ProRes 422 - General Format = Mpeg-4???

[Jared]

Doing some digging into some of my files, I noticed that using FFworks and MediaInfo apps, my Pro Res 422 files say, under "General/Format" is MPEG-4. This is confusing to me. Under "Video/Format" it says ProRes and the other identifying info makes sense to me but why would MPEG-4 be listed in a ProRes file.

Just an addition, these files have been QC by a third party as they just happen to be the same files we use for broadcast delivery.
Thanks...just trying to keep learning.

[Jared]

Here's a screen grab to show what I'm talking about.

[poisondeathray]

Because MPEG-4 Part 14 is based on Quicktime/MOV

https://fileformats.fandom.com/wiki/MPEG-4_Part_14

MPEG-4 Part 14 is based upon ISO/IEC 14496-12:2005 which is directly based upon Apple’s QuickTime movie container format (.mov) . MPEG-4 Part 14 is essentially identical to the MOV format, but formally specifies support for Initial Object Descriptors (IOD) and other MPEG features

[Cornucopia]

That is mediainfo trying to organize things.

ProRes always comes as MOV. MOV is Apple QuickTime format container. It also was the basis for the MPEG4 format container (although it is an offshoot since there are some minor differences). Because of this relationship, a 3rd party such as Mediainfo when categorizing it based on clues within the file cannot easily tell the difference and so lumps them into the same overall category, and since mpeg4 is the more universally applicable of the 2, it calls the format Mpeg4.


Scott

Pdr, beat me to it!

[Swedaniel]

Doing some digging into some of my files, I noticed that using FFworks and MediaInfo apps, my Pro Res 422 files say, under "General/Format" is MPEG-4. This is confusing to me. Under "Video/Format" it says ProRes and the other identifying info makes sense to me but why would MPEG-4 be listed in a ProRes file.

Just an addition, these files have been QC by a third party as they just happen to be the same files we use for broadcast delivery.
Thanks...just trying to keep learning.

I dont know much about any apple ProRes stuff, it does not really say anything about it beeing an mpeg4 format anywhere on the video over here, it look like it is an format for video editing, so maybe it is more of an "picture/image" based format (such as MJPEG Motion Video) ideal for editing and ready to get shipped into an MPEG-4 format or some type of broadcasting format such as RealMedia (.rmvb) or such. (i didnt check the link you posted second, i hope my responce it still on topic).

Edit: Maybe some error with the media info or this QC thing, which i dont what it is, maybe it is not an real ProRes video? Is it some sort of tag hack or such maybe? Allso possibly if the mediainfo tool cannot "read" the ProRes Codec proper maybe it just fill out with MPEG-4 by default!

[Jared]

PDR and Corn, thanks for your explanations.
It seems that if ProRes is always delivered in an MOV container, these apps should see that MOV container and also see that the format under Video is Pro Res...with those two huge clues it should not be allowed to incorrectly id' the file as MPEG-4. Odd no?
Thanks for the little lesson.

[Cornucopia]

It's not really "incorrect", more a over-generalization. It is all in the MPEG4 family (if you consider MOV to be the grandaddy).

But you must understand that MediaInfo has never been an analytical app that reads and parses data thoroughly throughout the whole file, it only reads the structure, tags & metadata, and even then it takes everything at face value. This is why some malformed or nonstandard streams are not understood or displayed/relayed/described correctly. This has been discussed on this site before.


Scott

[Jared]

Thanks for spending your time to share.