Comparison of video container formats

General information

• QTFF
• * ISO BMFF
• ** MP4
• ** 3GPP, 3GPP2
• ** F4V
• MPEG-PS
• * MPEG-TS
• ** M2TS
• * VOB
• ** EVOB
• MCF
• * Matroska
• ** WebM
• RIFF
• * AVI
• ** DMF
• RM
• * RMVB

• Attachments are only supported in Matroska, MP4 and QTFF. M2TS supports attachments as multiple files in a specific file structure: fonts for subtitles are in .otf files in the /BDMV/AUXDATA/ directory.
• Interactive menus are only supported in MP4, QTFF, M2TS, EVO and DMF. VOB supports interactive menus as multiple files in a specific file structure for encoding DVD content, requiring a companion .ifo file. Matroska has been planning to support interactive menus as part of a draft specification since 2004.
• Digital 3D is only supported at the container format level in Matroska, MXF and WebM. M2TS supports Digital 3D as multiple files in a specific file structure for encoding stereoscopic video: MVC stereoscopic data is in .ssif files in the /BDMV/STREAM/SSIF/ directory and require a respective base .m2ts file. Digital 3D in QTFF and ASF is possible, but not standard. MP4 only supports Digital 3D at the video format level.

Video coding formats support

• DMF only supports MPEG-4 Visual ASP with DivX profiles.
• EVO only supports MPEG-4 AVC, MPEG-1 Video, MPEG-2 Video and VC-1.
• F4V only supports MPEG-4 AVC, MPEG-4 Visual and H.263.
• FLV only supports MPEG-4 Visual, VP6, Sorenson Spark and Screen Video. MPEG-4 AVC in FLV is possible, but not standard.
• M2TS only supports MPEG-4 AVC, MPEG-1 Video, MPEG-2 Video, MPEG-4 Visual and VC-1.
• Ogg only supports Theora, MNG, JNG, PNG and Dirac. Firefox supports VP9 and VP8 in Ogg. VLC supports MPEG-2 Video, MPEG-4 Visual and VC-1 in Ogg.
• RMVB only supports RealVideo versions RV30, RV40 and RV60.
• VOB only supports MPEG-1 Video and MPEG-2 Video.
• WebM only supports VP9, VP8, and AV1.

Audio coding formats support

• DMF only supports MP3, AC-3, DTS and LPCM.
• EVO only supports MP3, AC-3, E-AC-3, DTS, MP2, MP1, DTS-HD, Dolby TrueHD, MLP and LPCM.
• F4V only supports AAC and MP3.
• FLV only supports AAC, MP3, LPCM, A-law PCM, μ-law PCM, Speex, Asao and SWF ADPCM.
• M2TS only supports AC-3, E-AC-3, DTS, DTS-HD, Dolby TrueHD and LPCM.
• Ogg only supports Opus, Vorbis, FLAC, A-law PCM, μ-law PCM, IEEE floating-point PCM, Speex and CELT. OGMtools supports MP3 and AC-3 in Ogg.
• RMVB only supports AC-3, ATRAC3, G.728, AAC-LC, HE-AAC v1, IS-54, Cook Codec, Sipro Lab, ACELP-NET and RealAudio Lossless.
• VOB only supports MP2 directly. It also supports AC-3, DTS, MLP and LPCM as private streams.
• WebM only supports Opus and Vorbis.

Subtitle formats support

• DMF only supports XSUB.
• EVO only supports HD DVD.
• F4V only supports TTXT. SubRip and WebVTT can be converted losslessly to TTXT.
• FLV only supports loading subtitles with ActionScript, but this functionality may be restricted to the official Adobe Flash Player. WebVTT can be converted losslessly to ActionScript.
• M2TS only supports Blu-ray. VobSub can be partially converted to PGS using tools that are not officially related to the container format.
• Ogg only supports Ogg Kate and CMML. SubRip can be converted losslessly to Ogg Kate. Ogg Writ is well supported in Ogg in common tools such as OGMtools and VLC, but there's no intention to turn its draft into a fully supported specification. Xiph recommends using Kate for subtitles. MicroDVD can be converted to Ogg Writ.
• RMVB only supports RealText. SMIL can be partially converted to RealText.
• VOB only supports VobSub. can be partially converted to VobSub using tools that are not officially related to the container format.
• WebM only supports WebVTT. SubRip can be converted losslessly to WebVTT.

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