MXF
Encyclopedia
Material eXchange Format (MXF) is a container format for professional digital video and audio media defined by a set of SMPTE standards.
s, together with a metadata wrapper which describes the material contained within the MXF file
.
MXF has been designed to address a number of problems with non-professional formats. MXF has full timecode and metadata support, and is intended as a platform-agnostic stable standard for future professional video and audio applications.
MXF was developed to carry a subset of the Advanced Authoring Format
(AAF) data model, under a policy known as the Zero Divergence Directive (ZDD). This theoretically enables MXF/AAF workflows between non-linear editing
(NLE) systems using AAF and cameras, servers, and other devices using MXF.
Currently, MXF is fairly effective at the interchange of D10
(IMX) material, mainly because of the success of the Sony eVTR and Sony's eVTR RDD to SMPTE. Workflows combining the eVTR, Avid NLE systems, and broadcast servers using MXF in coordination with AAF
are now possible.
Long-GOP
MPEG-2
material interchange between video servers is improving, especially as broadcasters develop application specifications they expect their vendors to implement.
As of Autumn 2005, there were major interoperability problems with MXF in broadcast post-production
use. The two data-recording camera systems which produced MXF at that time, Sony
's XDCAM
and Panasonic's DVCPRO P2
, produced mutually incompatible files due to opaque subformat options obscured behind the MXF file extension. Without advanced tools, it was impossible to distinguish these incompatible formats.
Additionally, many MXF systems produce split-file A/V (that is, the video and audio stored in separate files), and use a file naming convention which relies on randomly generated filenames to link them. Not only does this exacerbate the issue of knowing exactly what is in an MXF file without specialized tools, but it breaks the functionality of standard desktop computer techniques which are generally used to manipulate data on a level as fundamental as moving, copying, renaming, and deleting. Using a randomly generated filename is uninformative to the user, but changing the name breaks the loose database structure between files.
Furthermore, the currently popular MXF export tools (i.e. the ones that are free or cost the least) will not allow the user to create a stereo AES file within the MXF wrapper, nor will they allow the user to add free-text annotation to the MXF file so created (in order, for instance, that the next user of the file be able to interpret his or her intentions).
Thus, an MXF file received & unwrapped may reveal SMPTE D10
compliant essence with eight mono AES audio components; the recipient has no way of knowing whether these components are multiple stereo pairs, 5.1 or serve some other purpose. This is a major failing of a toolset that was designed to improve interoperability, not hinder it.
Most of the incompatibilities were addressed and ratified in the 2009 version of the standard.
Sony
's XDCAM
MXF is supported by Adobe After Effects
, Adobe Premiere Pro
, Apple
Final Cut Pro via XDCAM Transfer and MXF4Mac, Autodesk Smoke, Avid
, Dalet, Front Porch Digital, Harris
, mxfSPEEDRAIL, Omneon, Quantel
, Rhozet, Sony Vegas Pro, Sorenson Squeeze
Telestream
FlipFactory
, Thomson Grass Valley GrassValley EDIUS
and K2.
Panasonic's P2
MXF is supported by Adobe After Effects
, Adobe Premiere Pro
, Apple
Final Cut Pro, Autodesk
Smoke, Avid
, MXF4mac for Final Cut Pro, mxfSPEEDRAIL and P2Soft from OpenCube Technologies
.
Ikegami offers camcorders capable of recording in MXF wrapper using Avid DNxHD video encoding at 145 Mbit/s, as well as MPEG-2 video encoding at 50 Mbit/s 4:2:2 long-GOP and 100 Mbit/s I-frame.
In 2010 Canon released its new lineup of professional file-based camcorders. The recording format used in these camcorders incorporates MPEG-2 video with bitrates up to 50 Mbit/s and 16-bit linear PCM audio in what Canon has called XF codec. Canon claims that its flavor of MXF is fully supported by major NLE systems including Adobe Premiere, Apple Final Cut Pro, Avid Media Composer, and Grass Valley EDIUS.
MXF is also used as the packaging format for Dolby Digital Cinema and is used in the STANAG
specification documents.
The file extension for MXF files is ".mxf". The Macintosh File Type Code registered with Apple for MXF files is "mxf ", including a trailing space.
