Format
MPEG-4 Media File
Summary
- Name
- MPEG-4 Media File
- Identifiers
-
- MIME: video/mp4
- PUID: fmt/199
- Format type
-
- Audio
- Video
- Description
- Container format that can contain any of a number of audio and video codecs. It may also contain subtitle data or file metadata. This family of container can be used with several different file extensions.
- Format encoding
- Text
- File extensions
-
mp4,m4v,m4a,f4v,f4a,m4b - Submitted by
- Digital Preservation Department / The National Archives
Relationships
- Has lower priority than
- Has priority over
Internal signatures
MP4 Media File
- Description
- Represents the following character sequence: {4}ftyp{0-64}(mp42|mp41|isom|iso2)*moov
- Provenance
- DROID 5.0 research.
Byte sequences
- Min Frag Length
- Absolute from BOF
- Offset
- 4
- Max offset
- None
- Byte Sequence
66747970{0-64}(6D703432|6D703431|69736F6D|69736F32)*6D6F6F76- Endianness
- Little-endian
Changelog
-
V123
- Release date
- 9 June 2026
-
Updated
MPEG-4 Media File: New extension added of .m4b. Submitted by Archives New Zealand.
-
V118
- Release date
- 30 April 2024
-
Updated
MPEG-4 Media File: Description created as part of PRONOM Research Week 2023. Submitted by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
-
V114
- Release date
- 22 August 2023
-
Updated
MPEG-4 Media File: Added priority over fmt/1616. Submitted by Digital Preservation Department, The National Archives (UK).
-
V86
- Release date
- 27 July 2016
-
Updated
MPEG-4 Media File: Adjusted signature, changing wildcard range from short byte range to fully variable range between brand identifier and 'moov' atom.
-
V84
- Release date
- 21 January 2016
-
Updated
MPEG-4 Media File: Added MIME.
-
V78
- Release date
- 23 September 2014
-
Updated
MPEG-4 Media File: Gave priority over Quicktime.
-
V35
- Release date
- 1 May 2010
-
Added signature
MPEG-4 Media File: Signature developed through DROID 5.0 research