Video Container

[vijay123]

How can i determine the video container is it by codec ?
shall i decide h.264 +aac =Mp4, can i determine like this or anyelse?
Pl kindly tell me how to determine the video container?
say for eg it is avi or flv?

[jagabo]

MediaInfo will tell you the container. Even if the file extension is wrong. The codecs have little bearing on what the container is. Most containers can hold a wide variety of codecs.

[vijay123]

@jagabo:How can i say the file is mp4,or avi.... etc so on.....whether it is decided by video and audio codec......Ya i agreed Mediainfo gives all information about a video or audio file....my confusion regarding this ,shall i consider it h.264 + aac means mp4 or mov file......whether container is depends upon audio and video codec ?.... sorry if i would been wrong.....

[smrpix]

Are you trying to determine the container of an existing file, or are you trying to decide which container to encode to?

If it's an existing file, the extension is usually correct, post a mediainfo output if you are unsure.

FWIW h.264 + aac is usually .mp4, second most common is .mov and it can also be contained in .mkv

[jagabo]

Your choice of container has more to do with what you want to watch the videos on.

[vijay123]

Actually,iam trying to do encode the file with better quality and minimum filesize..before that am learning , which container consists having the same video and audio codec,so that i don't need to re-encode the file,just copy the codec itself....So i tested the file with CRF and two pass encoding using an ffmpeg.....Though am satisfied with the CRf .....yes i agree smrpix ,
h.264+aac may be m4v or mov or mp4
mpeg4 + ac3 named as avi......
h.263 + mp3 named as flv
.... Is it correct , the container name is decided by codec ?...

[jagabo]

.... Is it correct , the container name is decided by codec ?...

No.

[vijay123]

@jagabo: then how can i say file it is flv or avi....yes it is posisble to check in properties it will show the format,but practically i intent to know that logic.....Can you say me how the name decided by the container?...

[smrpix]

As jagabo says, the choice of container has more to do with what you want to watch the videos on.

Most containers can hold several different codecs, all have limitations.

The examples you posted above are true and valid (well done), but do not necessarily determine the container name.

[jagabo]

Containers aren't just names. They are the way video, audio, and other streams are organized within the container. Most containers are flexible enough to hold a wide range of codecs. For example, h.264 video can be contained by MP4, MKV, TS, AVI, FLV containers amongst others.

[sanlyn]

Actually,iam trying to do encode the file with better quality and minimum filesize..

Won't happen.

[Hoser Rob]

Actually,iam trying to do encode the file with better quality and minimum filesize..before that am learning , which container consists having the same video and audio codec,so that i don't need to re-encode the file,just copy the codec itself.....

As sanlyn said, you can't compress the file more and improve quality. Let alone even maintain quality.

There are some tricks you can do to improve the subjective quality, though they may not be technically more accurate. But those do not involve making the file size any smaller and they're quite advanced encoding parameters. Sorry, you don't want to get into that stuff until you understand encoding parameters much better.

There is no one size fits all list of encoding options. Different videos have different requirements. But you can find some good presets.

And, above all, the container you choose to wrap your codec in does not affect this kind of thing. As mentioned, it's mostly going to effect what you can play it on. You can certainly use h.264 in a .flv container but I can't think of any reason to do that myself.

However, you should not put h.264 video in an avi container. It doesn't support all the codec features.

You need to read some documentation. The handbrake and avidemux sites have excellent wikis. But don't think there's a simple answer. Video encoding is complex and there's a limit to how much you can simplify it. Digital video is too hardware dependent.

[vijay123]

Thanks for all your suggestion,but still in my mind why cant we fix the container, these are the codec will support for these container....so it seems more easy to segregate each container.....

[smrpix]

Is this what you're looking for? (And it's not complete.)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_container_formats

[vijay123]

Exactly smarpix,thanks for your reply......

[Cornucopia]

WoW!!...??... @OP, I think your questions lost something in the translation. Would never have guessed that's what you were looking for.

Scott

[jagabo]

So, in general: you cannot determine what container is used by looking at what codecs are inside, and you cannot determine what codecs are inside by looking at the container. What containers and codecs you use are mostly determined by what your playback devices support and what your purposes are for the files.