CinemaDNG
(intended by Adobe
and others to be an open file format for digital cinema files) exploits MXF as one of its options for holding a sequence of raw video images. (The other option is to store a sequence of DNG
files in a specified directory).
, Adobe Premiere Pro 3.1 or above
, Sony Vegas
, and GrassValley EDIUS
or via import operations like in Final Cut Pro
using the Sony XDCAM Transfer plug-in. Latest versions of Avid
editing products store media in Avid MXF Op-Atom and import/export MXF Op1a or using mxfSPEEDRAIL F1000 applications that supports any kind of MXF flavour. Native MXF access in Apple
's Final Cut Pro
and other Mac OS X applications can be achieved by using the MXF Import QT component from MXF4mac.
PiTiVi
is the first open source video editor to support the Material Exchange Format (MXF).
IRT Test Center contains up-to-date information on the status of the SMPTE documents.
A brief summary of MXF
MXF is a "container" or "wrapper" format which supports a number of different streams of coded "essence", encoded with any of a variety of codecCodec
A codec is a device or computer program capable of encoding or decoding a digital data stream or signal. The word codec is a portmanteau of "compressor-decompressor" or, more commonly, "coder-decoder"...
s, together with a metadata wrapper which describes the material contained within the MXF file
Computer file
A computer file is a block of arbitrary information, or resource for storing information, which is available to a computer program and is usually based on some kind of durable storage. A file is durable in the sense that it remains available for programs to use after the current program has finished...
.
MXF has been designed to address a number of problems with non-professional formats. MXF has full timecode and metadata support, and is intended as a platform-agnostic stable standard for future professional video and audio applications.
MXF was developed to carry a subset of the Advanced Authoring Format
Advanced Authoring Format
The Advanced Authoring Format is a professional file interchange format designed for the video post production and authoring environment. The AAF was created by the Advanced Media Workflow Association . The AMWA develops specifications and technologies to facilitate the deployment and operation...
(AAF) data model, under a policy known as the Zero Divergence Directive (ZDD). This theoretically enables MXF/AAF workflows between non-linear editing
Non-linear editing system
In video, a non-linear editing system is a video editing or audio editing digital audio workstation system which can perform random access non-destructive editing on the source material...
(NLE) systems using AAF and cameras, servers, and other devices using MXF.
MXF in use
MXF is in the process of evolving from standard to deployment. The breadth of the standard can lead to interoperability problems as vendors implement different parts of the standard.Currently, MXF is fairly effective at the interchange of D10
SMPTE D10
SMPTE 356M Television specification for a professional video format, it is composed of MPEG-2 Video 4:2:2 I-frame only and 8 channel AES3 audio streams. These AES3 audio usually contain 24 bit PCM audio samples...
(IMX) material, mainly because of the success of the Sony eVTR and Sony's eVTR RDD to SMPTE. Workflows combining the eVTR, Avid NLE systems, and broadcast servers using MXF in coordination with AAF
Advanced Authoring Format
The Advanced Authoring Format is a professional file interchange format designed for the video post production and authoring environment. The AAF was created by the Advanced Media Workflow Association . The AMWA develops specifications and technologies to facilitate the deployment and operation...
are now possible.
Long-GOP
Group of pictures
In Video coding, a group of pictures, or GOP structure, specifies the order in which intra- and inter-frames are arranged. The GOP is a group of successive pictures within a coded video stream. Each coded video stream consists of successive GOPs...
MPEG-2
MPEG-2
MPEG-2 is a standard for "the generic coding of moving pictures and associated audio information". It describes a combination of lossy video compression and lossy audio data compression methods which permit storage and transmission of movies using currently available storage media and transmission...
material interchange between video servers is improving, especially as broadcasters develop application specifications they expect their vendors to implement.
As of Autumn 2005, there were major interoperability problems with MXF in broadcast post-production
Post-production
Post-production is part of filmmaking and the video production process. It occurs in the making of motion pictures, television programs, radio programs, advertising, audio recordings, photography, and digital art...
use. The two data-recording camera systems which produced MXF at that time, Sony
Sony
, commonly referred to as Sony, is a Japanese multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan and the world's fifth largest media conglomerate measured by revenues....
