Action Plan for FCLA Supported Video/Audio Stream Formats

Author: Carol Chou, FCLA

Release Date: 09-06-2006

Latest Revision Date: 01-27-2006

Change History:

11/01/2005, Carol Chou – Add “Audio Streams in WAVE files” section.

01/27/2006, Carol Chou – Add “Video and Audio Streams in QuickTime files” section.

Table of Contents

1. Video and Audio Streams in AVI Files

2. Video and Audio Streams in QuickTime Files

3. Audio Streams in WAVE Files

1. Video and Audio Streams in AVI Files

1.1 Normalization

• Video Streams

  Each supported video stream contained in an AVI file will be normalized into a motion JPEG video stream which contains a sequence of JPEG images. The normalized motion JPEG video stream will have the same video dimension and playback rate(frames/second) as the original stream.

  Supported video stream format

Video Steam Format	FOURCC	Normalized Video Stream Format
CinePak	“CVID”	Motion JPEG (“MJPG”)
Motion JPEG (MJPG)	“MJPG”	Not Applicable
Indeo 5.0	“IV50”	Motion JPEG (“MJPG”)
Indeo 3.1 and 3.2	“IV31”, “IV32”	Motion JPEG (“MJPG”)

Significant properties preserved in the normalized video stream: Appearance (Look and Feel), and Content.

• Audio Streams

  Each audio stream in the AVI file will be normalized into an uncompressed PCM (LPCM) audio stream with sample size of 16 bits/sample. The normalized audio stream will have the same sample rate (samples/second) as the original one.

  Supported audio stream format

Audio Stream Format	FOURCC	Normalized Audio Stream Format
WAVE LPCM	0x0001	Not Applicable

Significant properties preserved in the normalized audio stream: Appearance(Look and Feel), and Content.

The normalized video streams and audio streams will be multiplexed back into an AVI file.

1.3 Long-term Preservation Strategy for the Normalized Video Streams

Migrate to an open, standardized and well supported video stream format that does not use interframes (temporal compression).

1.4 Long-term Preservation Strategy for the Normalized Audio Streams

Migrate to an open, standardized and well supported audio stream format that is losslessly compressed.

1.5 Short-term Actions

• Locate or write an AVI conversion program which can:

  1. De-multiplex the streams in the original AVI file.

  2. Convert the supported video stream formats into the Motion JPEG video stream format.

  3. Convert the supported audio stream formats into the uncompressed PCM (WAVE LPCM) audio stream format.

  4. Multiplex the normalized Motion JPEG video stream and LPCM audio stream into an AVI file.

2. Video and Audio Streams in QuickTime Files

2.1 Normalization

• Video Streams

  Each supported video stream contained in a QuickTime movie file will be normalized into a motion JPEG-A video stream which contains a sequence of JPEG images. The normalized motion JPEG-A video stream will have the same video dimension and playback rate as the original video stream.

Supported video stream format

Video Steam Format	Code	Normalized Video Stream Format
CinePak	“CVID”	Motion JPEG (“MJPA”)
Motion JPEG (MJPA)	“MJPA”	Not Applicable
Graphics	“SMC”	Motion JPEG (“MJPA”)
Advanced Video Coding	“AVC1”	Motion JPEG (“MJPA”)

Significant properties preserved in the normalized video stream: Appearance (Look and Feel), and Content.

• Audio Streams

  Each audio stream in a QuickTime movie file will be normalized into an uncompressed audio stream with the same sample size and sample rate.

Supported audio stream format

Audio Stream Format	Code	Normalized Audio Stream Format
Uncompressed	“NONE”	Not Applicable

Significant properties preserved in the normalized audio stream: Appearance(Look and Feel), and Content.

The normalized video and audio streams will be multiplexed back into a QuickTime movie file.

2.2 Long-term Preservation Strategy for the Normalized Video Streams

Migrate to an open, standardized and well supported video encoding format that does not use interframes (temporal compression).

2.3 Long-term Preservation Strategy for the Normalized Audio Streams

Migrate to an open, standardized and well supported audio encoding format that is losslessly compressed.

2.4 Short-term Actions

• Locate or write a QuickTime conversion program which can:

  1. De-multiplex the streams in the original QuickTime movie file.

  2. Convert the supported video stream formats into the Motion JPEG -A video stream format.

  3. Convert the supported audio stream formats into the uncompressed audio (“NONE”) stream format.

  4. Multiplex the normalized video and audio stream into a QuickTime movie file.

3. Audio Streams in WAVE Files

3.1 Audio Stream Normalization

Each audio stream in the WAVE file will be normalized into an uncompressed PCM(LPCM) audio stream with sample size of 16 bits/sample.

Current supported audio stream formats

Audio Stream Format	Format Tag	Normalized Audio Stream Format
LPCM	0x0001	Not Applicable

The normalized audio stream will have the same sample rate (samples/second) as the original audio stream in the WAVE files.

3.2 Long-term Preservation Strategy for the Normalized Audio Streams

Migrate to an open, standardized and well supported audio stream format that is losslessly compressed.

3.3 Short-term Actions

Write or locate a converter which converts WAVE files with data in one of audio encoding formats listed in 3.1 to WAVE files in LPCM format.