A container format (informally, sometimes called a wrapper ) or metafile is a file format that allows multiple data streams to be embedded into a single file , usually along with metadata for identifying and further detailing those streams. Notable examples of container formats include archive files (such as the ZIP format ) and formats used for multimedia playback (such as Matroska , MP4 , and AVI ). Among the earliest cross-platform container formats were Distinguished Encoding Rules and the 1985 Interchange File Format .
41-568: Flash Video is a container file format used to deliver digital video content (e.g., TV shows , movies , etc.) over the Internet using Adobe Flash Player version 6 and newer. Flash Video content may also be embedded within SWF files. There are two different Flash Video file formats: FLV and F4V . The audio and video data within FLV files are encoded in the same way as SWF files. The F4V file format
82-407: A bidirectional bytestream. The Internet media type for an arbitrary bytestream is application/octet-stream . Other media types are defined for bytestreams in well-known formats. Often the contents of a bytestream are dynamically created, such as the data from the keyboard and other peripherals (/dev/tty), data from the pseudorandom number generator ( /dev/urandom ), etc. In those cases, when
123-488: A byte-parallel loading method as well, this usage may have originated based on the common method of configuring the FPGA from a serial bit stream, typically from a serial PROM or flash memory chip. The detailed format of the bitstream for a particular FPGA is typically proprietary to the FPGA vendor. In mathematics, several specific infinite sequences of bits have been studied for their mathematical properties; these include
164-435: A communication channel may use a signalling method that does not directly translate to bits (for instance, by transmitting signals of multiple frequencies) and typically also encodes other information such as framing and error correction together with its data. The term bitstream is frequently used to describe the configuration data to be loaded into a field-programmable gate array (FPGA). Although most FPGAs also support
205-445: A container format may be used to provide the appearance of a single file format to users of multimedia playback software. The differences between various container formats arise from five main issues: In addition to pure container formats, which specify only the wrapper but not the coding, a number of file formats specify both a storage layer and the coding, as part of modular design and forward compatibility . Examples include
246-576: A number of other Adobe Systems and 3rd party tools. It has support for a scripting language called ActionScript , which can be used to display Flash Video from an SWF file. Because the Flash Player runs as a browser plug-in , it is possible to embed Flash Video in web pages and view the video within a web browser. Flash Player supported display of Flash Video files since version 6, with the Sorenson Spark and On VP6 video codecs. Support
287-450: A one byte value with a NULL value indicating that the payload contains MPEG-4 configuration details. MPEG-4 video encodings also add three bytes for composition timestamp offset which is required for encodings that use B-frames. Audio encodings enumerated from 0 are: Audio encodings enumerated from 10 are: Audio encodings enumerated from 14 are MPEG layer 3 8 kHz, Device specific such as MIDI . Audio processing parameters with
328-475: A proprietary variant of the H.263 video standard, under the name of Sorenson Spark ( FourCC FLV1). Sorenson Spark is an older codec for FLV files but it is also a widely available and compatible one, because it was the first video codec supported in Flash Player. It is the required video compression format for Flash Player 6 and 7. Flash Player 8 and newer revisions also support the playback of On2 TrueMotion VP6 video bit streams (FourCC VP6F or FLV4). On2 VP6
369-586: A standard header which is shown below: After the header, the file is split into packets called "FLV tags", which have 15-byte packet headers. The first four bytes denote the size of the previous packet/tag (including the header without the first field), and aid in seeking backward. The Packet Type byte of a packet/tag header is based on the RTMP message ID byte with the AMF metadata value of 18 (0x12), video payload value of 9 (0x09) and audio payload value of 8 (0x08) being
410-658: Is a sequence of bits . A bytestream is a sequence of bytes . Typically, each byte is an 8-bit quantity , and so the term octet stream is sometimes used interchangeably. An octet may be encoded as a sequence of 8 bits in multiple different ways (see bit numbering ) so there is no unique and direct translation between bytestreams and bitstreams. Bitstreams and bytestreams are used extensively in telecommunications and computing . For example, synchronous bitstreams are carried by SONET , and Transmission Control Protocol transports an asynchronous bytestream. In practice, bitstreams are not used directly to encode bytestreams;
