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Aug 1, 2024 · MP4 Video Format: The MP4 video format is developed by the Moving Pictures Expert Group. The other name for MP4 video format is MPEG-4. It is supported by all browsers and used in video cameras and TV Hardware. It is highly recommended by YouTube. The extension for this video format is .mp4.
- Overview
- Common codecs
- Factors affecting the encoded video
- Compression artifacts
- Codec details
- Choosing a video codec
- See also
This guide introduces the video codecs you're most likely to encounter or consider using on the web, summaries of their capabilities and any compatibility and utility concerns, and advice to help you choose the right codec for your project's video.
Due to the sheer size of uncompressed video data, it's necessary to compress it significantly in order to store it, let alone transmit it over a network. Imagine the amount of data needed to store uncompressed video:
•A single frame of high definition (1920x1080) video in full color (4 bytes per pixel) is 8,294,400 bytes.
•At a typical 30 frames per second, each second of HD video would occupy 248,832,000 bytes (~249 MB).
•A minute of HD video would need 14.93 GB of storage.
•A fairly typical 30 minute video conference would need about 447.9 GB of storage, and a 2-hour movie would take almost 1.79 TB (that is, 1790 GB).
The following video codecs are those which are most commonly used on the web. For each codec, the containers (file types) that can support them are also listed. Each codec provides a link to a section below which offers additional details about the codec, including specific capabilities and compatibility issues you may need to be aware of.
As is the case with any encoder, there are two basic groups of factors affecting the size and quality of the encoded video: specifics about the source video's format and contents, and the characteristics and configuration of the codec used while encoding the video.
The simplest guideline is this: anything that makes the encoded video look more like the original, uncompressed, video will generally make the resulting data larger as well. Thus, it's always a tradeoff of size versus quality. In some situations, a greater sacrifice of quality in order to bring down the data size is worth that lost quality; other times, the loss of quality is unacceptable and it's necessary to accept a codec configuration that results in a correspondingly larger file.
Artifacts are side effects of a lossy encoding process in which the lost or rearranged data results in visibly negative effects. Once an artifact has appeared, it may linger for a while, because of how video is displayed. Each frame of video is presented by applying a set of changes to the currently-visible frame. This means that any errors or artifacts will compound over time, resulting in glitches or otherwise strange or unexpected deviations in the image that linger for a time.
To resolve this, and to improve seek time through the video data, periodic key frames (also known as intra-frames or i-frames) are placed into the video file. The key frames are full frames, which are used to repair any damage or artifact residue that's currently visible.
AV1
The AOMedia Video 1 (AV1) codec is an open format designed by the Alliance for Open Media specifically for internet video. It achieves higher data compression rates than VP9 and H.265/HEVC, and as much as 50% higher rates than AVC. AV1 is fully royalty-free and is designed for use by both the element and by WebRTC. AV1 currently offers three profiles: main, high, and professional with increasing support for color depths and chroma subsampling. In addition, a series of levels are specified, each defining limits on a range of attributes of the video. These attributes include frame dimensions, image area in pixels, display and decode rates, average and maximum bit rates, and limits on the number of tiles and tile columns used in the encoding/decoding process. For example, AV1 level 2.0 offers a maximum frame width of 2048 pixels and a maximum height of 1152 pixels, but its maximum frame size in pixels is 147,456, so you can't actually have a 2048x1152 video at level 2.0. It's worth noting, however, that at least for Firefox and Chrome, the levels are actually ignored at this time when performing software decoding, and the decoder just does the best it can to play the video given the settings provided. For compatibility's sake going forward, however, you should stay within the limits of the level you choose. The primary drawback to AV1 at this time is that it is very new, and support is still in the process of being integrated into most browsers. Additionally, encoders and decoders are still being optimized for performance, and hardware encoders and