Talk:MP4 file format/Archive 1

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I removed the following block because this this is talking about the MP4 container, which has nothing to do with the MP3 format. Peter Nelson 01:40, 27 December 2005 (UTC)

*.mp4 is most commonly used as the alternative to *.mp3 on an Apple iPod and in iTunes. The quality of the

What is the license for using the MP4 container format, do you have to pay royalties? Is MP4 an open standard? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 96.49.148.180 (talk) 21:15, 29 September 2009 (UTC)

This article needs some statistics on compression ratio and listening test data. I'm trying to determine how an X-bitrate mp4 might compare to a Y-bitrate mp3. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 18.202.0.41 (talk) 06:22, 27 July 2009 (UTC)

Just looking at the comparison of container formats page, it appears that not only does mov have all of the features of mpeg-4, but that it actually has more features than mpeg-4. Unless someone can write what these "Improvements" are, I'm going to remove that phrase. -Ctachme 15:36, 1 June 2006 (UTC)

I think the article would benefit by drawing a distinct line between mp3 and mp4. There seems to be a lot of confusion regarding players which are capable of mp3 playback and mp4 playback. Chris 13:50, 4 December 2006 (UTC)

Methinks this should be expanded. Is it just me or is there no info on MP4 on the Web?? Junkbot44 14:00, 9 December 2006 (UTC)

How do you download the song?

You probably need to get a file converter. You can get one free at download.com, and convert them into something that your MP4 Player recognizes. If not- try contacting the manufactuer.

Also- I recently bought a MP4 Player. Somebody ought to submit a whole new article about this. This doesn't help at all.

There's a lot of marketing of "MP4 players" . They are marketing them as superior devices over MP· Players just because the MP4 number over the MP3 one. These should be discussed here in my opinion. 6:30, 26 May 2007 (UTC)

Are you referring to this?

I was reading the part about how iPhone uses ringtones with an m4r extension, instead of an m4a extension. If you made an m4r file (in iTunes, for example), would this work with other phones that support using custom ringtones? Or would you have to change it to an m4a file, and if you do have to change it, can you just change the file name as described for changing audiobooks from m4a to m4b, or do you need a special converter program (if one were to exist)? Thanks for any help. 69.204.194.148 (talk) 14:02, 27 April 2008 (UTC)

The term MP4 is not an official synonym of MPEG-4 or the standard file extension for MPEG-4 format files. By contrast "MP3" is the de facto standard file extension ".MP3" for MPEG-3 format files. Hence the more general use of the term "MP4 player" for all video players is not technically incorrect, although it risks people making the assumption that MPEG-4 format files will be supported directly.Elroch (talk) 12:43, 6 May 2008 (UTC)

you have different types of mp4 file extensions such as .m4a,.m4b and so on. should not those also be included under file extension? SubaruSVX (talk) 02:13, 13 July 2008 (UTC)

If the Playstation Portable XMB is part of the software that supports MPEG-4 file types, then why isn't the iPod and Zune softwware also incuded? Why is the Playstation Portable XMB on there in the first place?

In the comparision between an mp3 files (at 320Kbps) and an mp4 file (at 128 Kbps) is useless. First of all most people rip for 128 Kbps for either format anyway (in my experience) and the wast majority of commercially available mp3 files are no better than 128 Kbps. More importantly, comparing the size of two audio files compressed using different audio formats as well as different compression rates is completely useless as it says nothing about the differences between the two.

I can easily reduce the size of a 320Kbps mp3 file, by simply recoding it at a lower bitrate. If a file takes up 7 MiB at 320 Kbps, it should be reduced to about 3 MiB at 128 Kbps (It is quite normal for mp3 files containing standard 3 minute songs to be about this size at 128 Kbps). FrederikHertzum (talk) 20:00, 2 December 2008 (UTC)

I'm involved in these efforts, so didn't want to edit directly. But there's a couple newer things that Microsoft is doing with the MPEG-4 file format that perhaps should be mentioned here.

The new Smooth Streaming format uses either VC-1 and WMA or H.264 and AAC payload inside of a fragmented MPEG-4 file. Fragmented is supported mode in the Part 14 spec where there can be a 'moof' header periodically referencing just a small section of video, instead of having a single header for the entire file.

Also, as VC-1 is being used for this, and as there has long been a specification for VC-1 inside MPEG-4, it shoud probably be listed as a supported codec. There isn't a formal mapping for WMA.

Some references:

Fragmented MPEG-4 implementation details: [1]

List of overview links: [2]

Sample content in fMP4 using VC-1 and WMA: [3]

Ben Waggoner, March 21st, 2009 97.120.194.158 (talk) 23:01, 21 March 2009 (UTC)

I think your suggestion is about ISO base media file format and not about MP4 file format. It is very questionable, if every compression format registered by MP4 Registration authority will be supported by common MP4 players. In addition, WMA is not registered compression format. I think that in supported compression formats should be only those widely supported.--89.173.68.106 (talk) 08:35, 8 August 2009 (UTC)

I am surprised that there is no description of the metadata tags for mp4 / m4a ... it seems that some of the mp3 tag editors can read the mp4 tags ... so they exist, but they are not described or defined in this article.

Also, for some reason, neither Windows XP nor Windows Vista "see" these tags. While it is possible in Windows Explorer (formerly File Manager) to display various file attributes such as "Title" "album" "Genre" and so on, these are always blank, even though various tag editors and media players display these tags.

