16/12/2015

1

What the f* are all these formats?

A CHRISTMAS JOURNEY THROUGH MEDIA FILES

BR UC E DE VL I N, C H I E F M E DI A S C I E NTI S T, DA L E T

Let’s start with the f* formats

16/12/2015

2

F*

� What’s the Function of all those formats?

� What’s the Fun in all those formats?

� What’s the Frame Rate of all those formats?

� What’s the Function of all those formats?

� What’s the FourCC Code of all those formats?

� What’s the Features of all those formats?

� What’s the Full History of all those formats?

� What’s the Foundation of all those formats?

� What’s the Future of all those formats?

Why is Bruce speaking?

� I believe in education

� If we don’t learn from the past …..

� I had a little hand in the wonderful …

� Which considered a LOT of file formats back in the 1990s

16/12/2015

3

And what’s he going to speak about

� History, Hardware, Hard Designs, Hope, Horror

� Audio Files

� Video Files

� Wrappers

� Caption Files

� Happy Birthday MXF

� Christmas wishes…

History, Hardware, Hard Designs, Hope, Horror

16/12/2015

4

History

stl

All designed with tightly coupled,

short-term-optimised,

“elegant” interactions

between essence & wrapper

The floppy world – hard designs

� Joy of the RS422 interface lead

� Media files == metadata & captions – STL 3.5” metadata

� Capacity limits

stl………..Total Number of Disks (TND)The total number of disks in the set corresponding to one complete subtitle list. The maximum number of disks is 9.Disk Sequence Number (DSN)The disk sequence number, starting with number 1 for the first disk in the set and increasing to the number contained in the TND code, for the last disk.Country of Origin (CO)……..

16/12/2015

5

HDD world – hard designs

� RM03 inappropriate for video (or audio) 67MB, 1.2MiB/s, 35ms seek

� 10MB HDDs could just about do audio

� CPUs could process audio

• Big endian vs Little endian architecture

• At least 2 formats for ordering bytes

• Cross platform code development & OOD in its infancy

� Quantel Harry & Paintbox were cutting edge

� Digital tape format proliferation is taking off

Dalet

RAID

� Move from custom hardware

• … to custom file systems + gateways

• sPIrint, DVS Prontosore, Pinnacle

• Tek (Omneon) & gxf, ftp oriented formats

� File formats start

• because proprietary formats can now leak outof the closed environment into the wide world

16/12/2015

6

Meanwhile …

� Apple Quicktime – multi-personality disorder

� Microsoft Windows media, tip toe around patents and trying to build a gaming industry

� Adobe – Flash in the pan

� Streaming (RTP) never quite takes off

• Problems router support

• Security suddenly an issue– no-one wants to be in public with their ports open

The enlightenment age - Hope

� Suddenly by 2000

• CPUs fast enough, disks big enough , memory cheap enough.

� Pro-MPEG Study began:

• What business problem we were trying to solve? .. More of that later

• Make a single, simple, free, easy to understand format for everyone to use

� IT companies fixing Pro-sumer & FCP-7 set to rule the world

16/12/2015

7

Horror

� Remember

• Recorded media didn’t kill TV didn’t kill cinema didn’t kill radio didn’t kill newspapers

� How many of these formats are actually dead?

• .stl

• .aes

• .gxf

• .lxf

• .mxf

� These formats leaked out and stayed out.

� Not just in archives – they’re still in use!

More Horror

� Standards sohpistication is such that

• ∑ ∑ ������������ � 10,000

� It’s easier to invent something proprietary… than to accurately meet a standard

� But – it costs MUCH more to meet all the proprietary standards

16/12/2015

8

The interoperability dilemma

� End users want to exercise choice• To use the right codec for the right application

• To have big files when quality matters

• To have small files when space matters

• To have any resolution

• But what price flexibility if you want …

• a cheap, generic, standard product?

23v x 13a x 14w = 4,186 formats

17,518,410 tests (in * out)

use a 90sec test clip …

The interoperability dilemma

� End users want to exercise choice• To use the right codec for the right application

• To have big files when quality matters

• To have small files when space matters

• To have any resolution

• But what price flexibility if you want a cheap generic product?