's XDCAM
XDCAM
XDCAM is a a series of products for digital recording using random access solid-state memory media, introduced by Sony in 2003. Four different product lines — the XDCAM SD, XDCAM HD, XDCAM EX and XDCAM HD422 — differ in types of encoder used, frame size, container type and in...
and Panasonic's DVCPRO P2
P2 (storage media)
P2 is a professional digital recording solid-state memory storage media format introduced by Panasonic in 2004, and especially tailored to electronic news-gathering applications. It features tapeless recording of DV, DVCPRO, DVCPRO25, DVCPRO50, DVCPRO-HD, or AVC-Intra streams on a solid-state...
, produced mutually incompatible files due to opaque subformat options obscured behind the MXF file extension. Without advanced tools, it was impossible to distinguish these incompatible formats.
Additionally, many MXF systems produce split-file A/V (that is, the video and audio stored in separate files), and use a file naming convention which relies on randomly generated filenames to link them. Not only does this exacerbate the issue of knowing exactly what is in an MXF file without specialized tools, but it breaks the functionality of standard desktop computer techniques which are generally used to manipulate data on a level as fundamental as moving, copying, renaming, and deleting. Using a randomly generated filename is uninformative to the user, but changing the name breaks the loose database structure between files.
Furthermore, the currently popular MXF export tools (i.e. the ones that are free or cost the least) will not allow the user to create a stereo AES file within the MXF wrapper, nor will they allow the user to add free-text annotation to the MXF file so created (in order, for instance, that the next user of the file be able to interpret his or her intentions).
Thus, an MXF file received & unwrapped may reveal SMPTE D10
SMPTE D10
SMPTE 356M Television specification for a professional video format, it is composed of MPEG-2 Video 4:2:2 I-frame only and 8 channel AES3 audio streams. These AES3 audio usually contain 24 bit PCM audio samples...
compliant essence with eight mono AES audio components; the recipient has no way of knowing whether these components are multiple stereo pairs, 5.1 or serve some other purpose. This is a major failing of a toolset that was designed to improve interoperability, not hinder it.
Most of the incompatibilities were addressed and ratified in the 2009 version of the standard.
Sony
Sony
, commonly referred to as Sony, is a Japanese multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan and the world's fifth largest media conglomerate measured by revenues....
's XDCAM
XDCAM
XDCAM is a a series of products for digital recording using random access solid-state memory media, introduced by Sony in 2003. Four different product lines — the XDCAM SD, XDCAM HD, XDCAM EX and XDCAM HD422 — differ in types of encoder used, frame size, container type and in...
MXF is supported by Adobe After Effects
Adobe After Effects
Adobe After Effects is a digital motion graphics and compositing software published by Adobe Systems, used in the post-production process of filmmaking and television production. Its main uses are the origination of 2D and 2.5D animation, visual effects compositing and finishing...
, Adobe Premiere Pro
Adobe Premiere Pro
Adobe Premiere Pro is a timeline-based video editing software application. It is part of the Adobe Creative Suite, a suite of graphic design, video editing, and web development applications developed by Adobe Systems, though it can also be purchased separately. When purchased separately, it comes...
, Apple
Apple Computer
Apple Inc. is an American multinational corporation that designs and markets consumer electronics, computer software, and personal computers. The company's best-known hardware products include the Macintosh line of computers, the iPod, the iPhone and the iPad...
Final Cut Pro via XDCAM Transfer and MXF4Mac, Autodesk Smoke, Avid
AVID
AVID stands for:* Advancement Via Individual Determination, a college-readiness system designed to increase the number of students who enroll in four-year colleges in the U.S....
, Dalet, Front Porch Digital, Harris
Harris Corporation
Harris Corporation is a Florida-based international communications equipment company that produces wireless equipment, electronic systems, and both terrestrial and spaceborne antennas for use in the government, defense, and commercial sectors. It is also the largest private-sector employer in...
, mxfSPEEDRAIL, Omneon, Quantel
Quantel
Quantel is a company based in the United Kingdom and founded in 1973 that designs and manufactures digital production equipment for the broadcast television, video production and motion picture industries...
, Rhozet, Sony Vegas Pro, Sorenson Squeeze
Sorenson Squeeze
Sorenson Squeeze is a compression suite for video. It encodes to multiple formats including QuickTime, Windows Media, Flash Video, Silverlight, WebM & WMV. It uses multiple codecs, including the Sorenson codecs SV3 Pro and Spark, H.264, H.263, VP6, VC1, MPEG2, and many others. Squeeze operates on...