This article needs expanding to describe the metadata tags and to note that for some unfathomable reason, Microsoft Windows is unable to read or edit these tags ... giving the false impression that there are no tags. Also, I am left wondering why Windows Explorer falsely indicates that there are either no tags (displays blanks). If Microsoft is unable to read these tags, the respective tag columns should be greyed-out. At least that way, the user has some indication that the data may exist, but cannot be viewed.

Enquire (talk) 06:38, 23 November 2009 (UTC)

It shouldnt happen

M4V is a completely different standard to MP4. It has different purposes and unlike MP4, M4V contains only H.264, AAC and AC-3. MP4 only holds MPEG-4, H.264 and AAC.

M4V is proprietary for Itunes whereas MP4 is an international standard —Preceding unsigned comment added by 92.40.255.246 (talk) 13:37, 25 December 2009 (UTC)

I agree with 92.40.225.246, merging it causes confusion with MP4. It needs to remain at its own page. GEORGIEGIBBONS —Preceding undated comment added 19:46, 29 December 2009 (UTC).

m4v will stay —Preceding unsigned comment added by 94.8.176.203 (talk) 20:49, 31 December 2009 (UTC)

This article, the way it is written, is way too complicated for an encyclopedia. The average person reading it will have no idea what it is talking about and will not be able to get anything useful from the article.

For example: "MPEG-4 Part 14 is an instance of more general ISO/IEC 14496-12:2004 (MPEG-4 Part 12: ISO base media file format) which is directly based upon Apple’s QuickTime container format.[2][3][4][5][6] MPEG-4 Part 14 is essentially identical to the MOV format, but formally specifies support for Initial Object Descriptors (IOD) and other MPEG features.[7] MPEG-4 Part 14 revises and completely replaces Clause 13 of ISO/IEC 14496-1 (MPEG-4 Part 1: Systems), in which the file format for MPEG-4 content was previously specified.[8]"

Now, what is the average person supposed to do with that information? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Franklinjefferson (talk • contribs) 14:23, 6 September 2010 (UTC)

Removed irrelevant information regarding the reason for popularity of the M4A extension in the '.MP4 versus .M4A file extensions' section. Sony's PSP and Nintendo's DSi were not major contributors to the popularity of this extension, they are simply capable of playback - among thousands of other pieces of hardware which would be pointless to list. --118.93.7.60 (talk) 17:36, 20 September 2010 (UTC)

I came to this page to find out about how the term MP4 is used, specifically by shops in the UK. The article does not try to address this (at present you have to go to MP4 disambiguation, and then to *Chinese* MP4 Players to find the explanation of its use in mainstream publications - the reference to MP4 players being chinese was just too much to let go and I have removed this as clearly the manufactures come from all countries). There are many examples in publications of MP4 being used to mean a category of video media player, here are three articles I found in a couple of minutes:

http://stuff.tv/Reviews/MP3-MP4-Reviews/

http://online.wsj.com/article/PR-CO-20101129-901145.html

http://www.t3.com/feature/top-10-mp4-players

I propose to alter MP4 to redirect to MP4 Player, and that this article covering the less well known .mp4 file extension (and also often referred to as h.264 files rather than .mp4 files) be listed on the mp4 disambiguation page (and a link to that from the MP4 player page). I know I am unlikely to get universal agreement on this but when it is use in popular publications is different to how it is treated by wikipedia I think change is needed. Fuzzything (talk) 14:35, 30 January 2011 (UTC)

I agree that it is not clear that the file format is the dominant use of the term. I'm not convinced that

MP4. --Kvng (talk

) 14:37, 31 January 2011 (UTC)

Can someone in the know compare MP4 with MXF? I am particularly interested in the reasons that caused Sony to chose MP4 for its XDCAM EX camcorders (2008) whereas it used MXF in older models (from 2003). Mikus (talk) 03:18, 26 February 2011 (UTC)

A section talking about which mobile phones support Mp4 format will be useful.Ganesh J. Acharya (talk) 03:37, 31 May 2012 (UTC)

2 wrong abbreviation. One was about Lossless Apple lossles format (in mp4 vs m4a section) and other one toward the end. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Vaibhav075 (talk • contribs) 18:31, 20 May 2013 (UTC)

Please remove advertisements in references 2 and 3 if they are. Sky6t (talk) 16:30, 17 December 2013 (UTC)

"M4P is a protected format which employs DRM technology to restrict copying."

Please add a section to answer the following, since people who buy music should want to know what they are getting:

Is there any chance, for example if who you bought it from goes out of business and no longer offers their DRM'ed codecs or if the technology is abandoned long in the future in favor of the next big thing, that the music files you bought will stop working?

Is the DRM entirely on the analog form after decompression, as in giving everyone a slightly different sound that usually only machines can detect? Or does the DRM extend to blocking certain players? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 97.89.104.85 (talk) 20:02, 31 May 2014 (UTC)

Sources written by Miller, Vandome, and McBrewster need to be double checked (and possibly deleted) as per

• Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20091007071048/http://www.3gpp2.org/Public_html/specs/C.S0050-B_v1.0_070521.pdf to http://www.3gpp2.org/Public_html/specs/C.S0050-B_v1.0_070521.pdf

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Are there any known .mp4 exploits that should be discussed? I have found only vague warnings about it, particularly because of it's "container" nature, but nothing concrete. If anyone has any knowledge about such things, it almost certainly deserves a section within here, or a link to a similar section within the

I can't find a source for that. Is this about MP4 file format version 1? Released in 2001 so patents have expired. --Tuxayo (talk) 01:12, 20 April 2021 (UTC)

It is open (there's a public specification) but not free (license fees apply in some situations). I fixed that. --Fernando Trebien (talk) 20:29, 13 December 2021 (UTC)