Sustainability of Digital Formats
 Planning for Library of Congress Collections

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Identification and description

Full name	ISO/IEC 14496. Information technology -- Coding of audio-visual objects (formal name for set of specifications that include Part 14, MP4 File Format, and Part 2, Visual [encoding]) MPEG-4 file format, version 2, with Visual Coding (common name)
Description	Combination of a file format (wrapper) and encoding category (Visual Coding, all profiles).
Production phase	Generally a final-state (end-user delivery) format, may also serve as middle-state format.
Relationship to other formats
Subtype of	MP4_FF_2, MPEG-4 File Format, Version 2
May contain	MPEG-4_V, Visual Encoding (Part 2), (All Profiles)
May contain	AAC_MP4 (MPEG-4 Advanced Audio Coding)
May contain	AAC_MP4_LC, AAC (MPEG-4) Low Complexity Object
May contain	Additional audio, graphics, and scene graph stream types. Not documented at this time.

Local use

LC experience or existing holdings	The content produced by the NDIIPP partnership project with SCOLA consists of foreign television news broadcasts in MP4_FF_2_V, MPEG-4 File Format, V.2, with Visual Encoding.
LC preference

Sustainability factors

Disclosure	Open standard. Developed by ISO technical program JTC 1/SC 29 (WG11), aka the Motion Picture Experts Group (MPEG). See http://www.iso.org/iso/en/CatalogueListPage.CatalogueList?COMMID=148&scopelist=PROGRAMME.
Documentation	See MP4_FF_2 and MPEG-4_V.
Adoption	See MP4_FF_2.
Licensing and patent claims	See MP4_FF_2.
Transparency	See MPEG-4_V.
Self-documentation	See MP4_FF_2.
External dependencies	See MP4_FF_2.
Technical protection considerations	See MP4_FF_2.

Quality and functionality factors (video)

Video elements
Normal rendering for video	See MP4_FF_2.
Clarity (support for high image resolution)	See MPEG-4_V.
Functionality beyond normal video rendering	See MP4_FF_2.
Sound elements
Fidelity (support for high audio resolution)	See MP4_FF_2.
Support for multiple sound channels	See MP4_FF_2.
Functionality beyond normal rendering for sound	See MP4_FF_2.

File type signifiers

Tag type	Value	Note
Filename Extension	See MP4_FF_2.
Internet Media Type	See MP4_FF_2
Magic numbers	See MP4_FF_2
File type brand	See MP4_FF_2

Notes

General	The video-capable iPod introduced by Apple in late 2005 features this specification: MPEG-4 video up to 2.5 mbps, 480 x 480, 30 frames per sec., Simple Profile [MPEG-4_V_SP] with AAC-LC [AAC_MP4_LC] up to 160 Kbps, 48 Khz, stereo audio in .m4v, .mp4 and .mov file formats.
History

Format specifications

URLs

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• ISO/IEC 14496-2:2004 Information technology -- Coding of audio-visual objects -- Part 2: Visual
  • ISO/IEC 14496-2:2004/Cor 1:2004
  • ISO/IEC 14496-2:2004/Amd 1:2004 Error resilient simple scalable profile
• ISO/IEC 14496-14:2003 Information technology -- Coding of audio-visual objects -- Part 14: MP4 file format

Useful references

URLs

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