451-595: Is a type of media player that is used for playing Flash video from PC as well as from Internet websites. An FLV player can be used standalone, without the need of the Adobe Flash authoring or developmental tools. It can also be embedded in the website using Flash component or embeddable version of FLV player. Adobe Flash Player is a multimedia and application player originally developed by Macromedia and acquired by Adobe Systems . It plays SWF files, which can be created by Adobe Flash Professional , Apache Flex , or
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#1732797941539492-579: Is an encoding format designed for screencasts . Both these formats are bitmap tile based, can be lossy by reducing color depths and are compressed using zlib . The second version is only playable in Flash Player 8 and newer. Audio in Flash Video files is usually encoded as MP3. However, audio in Flash Video FLV files recorded from the user's microphone use the proprietary Nellymoser Asao Codec . (Flash Player 10 released in 2008 also supports
533-618: Is based on the ISO base media file format , starting with Flash Player 9 update 3. Both formats are supported in Adobe Flash Player and developed by Adobe Systems. FLV was originally developed by Macromedia . In the early 2000s, Flash Video was the de facto standard for web-based streaming video (over RTMP ). Users include Hulu , VEVO , Yahoo! Video , metacafe , Reuters.com , and many other news providers. Flash Video FLV files usually contain material encoded with codecs following
574-721: Is encoded, they do not actually provide instructions about how to decode that data. A program that can open a container must also use an appropriate codec to decode its contents. If the program doesn't have the required algorithm, it can't use the contained data. In these cases, programs usually emit an error message that complains of a missing codec, which users may be able to acquire. Container formats can be made to wrap any kind of data. Though there are some examples of such file formats (e.g. Microsoft Windows 's DLL files), most container formats are specialized for specific data requirements. For example, since audio and video streams can be coded and decoded with many different algorithms,
615-428: Is the preferred video compression format for use with Flash Player 8 and higher. On2 VP6 can provide a higher visual quality than Sorenson Spark, especially when using lower bit rates . On the other hand, it is computationally more complex and therefore will not run as well on certain older system configurations. The Flash Video FLV file format supports two versions of a so-called 'screenshare' (Screen video) codec which
656-748: The Baum–Sweet sequence , Ehrenfeucht–Mycielski sequence , Fibonacci word , Kolakoski sequence , regular paperfolding sequence , Rudin–Shapiro sequence , and Thue–Morse sequence . On most operating systems , including Unix-like and Windows , standard I/O libraries convert lower-level paged or buffered file access to a bytestream paradigm. In particular, in Unix-like operating systems, each process has three standard streams , which are examples of unidirectional bytestreams. The Unix pipe mechanism provides bytestream communications between different processes. Compression algorithms often code in bitstreams, as
697-532: The JPEG File Interchange Format (JFIF), for containing JPEG data, and Portable Network Graphics (PNG) formats. In principle, coding can be changed while the storage layer is retained; for example, Multiple-image Network Graphics (MNG) uses the PNG container format but provides animation, while JPEG Network Graphics (JNG) puts JPEG encoded data in a PNG container; in both cases however,
738-660: The Payload Data , then four bytes for the Timestamp in milliseconds (with the last byte used to extend the first three bytes), the next 3 bytes for the Stream ID (incremented for multiple streams of the same type), and finally followed by the actual payload data. There is a direct relation between the fields encountered in an FLV Tag and those found in a RTMP packet , as for example the FLV Packet Type field uses
779-494: The Sorenson Spark or VP6 video compression formats . As of 2010 public releases of Flash Player (collaboration between Adobe Systems and MainConcept ) also support H.264 video and HE-AAC audio. All of these compression formats are restricted by patents. Flash Video is viewable on most operating systems via the Adobe Flash Player and web browser plugin or one of several third-party programs. Apple's iOS devices, along with almost all other mobile devices, do not support
820-517: The open source Speex codec.) FLV files also support uncompressed audio or ADPCM format audio. Recent versions of Flash Player 9 support AAC ( HE-AAC / AAC SBR , AAC Main Profile, and AAC-LC). Support for encoding Flash Video files is provided by an encoding tool included with Adobe's Flash Professional and Creative Suite products, On2 's Flix encoding tools, Sorenson Squeeze , FFmpeg and other third-party tools. Supported media types in both
