

All Apple hardware products, including their mobile iPhone and iPad devices as well as Flash, support the AAC audio file format. There is an AAC patent, so by definition we can’t exactly call this audio file format open source. Since the AAC audio file format supports DRM, Apple offers files in both protected and unprotected formats. Apple uses this audio file format for its iTunes Music Store. This audio file format was created by design to sound better than MP3s using the same bitrate.

A WebM file contains both an Ogg Vorbis audio stream as well as a VP8 video stream. This open source audio/video file format development is sponsored by Google. WebM is the newest entrant in the online video file format race.It has no patents and is therefore considered open source.įun fact: According to Wikipedia, “Theora is named after Theora Jones, Edison Carter’s controller on the Max Headroom television program.”īrowsers that support the Ogg video file format include: Theora is really much more of a video file compression format than it is a playback file format, though it can be used that way also. Ogg is really two things: Ogg Theora, which is a video file format and Ogg Vorbis, which is an audio file format. Ogg might be a funny sounding name, but its potential is very serious, I assure you.Google has now partially rejected the H.264 format and is leaning more toward its support of the new WebM video file format instead. Browsers that support H.264 video file format include: In addition, there is a patent on H.264 is therefore, by definition, not open source. Used on Blu-ray Discs as well as many Internet video streaming sites including Flash, iTunes Music Store, Silverlight, Vimeo, YouTube, cable television broadcasts, and real-time videoconferencing. H.264 has become of the most commonly used high definition video formats.
#HTML5 AUDIO CODEC SOFTWARE#
Next, we’ll look at new open-source audio and video file formats that don’t require plugins or special software and the browsers that support them. mpv – MPEG4 is based on Apple’s QuickTime player and requires that software for playback.Įach of the previously mentioned video file formats require a browser plugin or some sort of standalone software for playback. This used to be the only video file format Flash fully supported. Does not support most modern audio and video codecs in use today. avi – A blast from the past, the Audio Video Interleave file format was invented by Microsoft. These files may include not just video but also audio and metadata-all in one file. There are plenty of different audio and video file formats.

Understanding audio and video file formats