Telestream
Telestream
Telestream, Inc. is a privately held provider of software and hardware products for video capture, encoding, transcoding, and network-based delivery. Products include desktop components, screencasting, video streaming, cross-platform encoding software and transcoding applications to automate...
FlipFactory
FlipFactory
FlipFactory from Telestream is a video transcoding and workflow automation application. It enables the transfer of media and metadata files between professional video systems, including catch servers, broadcast servers, edit systems, streaming and distribution servers, storage area networks and...
, Thomson Grass Valley GrassValley EDIUS
Edius
EDIUS is a video editing software package originally developed by the Japanese based Canopus Corporation until 2005, when the Canopus Corporation was sold to Grass Valley.EDIUS is a non-linear editor that works with most modern video formats....
and K2.
Panasonic's P2
P2 (storage media)
P2 is a professional digital recording solid-state memory storage media format introduced by Panasonic in 2004, and especially tailored to electronic news-gathering applications. It features tapeless recording of DV, DVCPRO, DVCPRO25, DVCPRO50, DVCPRO-HD, or AVC-Intra streams on a solid-state...
MXF is supported by Adobe After Effects
Adobe After Effects
Adobe After Effects is a digital motion graphics and compositing software published by Adobe Systems, used in the post-production process of filmmaking and television production. Its main uses are the origination of 2D and 2.5D animation, visual effects compositing and finishing...
, Adobe Premiere Pro
Adobe Premiere Pro
Adobe Premiere Pro is a timeline-based video editing software application. It is part of the Adobe Creative Suite, a suite of graphic design, video editing, and web development applications developed by Adobe Systems, though it can also be purchased separately. When purchased separately, it comes...
, Apple
Apple Computer
Apple Inc. is an American multinational corporation that designs and markets consumer electronics, computer software, and personal computers. The company's best-known hardware products include the Macintosh line of computers, the iPod, the iPhone and the iPad...
Final Cut Pro, Autodesk
Autodesk
Autodesk, Inc. is an American multinational corporation that focuses on 3D design software for use in the architecture, engineering, construction, manufacturing, media and entertainment industries. The company was founded in 1982 by John Walker, a coauthor of the first versions of the company's...
Smoke, Avid
AVID
AVID stands for:* Advancement Via Individual Determination, a college-readiness system designed to increase the number of students who enroll in four-year colleges in the U.S....
, MXF4mac for Final Cut Pro, mxfSPEEDRAIL and P2Soft from OpenCube Technologies
OpenCube Technologies
OpenCube Technologies is a French company headquartered in Toulouse, member of the Belgian group EVS Broadcast Equipment.Established on April, 2003, OpenCube Technologies develops, manufactures, licenses, and supports a wide range of software and hardware for the broadcast and cinema...
.
Ikegami offers camcorders capable of recording in MXF wrapper using Avid DNxHD video encoding at 145 Mbit/s, as well as MPEG-2 video encoding at 50 Mbit/s 4:2:2 long-GOP and 100 Mbit/s I-frame.
In 2010 Canon released its new lineup of professional file-based camcorders. The recording format used in these camcorders incorporates MPEG-2 video with bitrates up to 50 Mbit/s and 16-bit linear PCM audio in what Canon has called XF codec. Canon claims that its flavor of MXF is fully supported by major NLE systems including Adobe Premiere, Apple Final Cut Pro, Avid Media Composer, and Grass Valley EDIUS.
MXF is also used as the packaging format for Dolby Digital Cinema and is used in the STANAG
STANAG
STANAG is the NATO abbreviation for Standardization Agreement, which sets up processes, procedures, terms, and conditions for common military or technical procedures or equipment between the member countries of the alliance. Each NATO state ratifies a STANAG and implements it within their own...
specification documents.
The file extension for MXF files is ".mxf". The Macintosh File Type Code registered with Apple for MXF files is "mxf ", including a trailing space.
CinemaDNG
CinemaDNG
CinemaDNG is the result of an Adobe-led initiative to define an industry-wide open file format for digital cinema files. CinemaDNG caters for sets of movie clips, each of which is a sequence of raw video images, accompanied by audio and metadata. CinemaDNG supports stereoscopic cameras and multiple...
