Standards: Appendix E - File Extensions Vs. Container Formats
Once logged in you can set content preferences to let us know what you are interested in and whether you want to receive email from us.
Already Registered? Login
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) |
Part of a series supported by
You might also like...
The Big Guide To OTT - The Book
The Big Guide To OTT ‘The Book’ provides deep insights into the technology that is enabling a new media industry. The Book is a huge collection of technical reference content. It contains 31 articles (216 pages… 64,000 words!) that exhaustively explore the technology and…
Audio For Broadcast: Cloud Based Audio
With several industry leading audio vendors demonstrating milestone product releases based on new technology at the 2024 NAB Show, the evolution of cloud-based audio took a significant step forward. In light of these developments the article below replaces previously published content…
An Introduction To Network Observability
The more complex and intricate IP networks and cloud infrastructures become, the greater the potential for unwelcome dynamics in the system, and the greater the need for rich, reliable, real-time data about performance and error rates.
Next-Gen 5G Contribution: Part 2 - MEC & The Disruptive Potential Of 5G
The migration of the core network functionality of 5G to virtualized or cloud-native infrastructure opens up new capabilities like MEC which have the potential to disrupt current approaches to remote production contribution networks.
Designing IP Broadcast Systems: Addressing & Packet Delivery
How layer-3 and layer-2 addresses work together to deliver data link layer packets and frames across networks to improve efficiency and reduce congestion.