AVI, DPX, GXF, MPEG PS, MPEG TS, MPEG MP4,

MXF AS02, MXF AS03, MXF OP-ATOM, MXF

OP1a, QuickTime, ASF, WMV, RIFF

AAC, AAC HE, AIFF, AMR, AES, BWF, Dolby D,

Dolby D+, Dolby E, MPEG1-II, MP3, Ogg, WAV

AVC-Intra, Cineform, DVCam, DVC Pro, DNxHD, ProRes HQ, ProRes

444, HuffYUV, IMX, MPEG1, MPEG2, MPEG4-2, H.264, JPEG 2000, M-

JPEG, On2 VP6, Theora, Unc 422, Unc 444, WebM, WMV, VC-1,

XDCAM

16/12/2015

9

The interoperability dilemma

� End users want to exercise choice• To use the right codec for the right application

• To have big files when quality matters

• To have small files when space matters

• To have any resolution

• But what price flexibility if you want a cheap generic product?

23v x 13a x 14w = 4,186 formats

17,518,410 tests (in * out)

use a 90sec test clip …

50 years to fully test

AVI, DPX, GXF, MPEG PS, MPEG TS, MPEG MP4,

MXF AS02, MXF AS03, MXF OP-ATOM, MXF

OP1a, QuickTime, ASF, WMV, RIFF

AAC, AAC HE, AIFF, AMR, AES, BWF, Dolby D,

Dolby D+, Dolby E, MPEG1-II, MP3, Ogg, WAV

AVC-Intra, Cineform, DVCam, DVC Pro, DNxHD, ProRes HQ, ProRes

444, HuffYUV, IMX, MPEG1, MPEG2, MPEG4-2, H.264, JPEG 2000, M-

JPEG, On2 VP6, Theora, Unc 422, Unc 444, WebM, WMV, VC-1,

XDCAM

File Formats kill margins!

� End users want to exercise choice• To use the right codec for the right application

• To have big files when quality matters

• To have small files when space matters

• To have any resolution

• But what price flexibility if you want a cheap generic product?

Formats 2 x SD +

3x(23.98, 25, 29.97, 30) HD +

4 internet & web x 2 audio layouts

= (2 + 12 + 4) x 2 x 50yrs =

1800 years

16/12/2015

10

Designing for change

� 8 years ago…• Today’s display devices did not exist

• Today’s “Heavy Lifting” file formats did not exist

• The servers running transcode farms did not exist

• A “typical” 2011 central storage system was too expensive

� Yet…• Engineers are expected to build media systems with 5-10yr life

• Archive ingest systems were expected to “finish” by now

� How do you design for change?

Why are application specs a good idea?

WITH APPLICATI O N SPECS

High chance files just work

High chance the metadata is right

Vendors use a common, small test set

Costs can be controlled

WITHO U T APPLICATI O N SPECS

High chance transcoding needed

High chance of metadata rework

Vendors have an infinite test matrix

Cost have external influences

16/12/2015

11

Audio Files

IFF

� The grandaddy (mummy?) of them all

� Introduced by Electronic Arts in 1985 (30 years!)

• Interoperable exchange Commodore-Amiga

� Key points:

• A file is a series of hierarchical chunks

• starting on an even address (thanks Motorolla)

• With a TypeID (i.e. the FourCC / OSType)

• Group chunks “FORM”, “LIST”, “CAT”

16/12/2015

12

RIFF, AIFF

� In 1988 we got AIFF

• Big Endian Apple variant

� In 1991 we got RIFF

• Little endian IFF from Microsoft & IBM – Windows 3.1 multimedia

� .wav “WAVE” - RIFF with CD bitstreams @ 44.1kHz• Compression and multichannel audio added later

� Bwav EBU extensions to wav – adding BEXT chunks (EBU tech 3285)

� RF64 extension to wav structure to allow files > 4GB (EBU tech 3306)

