[mythtv] Musings On Standard File Formats

[Matt Zimmerman]

On Mon, Apr 21, 2003 at 12:47:22AM -0400, James Knight wrote:

> The MPEG-4 standard container format (aka Quicktime container) should do
> everything you want to do. I'm no expert on the NuppelVideo format, so I'm
> not sure exactly what features you need, but the QT container is
> *extremely* extensible, and seems to have a lot of built-in features
> already like text tracks for subtitles, etc. Since it's part of the MPEG-4
> standard, support for it should not be a problem.

I'm not familiar with it either, though apparently there are technical
specifications available on the web, e.g.:

http://developer.apple.com/techpubs/quicktime/qtdevdocs/QTFF/qtff.html

I am unaware of any open source libraries for writing these files, so using
this format would involve writing a significant amount of new code, which
would not add significant value to MythTV itself.

> I don't see much advantage in changing containers at this point in time
> (seems like a lot of work for not too much gain), but if a change *were*
> to happen, I think it'd make the most sense to switch to the standard
> MPEG-4 container rather than some half-baked container like OGG or
> something really crappy like AVI.

I wouldn't consider Ogg to be half-baked at all, only incomplete where video
is concerned.  For audio, it is the best thing going.

-- 
 - mdz