used now) |
| rmvb | Real Media Variable Bitrate file |
| ts | DVD MPEG transport stream |
| tsv | MPEG transport stream |
| vob | DVD Video Object |
| wav | WAV audio file. These are often used in radio broadcasting |
| wave | See wav |
| webm | Web Media is based on the Matroška format |
| wmv | Advanced Systems Format (for Windows Media) |
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