Video file formats
Files that hold moving pictures, or describe how to play them: container files that carry video and sound together, raw encoded streams, the manifests that drive online streaming, subtitles and the project files of video editors.
Subcategories
Container
Files that carry video, audio and subtitle tracks together, with timing to keep them in step.
10 formatsStream
Encoded or raw video on its own, as it comes out of an encoder, with no container around it.
6 formatsStreaming manifest
Small files that tell a player where to fetch each piece of a video over the web.
5 formatsSubtitle
Timed text or images shown over a video: captions, translations and descriptions.
8 formatsEditing project
The saved work of video editors: sequences, clips, cuts and effects.
7 formatsAll video file formats
| Format | Name | About | Open |
|---|---|---|---|
| Container | |||
.3GP | 3GPP multimedia file | Mobile phone video from the 3G era, built on the same boxes as MP4. | Open |
.AVI | Audio Video Interleave | Microsoft’s RIFF video container from 1992, with interleaved chunks and an index. | Open |
.FLV | Flash Video | The video file of Flash Player: a short header then timestamped audio and video tags. | Open |
.MKV | Matroska video | An open container for any number of tracks, built on EBML elements. | Open |
.MOV | QuickTime movie | Apple’s QuickTime container: tracks and sample tables in nested atoms. | Open |
.MP4 | MPEG-4 Part 14 | The most common video file: tracks and sample tables in nested boxes. | Open |
.MPG | MPEG program stream | MPEG-1 and MPEG-2 video and audio in packs, as on Video CDs and DVDs. | Open |
.TS | MPEG transport stream | The broadcast TV container: 188-byte packets tagged with stream IDs. | Open |
.WEBM | WebM video | Open web video: Matroska restricted to VP8, VP9 or AV1 with Vorbis or Opus. | Open |
.WMV | Windows Media Video | Microsoft’s Windows Media video, in GUID-tagged ASF objects. | Open |
| Stream | |||
.H264 | H.264 Annex B elementary stream | Raw H.264 video: NAL units separated by start codes, with no container. | Open |
.HEVC | H.265 Annex B elementary stream | Raw H.265 video: NAL units with 2-byte headers, separated by start codes. | Open |
.IVF | IVF video stream | Raw VP8, VP9 or AV1 frames behind a 32-byte DKIF header. | Open |
.M2V | MPEG-2 video elementary stream | Raw MPEG-2 video, as used for DVD authoring: headers marked by start codes. | Open |
.Y4M | YUV4MPEG2 video | Uncompressed YUV frames behind a one-line text header giving size and rate. | Open |
.YUV | Raw YUV video | Uncompressed video planes with no header: size and format must be known. | Open |
| Streaming manifest | |||
.F4M | Flash Media Manifest | The Adobe HDS manifest: XML listing encodings and their fragment tables. | Open |
.ISM | Smooth Streaming server manifest | Smooth Streaming’s server-side SMIL file naming the media files and tracks. | Open |
.ISMC | Smooth Streaming client manifest | Microsoft Smooth Streaming’s player manifest: XML tracks, qualities and chunks. | Open |
.M3U8 | HTTP Live Streaming playlist | The HLS playlist: text tags listing stream versions and the segments to fetch. | Open |
.MPD | MPEG-DASH Media Presentation Description | The MPEG-DASH manifest: XML periods, adaptation sets and representations. | Open |
| Subtitle | |||
.ASS | Advanced SubStation Alpha subtitles | Styled subtitles in INI-like sections: styles, then timed dialogue lines. | Open |
.IDX | VobSub subtitles | Ripped DVD subtitles: a text index pointing into a .sub file of images. | Open |
.SBV | YouTube SubViewer captions | YouTube’s plain text captions: a time range line, then the text. | Open |
.SRT | SubRip subtitles | Plain text subtitles: numbered cues, each with a time range and its text. | Open |
.SUB | MicroDVD subtitles | Text subtitles timed in frames: start frame, end frame and text on one line. | Open |
.SUP | Blu-ray PGS subtitles | Blu-ray subtitles as images: PG segments with palettes and bitmaps. | Open |
.TTML | Timed Text Markup Language | The W3C’s XML subtitle format, used by broadcasters and streaming services. | Open |
.VTT | WebVTT subtitles | The subtitle format of the web: UTF-8 cues with positioning and styling. | Open |
| Editing project | |||
.AEP | Adobe After Effects project | An After Effects project: compositions and layers in big-endian RIFX chunks. | Open |
.DRP | DaVinci Resolve project | A DaVinci Resolve project exported from its database, without the media. | Open |
.EDL | CMX 3600 edit decision list | A plain text list of cuts: reel, channels, transition and four timecodes. | Open |
.FCPXML | Final Cut Pro XML | Final Cut Pro’s XML interchange: resources, events, projects and the spine. | Open |
.OTIO | OpenTimelineIO timeline | An open JSON timeline: stacks of tracks holding clips, gaps and transitions. | Open |
.PRPROJ | Adobe Premiere Pro project | A Premiere Pro edit saved as gzip-compressed XML that points at the media. | Open |
.VEG | VEGAS Pro project | A VEGAS Pro timeline: tracks, events and effects that point at the media. | Open |