decoders are still mostly in development rather than production. For this reason, encoding a video into AV1 format takes a very long time, since all the work is done in software. For the time being, because of these factors, AV1 is not yet ready to be your first choice of video codec, but you should watch for it to be ready to use in the future. Supported bit rates Varies depending on the video's level; theoretical maximum reaches 800 Mbps at level 6.3 See the AV1 specification's tables of levels, which describe the maximum resolutions and rates at each level. Supported frame rates Varies by level; for example, level 2.0 has a maximum of 30 FPS while level 6.3 can reach 120 FPS Compression Lossy DCT-based algorithm Supported frame sizes 8 x 8 pixels to 65,535 x 65535 pixels with each dimension allowed to take any value between these Supported color modes Profile Color depths Chroma subsampling Main 8 or 10 4:0:0 (greyscale) or 4:2:0 High 8 or 10 4:0:0 (greyscale), 4:2:0, or 4:4:4 Professional 8, 10, or 12 4:0:0 (greyscale), 4:2:0, 4:2:2, or 4:4:4 HDR support Yes Variable Frame Rate (VFR) support Yes Browser compatibility Feature Chrome Edge Firefox Firefox Android Internet Explorer Opera Safari AV1 support 70 75 67 113 No 57 No Container support ISOBMFF, MPEG-TS, MP4, WebM RTP / WebRTC compatible Yes Supporting/Maintaining organization Alliance for Open Media Specification https://aomediacodec.github.io/av1-spec/av1-spec.pdf Licensing Royalty-free, open standard
AVC (H.264)
The MPEG-4 specification suite's Advanced Video Coding (AVC) standard is specified by the identical ITU H.264 specification and the MPEG-4 Part 10 specification. It's a motion compensation based codec that is widely used today for all sorts of media, including broadcast television, RTP videoconferencing, and as the video codec for Blu-Ray discs. AVC is highly flexible, with a number of profiles with varying capabilities; for example, the Constrained Baseline Profile is designed for use in videoconferencing and mobile scenarios, using less bandwidth than the Main Profile (which is used for standard definition digital TV in some regions) or the High Profile (used for Blu-Ray Disc video). Most of the profiles use 8-bit color components and 4:2:0 chroma subsampling; The High 10 Profile adds support for 10-bit color, and advanced forms of High 10 add 4:2:2 and 4:4:4 chroma subsampling. AVC also has special features such as support for multiple views of the same scene (Multiview Video Coding), which allows, among other things, the production of stereoscopic video. AVC is a proprietary format, however, and numerous patents are owned by multiple parties regarding its technologies. Commercial use of AVC media requires a license, though the MPEG LA patent pool does not require license fees for streaming internet video in AVC format as long as the video is free for end users. Non-web browser implementations of WebRTC (any implementation which doesn't include the JavaScript APIs) are required to support AVC as a codec in WebRTC calls. While web browsers are not required to do so, some do. In HTML content for web browsers, AVC is broadly compatible and many platforms support hardware encoding and decoding of AVC media. However, be aware of its licensing requirements before choosing to use AVC in your project! Supported bit rates Varies by level Supported frame rates Varies by level; up to 300 FPS is possible Compression Lossy DCT-based algorithm, though it's possible to create lossless macroblocks within the image Supported frame sizes Up to 8,192 x 4,320 pixels Supported color modes Some of the more common or interesting profiles: Profile Color depths Chroma subsampling Constrained Baseline (CBP) 8 4:2:0 Baseline (BP) 8 4:2:0 Extended (XP) 8 4:2:0 Main (MP) 8 4:2:0 High (HiP) 8 4:0:0 (greyscale) and 4:2:0 Progressive High (ProHiP) 8 4:0:0 (greyscale) and 4:2:0 High 10 (Hi10P) 8 to 10 4:0:0 (greyscale) and 4:2:0 High 4:2:2 (Hi422P) 8 to 10 4:0:0 (greyscale), 4:2:0, and 4:2:2 High 4:4:4 Predictive 8 to 14 4:0:0 (greyscale), 4:2:0, 4:2:2, and 4:4:4 HDR support Yes; Hybrid Log-Gamma or Advanced HDR/SL-HDR; both are part of ATSC Variable Frame Rate (VFR) support Yes Browser compatibility Feature Chrome Edge Firefox Internet Explorer Opera Safari AVC/H.264 support 4 12 35 9 25 3.2 Firefox support for AVC is dependent upon the operating system's built-in or preinstalled codecs for AVC and its container in order to avoid patent concerns. Container support 3GP, MP4 RTP / WebRTC compatible Yes Supporting/Maintaining organization MPEG / ITU Specification https://mpeg.chiariglione.org/standards/mpeg-4/advanced-video-coding https://www.itu.int/rec/T-REC-H.264 Licensing Proprietary with numerous patents. Commercial use requires a license. Note that multiple patent pools may apply.
