Talk:Container format

AV only?
Aren't there possibilities other than audio and video? I would agree that the idea is usually used to distinguish between different compression formats (whether lossless or lossy) - as opposed to uncompressed data - you don't get a format that is designed to contain spreadsheets in e.g. either CSV or Excel format. But what about images? I'm thinking of TIFF in particular, which allows a number of different compressed image formats.

Well, I'm not sure what you're really asking here. Given that container formats often allow multiple streams, you could have 3 audio streams in one container file, each in a different language and each potentially could be encoded with a different encoder - not that any sane person would do that. But I believe this would not be a technical problem.

As far as "other than audio and video" besides subtitles, I can't think of another stream type, but if you have a relevant encoder and decoder, why not? InsertNameHere (talk) 23:01, 10 February 2020 (UTC)

Poor grammar?
This made me cringe and I was wondering if anyone else did the same when reading this:

"A container or wrapper format is a file format whose specifications regard only the way data are stored (but not coded) within the file, and how many metadata could or are effectively stored" I can have a go at cleaning it up myself, but was after someone elses opinion. Legios (talk) 05:04, 13 March 2009 (UTC)

A good chunk of the introduction to this article made me cringe, actually. There are way too many parentheses and comma, and at times it seems like there is a stretch for more wiki-links. I tried re-writing a sentence and I could barley understand what its purpose was. Below is a new version of the introduction that I think is more clear and still contains the relevant information for someone looking for more information. I'll wait for comments before putting it on the main page.

A container or wrapper format is a meta-file format whose specification describes how data and meta-data is stored (not coded). A program able to identify and open a container file might not be able to decode the contained data. This can be caused by the program lacks the required decoding algorithm or the meta-data does not provide enough information. By definition, a container format could wrap any kind of data. Though there are a few examples of such file formats (e.g. Microsoft Windows's DLL files), most container formats are specialized for the specific requirements of the data.

For example, a popular family of containers is found among multimedia file formats. Since audio and video streams can be coded and decoded with many different algorithms, a container format can be used to provide a single file to the user.

Sutekh.destroyer (talk) 22:53, 12 December 2009 (UTC)

Per Wikipedia's general policy, I have replaced the original introduction with the one written above. Feel free to improve it. Sutekh.destroyer (talk) 00:00, 24 December 2009 (UTC)

Why container?
The article should address why container formats are used instead of the "raw" content. 94.220.249.144 (talk) 06:03, 27 February 2010 (UTC)

How so TIFF trashes Exif?
Removed the following:
 * , which results in difficulties in properly preserving information – notably, Exif photo data is often discarded.

I did a lot of work with TIFF in the late 1980s and the only reason I can think of for Exif lossage is sloppy coding, or a developer cutting corners to create a false impression of speed. Explain it so a software developer with 30 years of experience can comprehend it, or leave it out. My experience with TIFF was that it was disk seek intensive and only performed well if the file was written in a sensible order to disk. We had tools in house to do this which tripled the speed of many operations in a TIFF-like data structure we used to store font data. &mdash; MaxEnt 18:46, 13 April 2010 (UTC)

Clarify Container vs content
"Since the container does not describe how data or metadata is encoded, a program able to identify and open a container file might not be able to decode the contained data. This may be caused by the program lacking the required decoding algorithm, or the meta-data not providing enough information.[clarification needed]"

Could one please find nice words for: A program can read (open) the container, but is not able to handle the content.

At least something that tries to explain it. It's obvious to me even though I did not write it. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 84.61.36.161 (talk) 20:04, 21 March 2011 (UTC)

Include Reference to CAF format?
Would it be appropriate to include a reference to the Core_Audio_Format?

dpbaril 13:51, 17 April 2012 (UTC) — Preceding unsigned comment added by Dpbaril (talk • contribs)

Requested move 4 September 2015

 * The following is a closed discussion of a requested move. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on the talk page. Editors desiring to contest the closing decision should consider a move review. No further edits should be made to this section. 

The result of the move request was: not moved. No consensus to rename this article, however there does appear to be a consensus to split it and create a new article at Multimedia container. Jenks24 (talk) 06:41, 15 September 2015 (UTC)

Digital container format → Multimedia container – In response to the recent hijack of the word "container" in relation to virtualization, I propose to rename this article to "multimedia container" to distinguish it better. Various virtualization solutions like Docker and Open Container Initiative are already now the term "container format" to refer to their VM images. Since these images are also "digital", I find the current article title isn't precise enough.

It also seems to me that the word "format" would be redundant in the new title, so I propose to remove it, but I would be fine with "Multimedia container file" or "Multimedia container format" as well. -- intgr [talk] 12:38, 4 September 2015 (UTC)


 * This article is not only about multimedia container formats, but about container formats in general. Even though, obviously, it is primarily about multimedia (and I agree there should be a separate article for multimedia container formats anyway). I would not remove the word "format" from the title, as the article describes common container formats like AVI, Matroska or MP4. They are container formats (specifications), not containers (the actual data). It is important to understand the difference.&mdash;J. M. (talk) 01:00, 5 September 2015 (UTC)


 * Split ; per JM, the article treats bot multimedia and non; instead split off the multimedia portion, and leave only a summary here. There are a multitude of containers that are not for video/audio/pictures. (Such as a tarball, lib-files (ie. DLLs, .lib), etc); as most of the edit history concerns multimedia, the edit history would move to the multimedia article location, while a new page appears here with the intro section and a summary of the multimedia portion. -- 70.51.202.113 (talk) 05:09, 5 September 2015 (UTC)


 * The above discussion is preserved as an archive of a requested move. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on this talk page or in a move review. No further edits should be made to this section.

Merge with metafile
In addition to the other problems with this article as of today, the lead links to the article on metafile. Unhelpfully, there's essentially no substance there, and it's surprising that it exists. They should be merged. (I just don't want to do it myself.) -- C. A. Russell ( talk ) 15:20, 18 June 2020 (UTC)
 * ✅ Klbrain (talk) 15:53, 30 June 2021 (UTC)