A media container format (or often referred to as wrapper structure) is a structure that can include a variety of varieties of knowledge these kinds of as audio and video clip knowledge. The data is compressed utilizing a codec.

A codec (a compound of coder and decoder) is an algorithm utilized to compress and/or decompress a multimedia information stream in order to minimize the volume of bytes needed to shop or deliver.

Some container formats are minimal to audio, like WAV data files for Windows, AIFF for Mac and XMF some are limited to nevertheless photographs this kind of as Suits and TIFF. There are also containers that are flexible it can keep a number of sorts of audio, movie and other media this sort of as ASF information for Home windows, MP4 and Matroska. The most widespread multimedia containers are:

3GP – utilised by cell phones
ASF – standard WMA and WMV container
AVI – common Home windows container
Matroska – open regular container
MPEG – standard container for MPEG-1 and MPEG-2
MP4 – common container for MPEG-4
Ogg – free of charge and open normal container for codecs Vorbis (audio) and Theora (movie)
The distinctions in between various container formats appear up from five (5) main troubles:

Recognition. Broadly supported container.
Overhead. Instance: A two-hour movie may be 3MB larger when in AVI than when in Matroska (MKV). The overhead is the difference among AVI and MKV which is 3MB.
Assistance new codec features and characteristics. Some older container formats does not support codec feature these kinds of as VBR audio and B-frames.
Subtitles, chapters, meta-tags, and person-knowledge support.
Streaming media assist.
Right here is a comparison of the Free MP3 Converter diverse well-liked container formats these days (from Wikipedia).

3GP
Assistance for B-frames variable little bit fee audio variable frame fee 3GPP Timed Text subtitle support MPEG-4 Element two, H.263, and H.264/MPEG-4 AVC movie formats support AAC, AMR-NB, AMR-WB+, AMR-WB, HE-AAC and HE-AAC variation two audio formats

Advanced Methods Formats
Assistance for B-frames, chapters, subtitles, and metadata/tags variable little bit price audio variable body rate assist almost any movie structure by way of DMO or VFW help nearly any audio through ACM or DMO

AVI
Assistance for B-frames variable bit charge audio variable frame price chapters and subtitles are through a third social gathering modification help virtually any movie structure via VFW assistance almost any audio formats by means of ACM

Matroska (MKV, MKA)
Support for B-frames, chapters, subtitles, and metadata/tags variable bit price audio variable body charge assist nearly any video clip and audio formats

MPEG Video clip File (MPG, MPEG)
Assistance for B-frames variable little bit fee audio variable body fee assistance MPEG-one, MPEG-2 video clip formats help MPEG-one Levels I, II, III (mp3) audio formats, other formats only in personal streams

MP4
Support for B-frames, metadata/tags, and menus variable little bit charge audio variable body charge chapters a) in specially formatted textual content monitor, and b) in userdata atom can not operate with each other with the sceneDescription, or segmentDescriptor ttxt and BIFS subtitles, VobSubs subtitle with personal objectTypeIndication is not operating with the sceneDescription help Dirac, H.263, MPEG-four ASP, H.264/MPEG-4 AVC, VC-one, and other movie formats assist AC-three, ALS, Apple Lossless, SLS, MPEG-2/4 (HE)-AAC, MPEG-1/two Layers I, II, III (MP3), Vorbis(with private objectTypeIndication), and other audio format

Ogg
Support for B-frames, chapters, and Ogg Writ and Ogg Kate subtitles variable bit rate audio variable body price support almost any movie formats by way of VFW and supports practically any audio structure by way of ACM

With a growing variety of media containers, no question audio online video converters are common these times. Some converters can convert almost all distinct varieties of audio or video formats whilst other folks are limited to well-known formats right now.