(intended by Adobe
Adobe Systems
Adobe Systems Incorporated is an American computer software company founded in 1982 and headquartered in San Jose, California, United States...
and others to be an open file format for digital cinema files) exploits MXF as one of its options for holding a sequence of raw video images. (The other option is to store a sequence of DNG
Digital Negative (file format)
Digital Negative is an open raw image format owned by Adobe used for digital photography. It was launched on September 27, 2004. The launch was accompanied by the first version of the DNG specification, plus various products including a free of charge DNG Converter utility...
files in a specified directory).
NLE and MXF enablers
There are an increasing number of professional NLE's that can work with MXF files natively including AvidAVID
AVID stands for:* Advancement Via Individual Determination, a college-readiness system designed to increase the number of students who enroll in four-year colleges in the U.S....
, Adobe Premiere Pro 3.1 or above
Adobe Premiere Pro
Adobe Premiere Pro is a timeline-based video editing software application. It is part of the Adobe Creative Suite, a suite of graphic design, video editing, and web development applications developed by Adobe Systems, though it can also be purchased separately. When purchased separately, it comes...
, Sony Vegas
Sony Vegas
Sony Vegas is a professional video editing software package for non-linear editing systems originally published by Sonic Foundry, now owned and run by Sony Creative Software. Originally developed as an audio editor, it eventually developed into an NLE for video and audio from version 2.0...
, and GrassValley EDIUS
Edius
EDIUS is a video editing software package originally developed by the Japanese based Canopus Corporation until 2005, when the Canopus Corporation was sold to Grass Valley.EDIUS is a non-linear editor that works with most modern video formats....
or via import operations like in Final Cut Pro
Final Cut Pro
Final Cut Pro is a non-linear video editing software developed by Macromedia Inc. and then Apple Inc. The most recent version, Final Cut Pro X, runs on Mac personal computers powered by Mac OS X version 10.6.7 or later and using Intel processors...
using the Sony XDCAM Transfer plug-in. Latest versions of Avid
Avid Technology
Avid Technology, Inc. is an American company specializing in video and audio production technology; specifically, digital non-linear editing systems, management and distribution services. It was created in 1987 and became a publicly traded company in 1993...
editing products store media in Avid MXF Op-Atom and import/export MXF Op1a or using mxfSPEEDRAIL F1000 applications that supports any kind of MXF flavour. Native MXF access in Apple
Apple Computer
Apple Inc. is an American multinational corporation that designs and markets consumer electronics, computer software, and personal computers. The company's best-known hardware products include the Macintosh line of computers, the iPod, the iPhone and the iPad...
's Final Cut Pro
Final Cut Pro
Final Cut Pro is a non-linear video editing software developed by Macromedia Inc. and then Apple Inc. The most recent version, Final Cut Pro X, runs on Mac personal computers powered by Mac OS X version 10.6.7 or later and using Intel processors...
and other Mac OS X applications can be achieved by using the MXF Import QT component from MXF4mac.
PiTiVi
PiTiVi
PiTiVi is a open source non-linear video editor developed by Collabora and contributors from the worldwide community. It is licensed under the terms of the GNU Lesser General Public License. PiTiVi is designed to be intuitive video editing software that integrates well in the GNOME desktop...
is the first open source video editor to support the Material Exchange Format (MXF).
MXF converters
- FFmpegFFmpegFFmpeg is a free software project that produces libraries and programs for handling multimedia data. The most notable parts of FFmpeg are libavcodec, an audio/video codec library used by several other projects, libavformat, an audio/video container mux and demux library, and the ffmpeg command line...
, an open sourceOpen sourceThe term open source describes practices in production and development that promote access to the end product's source materials. Some consider open source a philosophy, others consider it a pragmatic methodology...
project added support for muxing and demuxing of MXF and MXF D-10 in FFmpeg 0.5, released in March 2009. - XFConverter from OpenCube TechnologiesOpenCube TechnologiesOpenCube Technologies is a French company headquartered in Toulouse, member of the Belgian group EVS Broadcast Equipment.Established on April, 2003, OpenCube Technologies develops, manufactures, licenses, and supports a wide range of software and hardware for the broadcast and cinema...
enables users to convert wrapper formats (such as MXFMXFMaterial eXchange Format is a container format for professional digital video and audio media defined by a set of SMPTE standards.- A brief summary of MXF :...