� MP3 players

� Surround streams for cinema then consumer

� Formats trickle downstream & formats leech upstream

Other random audio formats

� .3gp 3GPP container (mp4 derivative) for AMR group of codecs

� .aac ADTS or ADIF containers with MP2 or MP4 bitstreams

� .aes AES wire line – captured to disc

� .flac free lossless audio codec – often wrapped with ogg

� .m4a MPEG4 audio – usually aac

� .m4p aac with Apple DRM

� .mp3 MPEG2 layer 3 -

� .ogg usually vorbis codec (think free mp3) wrapped in ogg

� .ra Real Media audio

16/12/2015

13

The world of free

� Free music led to free tools

� Free tools led to free formats

� Broadcasters & Post houses & vendors hate spending money

• Free is a four letter word

• Those formats – often well documented cores with poor extensions

• Leak upstream and end up in the pro world

• Money is saved during the project

• Money is haemorrhaged recovering & archiving the project

Video Files

16/12/2015

14

Video file formats

� Probably only 3

• .gif

• .png

• .m2v

Video file formats

� Probably only 3

• .gif

• .png

• .m2v

� Probably only 3 common silent movie formats

• All the others are technically wrappers

16/12/2015

15

Wrappers

Consumer Files

� .asf Advanced system format – serialised object RIFF replacement

� .avi Another variant of the RIFF ecosystem

� .dif .dv Raw dv blocks serialised to a file

� .divx DivX proprietary wrapper for their codecs (MPEG4-2 & h.264 like)

� .flv Flash video

� .gif Yes, really

� .mkv Matroska (russian doll) EBML based (like binary XML)

� .mov quicktime file – contains editing information

� .mp4 ISO standardised form of quicktime (ISO/IEC 14496-12:2004)

� .pes .ts various program stream variants

� .ts .mts various transport stream variants

� Theora originally .vp3 until it forked. ogg wrapped (HTML5 controversy!)

� .vp3 - 8 raw On2 video streams often in flash /ogg wrapper

� .wmv Windows Media Video (VC-1) in asf. Big news @ SMPTE

� .webm google’s open source vp8

16/12/2015

16

Editing files

� Optimised for random access

• .avi free tools for “build it yerself” users

• .mov FCP + apple hardware + mov = reliability

• .mxf growing files an advantage

� The wrapper hides codec support issues

• Timecodes, offsets, synchronisation

• Intra vs Long Gop

• Clean start / fast start vs Handles

Camera Files

� Optimised for open ended recording

• MXF variants

• P2

• XDCAM

• AVCIntra, AVC LongG, AVC Ultra

• X-AVC

• Quicktime variants

• RAW variants

• Software matched to sensor required

16/12/2015

17

Server Files

� Originally a closed system

• One format – files should never escape

• e.g. Pinnacle Systems

� Then

• Quasi-published formats

• .gxf, .lxf, quicktime reference

� Ultimately

• Any format streamed from NAS / Cloud

• e.g. Harmonic, Grass & Nexio ranges

Mezzanine files

� Originally the wild west

� Ultimately

• MXF or Quicktime

• Codecs range from HD AVC LongG @ 25Mbps to HD J2k @500Mbps

16/12/2015

18

Lightweight compression

� New breed of link codecs

• Dirac

• TICO

• J2k

• Others…

� If it exists on a wire …

• … It will end up on a file

• … No time to standardise it

• … Lots of time to spend on engineering resources to make interoperable

Timecode

� At this point we have to mention timecode

� Many formats don’t support it, but the Pros NEED it

they told me so…..

…and they claimed to know the difference between want & need

16/12/2015

19

Why is timecode important?

Timecode indicates the timing of each frame. It is used to ensure:

� Alignment between independent devices (e.g. video and audio recorders)

� Alignment between assets (e.g. captions and video)

� Correct edit points (e.g. cutting at the correct time)

� Accurate playback duration

Why 29.97?

� Black and white television was 30 frames per second, withluminance (FM) and audio (AM) at a fixed frequency distance (4.5 MHz)

� Adding the color carrier frequency required inserting a third band…

�Without causing artifacts on the existing black and white TV sets

�So, color carrier frequency needed to be an odd harmonic of half line frequency

�Some math was done…

Ratio of Horizontal line rate change = 1.001 : 1, 30fps / 1.001 = 29.97

“It’s Backwards Compatible!”

