| Glossary 1 |
DV, DVD, VOB, ISO, VCD, SVCD, XVCD, XSVCD, VHS, VHSRip, SVHS, D-VHS, CD, CD-DA, CDA, DAT. |
| Glossary 2 |
3GP, ASF, AVI, MPEG, MP4, QuickTime, MOV, RA, RM, RMVB, WMV, DivX, XviD. |
| Glossary 3 |
AAC, MD, AC3, AIFF, FLAC, M4A, M4P, MIDI, MP2, MP3, ID3 Tag, M3U, OGG, Vorbis, VQF, WAV, WMA. |
| Glossary 4 |
NTSC, PAL, ASX, Codec, Region codes, Streaming, DRM, VoIP. |
3GP
3GP - is the new mobile phone video file format.
3GPP, 3GPP2 are the new worldwide standard for the creation, delivery and playback of multimedia over 3rd generation, high-speed wireless networks. Defined by the 3rd Generation Partnership Project and 3rd Generation Partnership Project 2 respectively, these standards seek to provide uniform delivery of rich multimedia over newly evolved, broadband mobile networks (3rd generation networks) to the latest multimedia-enabled wireless devices. Tailored to the unique requirements of mobile devices, 3GPP and 3GPP2 take advantage of MPEG-4, the standard for delivery of video and audio over the Internet.
ASF
ASF stands for Advanced Streaming Format.
ASF is a highly compressed file format that contains streaming video, audio. When an ASF file is played back, content is delivered to you as a continuous flow of data. You no longer have to wait for the whole video and audio file to fully download before you start to view them. So, this file format is specially designed to run on networks. When an AVI file is compressed and converted to an .asf file, the file begins playing after only a few seconds. ASF files can be played back with the Windows Media Player (provided the appropriate codecs are installed), streamed with Windows Media Services or optionally packaged with Windows Media Rights Manager. You can click here to find more information about ASF format.
The Advanced Systems Format (ASF) is the file format used by Windows Media. Audio and/or Video content compressed with a wide variety of codecs can be stored in an ASF file and played back with the Windows Media Player (provided the appropriate codecs are installed), streamed with Windows Media Services or optionally packaged with Windows Media Rights Manager.
ASF is an extensible file format designed to store synchronized multimedia data. It supports data delivery over a wide variety of networks and protocols while still proving suitable for local playback. ASF supports advanced multimedia capabilities including extensible media types, component download, scalable media types, author-specified stream prioritization, multiple language support, and extensive bibliographic capabilities, including document and content management.
AVI
AVI stands for Audio Video Interleaved, Microsoft's answer to Apple's QuickTime, and not compatible with Macs.
It’s a computer graphics animation format used in Microsoft Video for Windows. This format interleaves digitized video frames (or computer-generated frames) and synchronized audio in one file. The clips generated in the AVI format may be played back in a Windows equipped PC, usually independent of screen resolution and color palette. With audio converter software, like Xilisoft Audio Maker or Xilisoft Video to Audio Converter, the audio content of AVI file can be extracted and converted to other formats.
MPEG
Short for Moving Picture Experts Group, and pronounced m-peg, is a working group of the ISO. The term also refers to the family of digital video compression standards and file formats developed by the group. MPEG generally produces better-quality video than competing formats, such as Video for Windows, Indeo and QuickTime. MPEG files previously on PCs needed hardware decoders (codecs) for MPEG processing. Today, however, PCs can use software-only codecs including products from RealNetworks, QuickTime or Windows Media Player.
MPEG algorithms compress data to form small bits that can be easily transmitted and then decompressed. MPEG achieves its high compression rate by storing only the changes from one frame to another, instead of each entire frame. The video information is then encoded using a technique called Discrete Cosine Transform (DCT). MPEG uses a type of lossy compression, since some data is removed. But the diminishment of data is generally imperceptible to the human eye. With some software, like Xilisoft MP3 CD Burner, Video to Audio Converter, and DVD Audio Ripper, you can convert music from MPEG to popular audio files.
MP4
MP4 stands for MPEG (Moving Picture Expert Group) - 4. Finalized toward the end of 1998, this became an International Standard in the beginning of 1999. This was developed to provide low bandwidth multimedia applications.
MPEG-4 is the latest compression standard developed by MPEG, the same group that brought us MPEG-1 and MPEG-2. MPEG-4 brings higher levels of interaction with content, controlled by the content developers. It also brings multimedia to new types of networks, including those employing relatively low bitrates, and mobile ones. Most Xilisoft audio converter and video to audio converter software supports MP4 to MP3 conversion.
QuickTime
QuickTime, a video and animation system, is built into the Macintosh operating system and is used by most Mac applications that include video or animation. PCs can also run files in QuickTime format, but they require a special QuickTime driver. QuickTime supports most encoding formats, including Cinepak, JPEG, and MPEG. QuickTime is competing with a number of other standards, including AVI and ActiveMovie.
MOV
MOV is a file extension used by the QuickTime-wrapped files.
Short for Movie File. A QuickTime movie file format developed by Apple. This is a common, open, cross platform standard which has been openly adopted by the Motion Picture Industry for the exchange of multimedia data.
All QuickTime Movies are associated with the .MOV file extension. It works on Win 95/98/2000/NT/XP, Mac OS Classic and X. Additionally, it supports over 200 media types (Photoshop, GIF, JPEG, etc.) in addition to the QuickTime movie format. One of the major advantages of working in the QuickTime environment is its free server.
RA
RA stands for Real Audio.
Files of this format usually have the extensions of RA, RAX, RM or RAM. Xilisoft Video to Audio Converter and DVD Audio Ripper can convert video and DVD to audio of RA format, and convert other audio to RA format.
Real Audio is often used as a streaming audio format (can be played at the same time as it's downloaded) due to its ability to conform to low bandwidths. This makes Real Audio a common format for many internet radio stations.
Real Audio files are played with RealNetworks' RealPlayer. To save an audio stream to a file MPlayer and StreamBox VCR (both free) can be used. Some people use free Real Alternative or JetAudio to play Real Audio files, but they require an additional, free plug-in to play them.
RM
RM stands for Real Media.
One of the first CODECs for delivering streaming video over the Internet. Like other CODECs, RealMedia (comprised of RealVideo, RealAudio, and other file formats created by Real) use compression algorithms for eliminating data that can be considered as extraneous or not as important as other information. RealMedia and Windows Media are the two most widely used technologies for streaming video today. You can convert music from RM to MP3 or other formats with converting software like Xilisoft DVD Audio Ripper.
RMVB
RMVB stands for Real Media Variable Bitrate.
RMVB is commonly used to contain Real Video 9 and RA (Real Audio).
WMV
WMV stands for Windows Media Video.
WMV is a generic name of Microsoft's video encoding solutions and doesn't necessarily define the technology what it uses. You can use a .WMV file either to download and play files or to stream content. The .WMV file format is similar to the .ASF file format.
Microsoft's Windows Media Player, an application bundled with Windows XP operating systems, lets you playback and manage a range of audio and video file types, including, of course, WMA and WMV. With Xilisoft MP3 CD Burner, you can convert music from WMV to popular audio formats.
DivX
DivX™ is a new format for digital video, much like MP3 is a format for digital music. The DivX™ codec is based on the MPEG-4 compression standard. This codec is so advanced that it can reduce an MPEG-2 video (the same format used for DVD or Pay-Per-View) to ten percent of its original size.
XviD
XviD is a free and open source MPEG-4 video codec. XviD is a primary competitor of DivX (XviD spelled backwards). While DivX is closed source and may only run on Windows, Mac OS and Linux, XviD is open source and can potentially run on any platform.