, QuicktimeQuickTimeQuickTime is an extensible proprietary multimedia framework developed by Apple Inc., capable of handling various formats of digital video, picture, sound, panoramic images, and interactivity. The classic version of QuickTime is available for Windows XP and later, as well as Mac OS X Leopard and...
, GXF, AVIAviAVI may refer to:* Avi , the pen name of children's author Edward Irving Wortis* Audio Video Interleave, a multimedia container format and file type* AVI BioPharma, a biopharmaceutical company* AVI Foodsystems, a food service company...
, etc.) without having to modify their video/audio essences. - MXF Muxer from MXF-SOLUTIONS is a DirectShow filter for multiplexing media streams into MXF file.
- MXF DeMuxer from MXF-SOLUTIONS is a DirectShow filter for de-multiplexing MXF file, and provides frame accuracy seeking within the file.
SDKs
There are a number of MXF SDKs available that enable manufacturers and integrators to reduce their time to market by allowing them to rapidly make the most of MXF technology such as:- GStreamerGStreamerGStreamer is a pipeline-based multimedia framework written in the C programming language with the type system based on GObject.GStreamer allows a programmer to create a variety of media-handling components, including simple audio playback, audio and video playback, recording, streaming and editing...
is an open source Material Exchange Format (MXF) library. PiTiViPiTiViPiTiVi is a open source non-linear video editor developed by Collabora and contributors from the worldwide community. It is licensed under the terms of the GNU Lesser General Public License. PiTiVi is designed to be intuitive video editing software that integrates well in the GNOME desktop...
uses this tool. - MXF::SDK was the first multiplatform commercial SDK in C++ released in January 2003 and is being used by products like Adobe Premiere ProAdobe Premiere ProAdobe Premiere Pro is a timeline-based video editing software application. It is part of the Adobe Creative Suite, a suite of graphic design, video editing, and web development applications developed by Adobe Systems, though it can also be purchased separately. When purchased separately, it comes...
, Apple Final Cut ProFinal Cut ProFinal Cut Pro is a non-linear video editing software developed by Macromedia Inc. and then Apple Inc. The most recent version, Final Cut Pro X, runs on Mac personal computers powered by Mac OS X version 10.6.7 or later and using Intel processors...
, Avid Media ComposerMedia ComposerMedia Composer, frequently referred to as "Avid", is a type of computer software application known as a Non-linear editing system . It is the flagship product of Avid Technology. It was released in 1989 on the Macintosh II as an offline editing system...
, Front Porch Digital DIVA, IRT MXF Analyser, Omneon ProXchange, Seachange SMG. - MXFComponentSuite is a set of components with C++, ActiveX and DirectShowDirectShowDirectShow , codename Quartz, is a multimedia framework and API produced by Microsoft for software developers to perform various operations with media files or streams. It is the replacement for Microsoft's earlier Video for Windows technology...
APIs configured to perform tasks like import, export, metadata update, partial restore (subclip) and was released in 2004. currently BlueOrder, DAVID GmbH, Harris NEXIO, PixelPower, Panvidea, VSN, Telestream FlipFactoryFlipFactoryFlipFactory from Telestream is a video transcoding and workflow automation application. It enables the transfer of media and metadata files between professional video systems, including catch servers, broadcast servers, edit systems, streaming and distribution servers, storage area networks and...
uses this tool. - MXFLib is an open source C++ SDK released in 2003. Currently it is used by Fraunhofer easyDCP programs.
- MXFTk from OpenCube TechnologiesOpenCube TechnologiesOpenCube Technologies is a French company headquartered in Toulouse, member of the Belgian group EVS Broadcast Equipment.Established on April, 2003, OpenCube Technologies develops, manufactures, licenses, and supports a wide range of software and hardware for the broadcast and cinema...
is a multiplatform commercial SDK in C++ released in 2004 and is being used by products like Tektronix Cerify and Quantum SDLT 600A tape drive. - nanocosmos MXF SDK is a SDK with DirectShow API released in 2010. Used by CBC for broadcast/TV production and Berlinale for E-Cinema ingest and playout.
- MXF SDK from MXF-SOLUTIONS is an API for MXF based content and metadata handling which includes parsing, generating, insertion, and partial restores.