16/12/2015

20

Why 29.970029970029970029970029970299700…?

� Black and white television was 30.000000000 frames per second, withluminance (FM) and audio (AM) at a fixed frequency distance (4.5 MHz)

� Adding the color carrier frequency required inserting a third band…

�Without causing artifacts on the existing black and white TV sets

�So, color carrier frequency needed to be an odd harmonic of half line frequency

�Some math was done… and this solution was the best compromise!

Ratio of Horizontal line rate change = 1.001 : 1, 30fps / 1.001 = 29.97

“It was a Backwards Compatible Solution!”

Common Perceptions about DF vs. NDF

Generally people don’t understand why we have fractional frame rates

00:00:00:00 00:00:00;00

Colon! Semi-Colon!

Why on earth did we do this? It just means s*#@ will fall on the floor!

30 fps 29.97 fps

16/12/2015

21

Common Perceptions about DF vs. NDF

Colon! Semi-Colon!

Why on earth did we do this? It just means s*#@ will fall on the floor!

The problem with 29.97 time code…

“It’s just like leap years”

Your video is running at 29.97 frames per second

If you count to 30 for every second, you will be off by 108 frames per hour

This is 3.6 seconds per hour, or roughly 2 minutes every day

Congress refused to change the standard duration of a minuteand refused to speed up the rotation of the earth, so…

A new time code scheme was invented to account for the difference

16/12/2015

22

Teaching your child to count the DF way

“It’s just like leap years”

� Duration of a solar year is slightly less than 365.25 days

� We have February 29th when the year number is a factor of 4� Except on centuries…

� … that are not multiples of 400

Example:

• 1701 and 1700 and were not leap years

• 1996 and 2000 were leap years

Teaching your child to count the DF way

“It’s just like leap years”

� Duration of a 29.97fps hour (at 30fps) is 108 frames too long

� So, we skip two frames every minute� Drop-frame timecode skips ;00 and ;01

� … except on multiples of ten minutes

Example:

• 00:05:59;28 – 00:05:59;29 – skip two – 00:06:00;02 – 00:06:00;03

• 00:09:59;28 – 00:09:59;29 – 00:10:00;00 – 00:10:00;01

16/12/2015

23

$$$

Example: The “I don’t know what I have” problem

Imagine a world …

Captions had be created, QC’d and aligned manually

Time to digitize the archive!

� Some caption originals existed

� Some were 23.98

� Some were 29.97

� Some were 30.0

� Some were aligned to 1st frame

� Some were aligned to start of clock

� Some were aligned to the moon (or maybe the tides)

HoleHole

Caption Files

16/12/2015

24

What’s interesting about these standards?

Once Upon a Time in a Standards Body far far away

� 1927 – The Jazz Singer. Talking pictures replaced silent films.

� 1947 – Emerson Romero puts captions between picture frames.

� 1948 – Captioned Films for the Deaf (CFD) captions America the Beautiful.

� 1971 – First National Conference TV for the Hearing Impaired, Nashville, TN

� 1972 – BBC CEEFAX, 1973 – ITA Oracle

� 1976 – Teletext and then 1986 – World System Teletext

� 1991 – EBU 3264 – STL published

� 1999 – EIA 708B approved

� 2001 – A/53B approved

� 2006 – SMPTE ST-436 published

� 2010 – ST-2052 published (SMPTE-TT)

� 2012 – EBU-TT published

� 2015 – TTML IMSC1 published

What’s interesting about these standards?Which ones are

predominantly B2B?

Once Upon a Time in a Standards Body far far away

� 1927 – The Jazz Singer. Talking pictures replaced silent films.

� 1947 – Emerson Romero puts captions between picture frames.

� 1948 – Captioned Films for the Deaf (CFD) captions America the Beautiful.

� 1971 – First National Conference TV for the Hearing Impaired, Nashville, TN

� 1972 – BBC CEEFAX, 1973 – ITA Oracle

� 1976 – Teletext and then 1986 – World System Teletext

� 1991 – EBU 3264 – STL published

� 1999 – EIA 708B approved

� 2001 – A/53B approved

� 2006 – SMPTE ST-436 published

� 2010 – ST-2052 published (SMPTE-TT)

� 2012 – EBU-TT published

� 2015 – TTML IMSC1 published

16/12/2015

25

• Captioning – it’s the law

$$ Captions are REALLY important $$

Pictures and Sound are optional.