861-525: The 8 bits offered by a byte (the smallest addressable unit of memory) may be wasteful. Although typically implemented in low-level languages , some high-level languages such as Python and Java offer native interfaces for bitstream I/O. One well-known example of a communication protocol which provides a byte-stream service to its clients is the Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) of the Internet protocol suite , which provides
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#1732797941539902-510: The Adobe Flash Media Server. One way to feed data to Flash Media Server is from files in the FLV file format. Flash Player can play SWF files created for Flash Player 7 and later versions in FLV format directly (MIME type video/x-flv). Flash Player can also play the new F4V file format, beginning with SWF files created for Flash Player 9 Update 3. Commonly, Flash Video FLV files contain video bit streams which are
943-613: The F4V format shares a common base with the MP4 format, which is why F4V is sometimes informally called "Flash MP4". Flash Player does not check the filename extension but instead examines the file to determine the format of the thing created. The new file formats are very different from the older FLV file format. For example, F4V does not support Screen video, Sorenson Spark, VP6 video compression formats and ADPCM, or Nellymoser audio compression formats. Authors of Flash Player strongly encourage use of
984-498: The F4V, MP4 (MPEG-4 Part 14), M4V, M4A, 3GP and MOV multimedia container formats , 3GPP Timed Text specification (MPEG-4 Part 17) which is a standardized subtitle format and partial parsing support for the 'ilst' atom which is the ID3 equivalent iTunes uses to store metadata . MPEG-4 Part 2 video (e.g. created with DivX or Xvid) is not supported. In an interview with BBC News , the main programmer of Flash Jonathan Gay said that
1025-573: The Flash Player plugin and so require other delivery methods such as provided by the Adobe Flash Media Server . The 2002 release of Flash Player 6 added support for video in the SWF file format. The 2003 release of Flash Player 7 added direct support for the FLV file format. Because of restrictions in the FLV file format, Adobe Systems created new file formats in 2007, based on the ISO base media file format (MPEG-4 Part 12). In this way,
1066-565: The Flash Video and ISO base media file formats: Supported media types in just the Flash Video file format: Supported media types in just the ISO base media file format: An FLV converter is a type of video conversion software that is used for turning videos from different formats into FLV. Below is a list of popular free video converters which support conversion to FLV. These programs run under Microsoft Windows . HandBrake, FFmpeg and VLC also run under Mac OS X and Linux . FLV files start with
1107-593: The Flash player installed, and that they would not be releasing a version of Flash certified for use with Android version 4.1, codenamed Jelly Bean . Flash Video files can be delivered in several different ways: It is possible to record online flash videos using stream recorders and screen video capture software . The former gives lossless results, while the latter allows recording any video even when anti- leeching measures are used. Container format (digital) Although containers may identify how data or metadata
1148-881: The communications term), and "segments" in JPEG. The main content of a chunk is called the "data" or "payload". Most container formats have chunks in sequence, each with a header, while TIFF instead stores offsets. Modular chunks make it easy to recover other chunks in case of file corruption or dropped frames or bit slip , while offsets result in framing errors in cases of bit slip. Some containers are exclusive to audio: Other containers are exclusive to still images: Other flexible containers can hold many types of audio and video, as well as other media. The most popular multi-media containers are: There are many other container formats, such as NUT , MXF , GXF , ratDVD , SVI, VOB and DivX Media Format Bit stream A bitstream (or bit stream ), also known as binary sequence ,
1189-575: The company had wanted to use H.264 when video support was originally added to Flash, but had been deterred by the patent licensing fees of around $ 5 million (£3.5 million) per year. Flash Player supports two distinct modes of video playback: Microsoft Windows, Mac OS X, Unix-based Mac OS devices can play flash videos in QuickTime with the help of additional software (such as the open source Perian component.) Windows Mobile, Palm OS–based The iPhone and Android devices can play flash videos with
1230-421: The destination of a bytestream (the consumer) uses bytes faster than they can be generated, the system uses process synchronization to make the destination wait until the next byte is available. When bytes are generated faster than the destination can use them and the producer is a software algorithm, the system pauses it with the same process synchronization techniques. When the producer supports flow control ,