MXF analysers
- IRT MXF Analyser is an analysis tool to validate the standard compliance of MXF files and to export the complete file structure as XML.
- MXF Info is a comprehensive MXF analyzer application for Mac OS X to read the entire internal KLV structure of MXF files including Header, Body and Footer Partitions. MXF Info can also analyze MPEG-2, MPEG-4, DV and AES3 essence headers.
MXF readers
- MXF Desktop is a free software application from AmberFin that adds MXF awareness to PCs running Windows XP or Windows 2000 operating systems. It enables: Microsoft Windows Media Player to play MXF files; easy viewing of key metadata within an MXF file via the right-click Properties command in Windows Explorer; WAV, MPEG and DV formats to be "wrapped" as essence into an MXF file.
- theScribe LITE is a simple software application from MOG Solutions that allows to preview MXF files plus to change the MXF descriptive metadata
- theScribe PRO is similar to the theScribe LITE with the additional functionality to generate files, subclip, export and convert between different Operational Patterns
- XFReader is a simple Player from OpenCube TechnologiesOpenCube TechnologiesOpenCube Technologies is a French company headquartered in Toulouse, member of the Belgian group EVS Broadcast Equipment.Established on April, 2003, OpenCube Technologies develops, manufactures, licenses, and supports a wide range of software and hardware for the broadcast and cinema...
that runs under Windows and enables users to play back all MXF files on a display unit or an SDI Video Screen. It is based on the MXFTk Reader Direct Show filter which allows MXF files to be managed in Windows Media Player. - MXF Studio from MXF-SOLUTIONS allows the user to examine the details of structural metadata, decriptive metadata, index tables, and dark KLVsKLVKLV is a data encoding standard, often used to embed information in video feeds. Items are encoded into Key-Length-Value triplets, where key identifies the data, length specifies the data's length, and value is the data itself...
. MXF Studio also allows the users to edit descriptive metadata of the existing MXF files. It has a built-in MXF player that allows to scrub the file and enhances your descriptive metadata editing experience.
MXF Partial Restorer
- MXF Partial Restorer from MXF-SOLUTIONS is an easy-to-use tool to partially restore an MXF file.
MXF archivers and servers
- IngexIngexIngex is an open-source suite of software for the digital capture of audio and video data, without the need for traditional audio or video tape or cassettes. Serial digital interface capture is supported, as well as real-time transcoding . Portions of the software suite also act as a network...
is an open-source (GPL) suite of software for the digital capture of audio and video data, developed and heavily used by the BBCBBCThe British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
. SDISDISDI may refer to:*SDI, also known as MDI, or Mini Dental Implants* SDI , a range of diesel engines by the Volkswagen Group for use in cars and vans* SDI a shoot 'em up by Sega* S.D.I...
capture is supported, as well as real-time transcoding (with MXFMXFMaterial eXchange Format is a container format for professional digital video and audio media defined by a set of SMPTE standards.- A brief summary of MXF :...
). Portions of the suite also act as a network file server for media files, as well as archiving to LTO-3Linear Tape-OpenLinear Tape-Open is a magnetic tape data storage technology originally developed in the late 1990s as an open standards alternative to the proprietary magnetic tape formats that were available at the time. Hewlett-Packard, IBM and Seagate initiated the LTO Consortium, which directs development...
data tape.
MXF time code editors
- MXF Time Code Editor is free software application from BlueLucy Media which allows users to read, and set, the start time-code value of an MXF file as well as view / set the frame rate.
Base documents
-
- SMPTE 377M: The MXF File Format Specification (the overall master document)
- SMPTE EG41: MXF Engineering Guide (A guide explaining how to use MXF)
- SMPTE EG42: MXF Descriptive Metadata (A guide explaining how to use descriptive metadata in MXF)
Operational patterns
-
- SMPTE 390M: OP-Atom (a very simple and highly constrained layout for simple MXF files)
- SMPTE 378M: OP-1a (the layout options for a minimal simple MXF file)
- SMPTE 391M: OP-1b
- SMPTE 392M: OP-2a
- SMPTE 393M: OP-2b
- SMPTE 407M: OP-3a, OP-3b
- SMPTE 408M: OP-1c, OP-2c, OP-3c
Generic containers
-
- SMPTE 379M: Generic Container (the way that essence is stored in MXF files)
- SMPTE 381M: GC-MPEG (how to store MPEG essence data in MXF using the Generic Container)
- SMPTE 383M: GC-DV (how to store DVDVDV is a format for the digital recording and playing back of digital video. The DV codec was launched in 1995 with joint efforts of leading producers of video camcorders....