You have to show captioning

Or else…

Pictures and Sound are optional.

You have to show captioning.

Or else…

Typical Captions workflow

MXF

GXF

MOV

1. Identify the captioning source

2. Transcode video, audio & captions

MXF

TS

PS

etc

1. VANC – 7082. VANC – OP473. VBI – in-vision4. VBI – proprietary server (1)5. VBI – proprietary server (2)6. VBI – proprietary server (3)7. MXF ST-4368. Quicktime9. AVID DNxHD (pre-2011)10. GXF11. LXF12. .stl13. .cap14. .scc15. .mcc16. .ttml (SMPTE-TT / EBU-TT)

15. A/5316. In-vision VBI (608)17. In-vision VBI (teletext)18. DVB subtitle bitmaps19. SAMI20. SMIL21. Echostar proprietary22. .xif23. .89024. Other proprietary

• 15 inputs x 22 outputs• = 330 test cases• x display modes for each standard• = many 1000s of tests

And you expect this to work?

16/12/2015

26

Why don’t we use Mezzanines?

MXF

GXF

MOV

1. Identify the captioning source

2. Transcode video, audio & captions

MXF

TS

PS

etc

1. VANC – 7082. VANC – OP473. VBI – in-vision4. VBI – proprietary server (1)5. VBI – proprietary server (2)6. VBI – proprietary server (3)7. MXF ST-4368. Quicktime9. AVID DNxHD (pre-2011)10. GXF11. LXF12. .stl13. .cap14. .scc15. .mcc16. .ttml (SMPTE-TT / EBU-TT)

15. A/5316. In-vision VBI (608)17. In-vision VBI (teletext)18. DVB subtitle bitmaps19. SAMI20. SMIL21. Echostar proprietary22. .xif23. .89024. Other proprietary

• (15 inputs + 22 outputs) x 3ish formats• = 100 test cases• x display modes for each standard• = several 100s of tests

.imf .mxf .ttml

It might just work!

Lack of standards…

16/12/2015

27

Happy Birthday MXF

MXF

� Bruce’s MXF funding proposal to UK government in 1997

rejected because the problem was already solved

� MXF origins - “Call it Eminem – he’s a rapper”Joe Zaller 1998

16/12/2015

28

From 2005: The problem – too many formats…

User 1F1ingest

F2 edit

F3 playoutVendors

V1, V2, V3, V4

User 2F1ingest

F1 edit

F4 playoutVendors

V1, V4, V5, V6

User 3F5ingest

F6 edit

F3 playoutVendors

V2, V5, V7

User 4F6ingest

F6 edit

F3 playoutVendors

V1, V2, V6, V7

From 2005: The problem – too many formats…

User 1F1ingest

F2 edit

F3 playoutVendors

V1, V2, V3, V4

User 2F1ingest

F1 edit

F4 playoutVendors

V1, V4, V5, V6

User 3F5ingest

F6 edit

F3 playoutVendors

V2, V5, V7

User 4F6ingest

F6 edit

F3 playoutVendors

V1, V2, V6, V7

All the vendors

implement all the formats

all the time

16/12/2015

29

From 2005: The problem – too many formats…

User 1F1ingest

F2 edit

F3 playoutVendors

V1, V2, V3, V4

User 2F1ingest

F1 edit

F4 playoutVendors

V1, V4, V5, V6

User 3F5ingest

F6 edit

F3 playoutVendors

V2, V5, V7

User 4F6ingest

F6 edit

F3 playoutVendors

V1, V2, V6, V7

We can’t standardize the choice of:

• video codec

• audio codec

• number of audio channels

• vendor

From 2005: The problem – too many formats…

User 1F1ingest

F2 edit

F3 playoutVendors

V1, V2, V3, V4

User 2F1ingest

F1 edit

F4 playoutVendors

V1, V4, V5, V6

User 3F5ingest

F6 edit

F3 playoutVendors

V2, V5, V7

User 4F6ingest

F6 edit

F3 playoutVendors

V1, V2, V6, V7

We can standardize the choice of wrapper to make it easier to handlethe:

• video codec

• audio codec

• number of audio channels

• vendor

16/12/2015

30

I ASKED FO R O PINIO NS FRO M A NU MBER O F CO MPANI ES ARO U ND THE WO RLD…

Opinions

DANGER

OPINIONSAHEAD

MXF in JAPAN

� ARIB TR-B31

• “Technical Methods for File-based Program Exchange”

• MXF localization for Program exchange in Japan

• Which provides following

• Packaging Method (Folder Structure)

• Program Exchange Metadata

• Japanese Closed Caption Insertion for MXF

� JBA T-031 (JBA=the Japan Commercial Broadcasters Association)

� “File-based Television Program Exchange Provisional Standard”

• Standard for Program and CM material Exchange between commercial broadcaster in Japan under ARIB TR-B31

• Compatible with conventional HDCAM program exchange

• Provides XDCAM, P2, GF for exchange medium

16/12/2015

31

What is stopping MXF penetrating the Advertising industry in the USA?

� Media Outlets and online video publishers will accept ads in a variety of digital formats

• Including MPEG2, PRORES, MPEG4

• Media outlets transcode files to whatever formats they need for their needs

� Commercial distribution and production companies follow Media Outlet specifications

� Passage of SMPTE Digital Ad Slate (Embedding standardized Advertising metadata in MXF files) has been delayed

• Passage of this SMPTE document would accelerate MXF advocacy

� Advertisers and Ad Agencies have not been educated in the efficiencies of using MXF single distribution format for ads

• If they were, they would be advocating for it!

Adobe

� Premiere Pro has had native MXF decode and encode for many years

� Every release adds new essence support and that support is industry leading in its range

� Thousands of broadcasters worldwide depend on Premiere and AME in MXF-based workflows

� Media Browser natively understands file-based camera directories and presents the user with scrubbable media

� MXF has definitely made the marketplace better and generally more controlled.

16/12/2015

32

Advanced Media Workflow Association

� Application Specifications (ASs) - successes and failures

� AMWA ASs have always been created to satisfy a perceived business need

� Successes have been achieved because the need remained constant and the specification was delivered quickly (for example, AS-11)

� Failures have occurred where the requirements changed and / or the specification took a long time to finalise (for example, AS-02)

� Change in consumer demands and technology are accelerating

� This makes us vulnerable to shifting requirements

� In the future we need to be light on our feet and efficient in finding solutions

� www.AMWA.tv to keep up to date

Archimedia Technology

2011 Emmy SAMMA JPEG2000 in MXF

2013 all-formats reference player

SMPTE 2015 Australia ‘The Whole Truth and Nothing but the Truth’SMPTE 2013 ‘It’s A Retrieval Problem, Not A Storage Problem’

16/12/2015

33

How has MXF helped cinema?

� Digital Cinema Initiatives

• Cinema needed 6 reels of MXF images, MXF sound, subtitles & control

• Cinema needed secure encryption – MXF was enhanced to do this

• ASDCP.lib – free libraries for MXF testing

• In 8 years

• About 150,000 movies

• To about 140,000 cinemas

• Giving about 1,000,000,000 showings worldwide

• Almost no dark screens due to MXF

• Get the Application specification right and MXF is very reliable!

Digital Production Partnership (DPP)

� UK wide MXF file format AS-11 UK DPP

� UK File Day 1st October 2014

� 1 year on the statistics speak for themselves;

• Over 10 000 programme files successfully delivered!

• MXF and essence checks aligned with EBU QC Items

• A single MXF based file compliance check has caught ALL errors

• AMWA and DPP run a QC device certification for file compliance testing

• AS-11 MXF has given the DPP broadcasters a “self contained” programme package that Craft and Production teams can understand

16/12/2015

34

How has MXF affect OpenCube / EVS

� OpenCube joined EVS in 2010

� EVS still active in MXF implementation and has kept active all OEM customers using MXFTk

� MXF current implementation is driven by:

• New ENG camera format (XDCam, P2, …)

• Master format per country: ARD-ZDF, AS-11, AS-10 in France, IMF, …

� EVS active in MXF file format legalisation with EVS Ingest Funnel and the use of BPM (Business Process Management)

� EVS active in new AS definition: ex. AS-07 with AMWA and US LoC

� EVS has decided to slow down his MXF implementation effort when it becomes a commodity: ex. DCP

Grass Valley

� MXF is a Wild West of media formats – No Laws!