H.263
ITU's H.263 codec was designed primarily for use in low-bandwidth situations. In particular, its focus is for video conferencing on PSTN (Public Switched Telephone Networks), RTSP, and SIP (IP-based videoconferencing) systems. Despite being optimized for low-bandwidth networks, it is fairly CPU intensive and may not perform adequately on lower-end computers. The data format is similar to that of MPEG-4 Part 2. H.263 has never been widely used on the web. Variations on H.263 have been used as the basis for other proprietary formats, such as Flash video or the Sorenson codec. However, no major browser has ever included H.263 support by default. Certain media plugins have enabled support for H.263 media. Unlike most codecs, H.263 defines fundamentals of an encoded video in terms of the maximum bit rate per frame (picture), or BPPmaxKb. During encoding, a value is selected for BPPmaxKb, and then the video cannot exceed this value for each frame. The final bit rate will depend on this, the frame rate, the compression, and the chosen resolution and block format. H.263 has been superseded by H.264 and is therefore considered a legacy media format which you generally should avoid using if you can. The only real reason to use H.263 in new projects is if you require support on very old devices on which H.263 is your best choice. H.263 is a proprietary format, with patents held by a number of organizations and companies, including Telenor, Fujitsu, Motorola, Samsung, Hitachi, Polycom, Qualcomm, and so on. To use H.263, you are legally obligated to obtain the appropriate licenses.
The decision as to which codec or codecs to use begins with a series of questions to prepare yourself:
•Do you wish to use an open format, or are proprietary formats also to be considered?
•Do you have the resources to produce more than one format for each of your videos? The ability to provide a fallback option vastly simplifies the decision-making process.
•Are there any browsers you're willing to sacrifice compatibility with?
•How old is the oldest version of web browser you need to support? For example, do you need to work on every browser shipped in the past five years, or just the past one year?
In the sections below, we offer recommended codec selections for specific use cases. For each use case, you'll find up to two recommendations. If the codec which is considered best for the use case is proprietary or may require royalty payments, then two options are provided: first, an open and royalty-free option, followed by the proprietary one.
•Web audio codec guide
•Media container formats (file types)
•Handling media support issues in web content
•Codecs used by WebRTC
•RFC 6381: The "Codecs" and "Profiles" parameters for "Bucket" media types
•RFC 5334: Ogg Media Types
- 8 or 10
- 8, 10, or 12
- 8 or 10
Jul 5, 2019 · The king format for video features a mp4 container with H264/AVC encoding. Sometimes you’ll find it in a m4v container (default format in Handbrake), an mp4 derivative developed by Apple for H264 videos with DRM protection. Every browsers and systems -also native applications in both iOS and Android- support this format.
Jan 10, 2018 · The MSE specification does not dictate which format must be understood by the browser. For video data, the two most commons are mp4 and webm files. The former is pretty well-known by now, the...
- Paul Berberian
Dec 4, 2017 · We take it for granted that browsers play video in high resolution, over any connection, on any device. Behind the scenes, a complex machinery of video formats, codecs, and GPU acceleration techniques is at work to make it all happen. This post explains what is what.
Jul 30, 2024 · This media container format is derived from the ISO Base Media File Format and MPEG-4, but is specifically streamlined for lower bandwidth scenarios. These MIME types are the fundamental types for the 3GP media container; other types may be used depending on the specific codec or codecs in use.
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Aug 31, 2024 · MP4 is a supported HTML5 video format. Pros. MP4 is compatible with numerous players and devices. Video-on-demand platforms like YouTube encourage users to upload content in MP4 format. MP4 maintains high video quality even after compression. Cons. MP4 is not easily editable, hence not recommended for movies. WebM Video Format