1271-465: The different formats have different magic numbers – the format specifies the coding, though a MNG can contain both PNG-encoded images and JPEG-encoded images. The container file is used to identify and interleave different data types. Simpler container formats can contain different types of audio formats, while more advanced container formats can support multiple audio and video streams, subtitles , chapter-information, and meta-data ( tags ) — along with
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1312-494: The first two bits for the sampling rate, next bit flags 16-bit sample size on with off indicating 8-bit sample size, and the final bit flags stereophonic channels on with off indicating monaural only. Sampling rates enumerated from 0 are 5.5 kHz, 11.025 kHz quarter, 22.05 kHz half, 44.1 kHz full. Encrypted packets have an additional 31 or 24 byte header before the AES -CBC encrypted payload as follows: An FLV player
1353-581: The help of additional software (such as the Skyfire web browser application.) Apple iOS has never supported Flash. Android versions above 2.1 through 4.0 supported Flash; Adobe has discontinued Flash Player for Android. On 29 June 2012, Adobe announced that, as they were discontinuing development of the mobile version of Flash, they would prevent the Flash player from installing from the Google Play Store on any Android devices that do not already have
1394-405: The new standard file format F4V (ISO base media file format) because it overcomes functional limits with the FLV structure when streaming H.264 or AAC, which is one reason Adobe Systems is moving away from the older FLV file structure. Since 2002, the initial format is Flash Video and the file suffix is .flv with a MIME derived Internet media type of video/x-flv. The Adobe-branded file suffix .f4v
1435-427: The onMetaData callback function. Audio packets have the first byte of the payload defining the decoding details with the first four bits for the encoding used and the last four bits for the parameters required to process the encoding. Video packets have this order reversed. Video encodings enumerated from 0 are: Video processing parameters enumerated from 1 are: MPEG-4 encodings such as H.264, MPEG-4 ASP and AAC add
1476-461: The only valid types used. The third bit indicates the payload is encrypted using the same mechanism as RTMP uses, however this is rarely used due to encrypted transports such as RTMP being used instead. The FLV packet encryption is generally inherited from a MP4 file that is stored on an Adobe Flash Media Server . Following that, there are three bytes for the Payload Size denoting length of
1517-491: The same numeric values as the RTMP Chunk Type field (ex. 0x08 for audio and 0x09 for video). FLV tags are thus converted into RTMP packets when the file is streamed through a Flash Media Server or equivalent RTMP Server. The first packet encountered is usually a metadata packet which contains information such as: When streamed using an Actionscript built player, the metadata values above are passed as arguments on
1558-646: The synchronization information needed to play back the various streams together. In most cases, the file header, most of the metadata and the synchro chunks are specified by the container format. For example, container formats exist for optimized, low-quality, internet video streaming which differs from high-quality Blu-ray streaming requirements. Container format parts have various names: "chunks" as in RIFF and PNG, "atoms" in QuickTime/MP4, "packets" in MPEG-TS (from
1599-465: The system only sends the ready signal when the consumer is ready for the next byte. When the producer can not be paused—a keyboard or some hardware that does not support flow control—the system typically attempts to temporarily store the data until the consumer is ready for it, typically using a queue . Often the receiver can empty the buffer before it gets completely full. A producer that continues to produce data faster than it can be consumed, even after
1640-611: Was extended from 2007 to support the ISO base media file format using the same MIME derived Internet media type of video/mp4 as the Apple file suffix of .m4v and the general file suffix of .mp4. Adobe-branded file suffixes exist for .f4p which relates to media encrypted with their Adobe Access DRM scheme; .f4a and .f4b relate respectively to .m4a and .m4b with the same MIME derived Internet media type of audio/mp4. SWF files published for Flash Player 6 and later versions are able to exchange audio, video, and data over RTMP connections with
1681-468: Was recently added for H.264 video content as well. Flash Player 9 Update 3, released on 3 December 2007, also includes support for the new Flash Video file format F4V and H.264 video standard (also known as MPEG-4 part 10, or AVC) which is even more computationally demanding, but offers significantly better quality/bitrate ratio. Specifically, Flash Player now supports video compressed in H.264 (MPEG-4 Part 10), audio compressed using AAC (MPEG-4 Part 3),