� Too much choice means many MXF flavours

� Playout servers had to validate many flavoursof MXF

� Some people think that creating constrained MXF flavours means that MXF is a failure

� The same issue has occurred with BXF

� The Broadcasting Industry is no good at software standards

� The Broadcasting Industry needs to change the way it does standards

16/12/2015

35

MOG Technologies

� How has MXF changed in the last 10 years. How have SDK customers changed?

� Initially, SDK customers just wanted to support “MXF”

� Now there are several MXF-based specialized “flavours”, with increased interoperability

• Customers want to be able to read and create them, e.g. Sony XAVC, Panasonic AVC Ultra, Avid OP Atom, AS-11, DPP, ARD/ZDF, etc.

� MXF has been continuously extended to map new codecs, and customers want that too: AVC, HEVC, DNxHR, etc.

� In the last years we’ve seen much interest in:

• Higher resolutions, e.g. UHD

• Edit-while-recording workflows, leveraging MXF’s flexibility with regards to the file structure

• Carriage of ancillary data, e.g. closed captions

• Compliance checking tools for automated quality control

Panasonic Corporation

� Panasonic have been adopting MXF as P2 essence file format since 2005,

� selecting Operational Pattern Atom and 1b suitable for acquisition

� MXF has greatly contributed to establishing the P2 file-based workflow with partner companies and guarantee of the interoperability

This slide is on behalf of Panasonic

On-Air ServerOn-Air

Acquisition Low Res. Server

IngestArchive

Editing

Material Server

NLE

OP-Atom/OP-1b

P2 Card

16/12/2015

36

StandardisationStandardisation

ImplementationImplementation

Joined MXF development in Pro-MPEG Forum

Contributed to the SMPTE standardisation• ST 377-1: MXF• ST 381 suite of documents: MPEG Mappings• ST 383, 386, 387: DV/D10/D11 Mappings• ST 385: Content Packages

2000 2005 2010 20152000 2005 2010 2015

From SD, HD to 4K, over 400,000 Sony products support MXF

Utilised MXF OP-1a consistently to allow easy support by 3rd parties

RDD 3 - e-VTR MXF Interop. Spec.

RDD 9 - MXF Interop. Spec. of Sony MPEG Long GOP Products

RDD 32 - XAVC MXF Mapping and Operating Points

AMWA AS-10

Disclosed Sony MXF implementation

ARIB TR-B31

ARD_ZDF_HD01

An exchange format in each region/group

Launched in 2003

Sony Corporation

Telestream

� Primarily affected our Transcoding business… did MXF bring interoperability?

� Answer: If one decoder can’t read the output from another encoder…

� The first few years were spent chasing different “flavours” of MXF

• Each broadcast server did things slightly differently

• Some vendors used an “MXF” extension… and the files were not even MXF!

� Then things started to normalize…

• Sony MXF variants emerged as a neutral “common ground”

� AMWA specifications allowed for some interpretation…

• AS-02, AS-03 were specific in structure but loose in specifics…

• … but as always, once people get things working, no problem!

• DPP AS-11 MXF was an excellent program, a good example of doing it right

� Growing file support within MXF was a huge advancement

16/12/2015

37

Christmas Wishes

Bruce’s Christmas wishes

16/12/2015

38

Bruce’s File Format Christmas wishes

1. System architects consider the TCO of file formats

• not just the capital cost of software / transcoders / editors

2. Implementers consider interoperability

• During the code design phase and not at the validation stage

• We should compete on product functionality, not the ability to read a file

3. Better collaboration at a commercially significant scale

• leading to interoperability e.g. country level not a single post house install

Thank you

Questions?

Wishing You A Well Formatted Christmas