essence data in MXF using the Generic Container) - SMPTE 385M: GC-CP (how to store SDTI-CP essence data in MXF using the Generic Container)
- SMPTE 386M: GC-D10 (how to store SMPTE D10SMPTE D10SMPTE 356M Television specification for a professional video format, it is composed of MPEG-2 Video 4:2:2 I-frame only and 8 channel AES3 audio streams. These AES3 audio usually contain 24 bit PCM audio samples...
essence data in MXF using the Generic Container) - SMPTE 387M: GC-D11 (how to store SMPTE D11SMPTE D11SMPTE 367M, also known as SMPTE D-11 and HDCAM, is a standard for the compression of high-definition digital video. D11 source picture rates can be 24, 24/1.001, 25 or 30/1.001 frames per second progressive scan, or 50 or 60/1.001 fields per second interlaced; compression yields output bit rates...
essence data in MXF using the Generic Container) - SMPTE 382M: GC-AESBWF (how to store AES/EBUAES/EBUAES3 is the standard used for the transport of digital audio signals between professional audio devices. It is also known as AES/EBU and is published by the Audio Engineering Society and as part of IEC 60958. It was developed by the AES and the European Broadcasting Union and first published in...
and Broadcast Wave audio essence data in MXF using the Generic Container) - SMPTE 384M: GC-UP (how to store Uncompressed Picture essence data in MXF using the Generic Container)
- SMPTE 388M: GC-AA (how to store A-law coded audio essence data in MXF using the Generic Container)
- SMPTE 389M: Generic Container Reverse Play System Element
- SMPTE 394M: System Item Scheme-1 for Generic Container
- SMPTE 405M: Elements and Individual Data Items for the GC SI Scheme 1
Metadata, dictionaries and registries
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- SMPTE 380M: DMS1 (a standard set of descriptive metadata to use with MXF files)
- SMPTE 436M: MXF Mappings for VBI Lines and Ancillary Data Packets
- SMPTE RP210: SMPTE Metadata Dictionary (the latest version is available here: http://www.smpte-ra.org/mdd/index.html )
- SMPTE RP224: Registry of SMPTE Universal Labels
Availability of standards
SMPTE's top standards page has information, for the ordering of CD-ROMs, which would hold formal copy of the SMPTE standards. Judging by SMPTE's index, all of the standards, referenced above, would be contained on those CD-ROMs, as available from SMPTE.IRT Test Center contains up-to-date information on the status of the SMPTE documents.
See also
- AAF, Advanced Authoring FormatAdvanced Authoring FormatThe Advanced Authoring Format is a professional file interchange format designed for the video post production and authoring environment. The AAF was created by the Advanced Media Workflow Association . The AMWA develops specifications and technologies to facilitate the deployment and operation...
- BWF, Broadcast Wave Format
- OpenCube TechnologiesOpenCube TechnologiesOpenCube Technologies is a French company headquartered in Toulouse, member of the Belgian group EVS Broadcast Equipment.Established on April, 2003, OpenCube Technologies develops, manufactures, licenses, and supports a wide range of software and hardware for the broadcast and cinema...
External links
- MXF - a progress report EBU Technical Review, 2010 Q3
- MXF— a technical overview EBU Technical Review, 2010 Q3
- http://www.pro-mpeg.org/ Forum where MXF was initially discussed
- http://www.craystone.co.uk MXF Aware tape units from Craystone of Bolton
- http://www.opencubetech.com/pub/rubrique.php?id=13/ MXF workflow enabler for professionals
- http://www.mog-solutions.com/ MXF solutions for professionals
- http://www.amwa.tv/ Advance Media Workflow Association
- http://mxf.info/ MXF Implementation
- http://www.irt.de/mxf/ MXF Test Center
- http://www.freemxf.org/ A multi-platform open source C++ library for reading and writing MXF files
- RFC 4539 (MIME type registration)
- US Library of Congress Digital Preservation Program: MXF Format Description Properties
- The Ingex Project