A container format is a computer file format that can contain various types of data, compressed in a manner of standardized codecs. The container file is used to be able to identify and interleave the different data types. Simpler container formats can contain different types of audio codecs, while more advanced container formats can support audio, video, subtitles, chapters, and meta-data (Tagging) - along with the synchronization information needed to play back the various streams together.

Some containers are exclusive to audio:

Other flexible containers can hold many types of audio and video, as well as other media. The most popular multi-media containers are:

See the Comparison of container formats for details regarding these formats

=Issues=

The differences between various container formats arise from five main issues: # Popularity; how widely supported a container is. This is the reason that the AVI format is still the most popular format # Overhead. This is the difference in file-size between two files with the same content in a different container. For a two-hour film, when in AVI, the file may be up to 10MB larger than when in Matroska. # Support for advanced codec functionality. Older formats such as AVI do not support new codec features like B-frames, VBR audio, Variable frame rate natively, although the format may be hacked to add support, creating compatibility problems. # Support for advanced content, such as chapters, subtitles, meta-tags, user-data. # Support of streaming media

=See Also=

*Comparison of container formats *Open source codecs and containers

=Related Links=