Skip to content
MPEG-4 Part 14

File:Relations_between_ISO_Base_Media_File_Format_and_MP4_File_Format.svg · Wikimedia Commons · See Wikimedia Commons

EntityQ336316· pop 43· linked from 986 articles

MPEG-4 Part 14

Sign in to save

Also known as MP4, .mp4, .m4p, .m4b, .m4r, .m4v, MP4 File Format, Mp4

digital multimedia format most commonly used to store video and audio

Key facts

Filename extensions
.mp4 , .m4a , .m4p , .m4b , .m4r and .m4v
Internet media type
video/mp4 audio/mp4
Type code
mpg4
Magic number
p
Developed by
International Organization for Standardization International Electrotechnical Commission
Initial release
October 2001 ; 24 years ago ( 2001-10 )
Latest release
ISO/IEC 14496-14:2020, January 2020 ; 6 years ago ( 2020-01 )
Type of format
Container format
Container for
Audio, video and text
Extended from
QuickTime File Format and MPEG-4 Part 12
Standard
ISO/IEC 14496-14
Open format
No
Free format
No

via Wikipedia infobox

Described at

Link to a page describing this subject · 16,974 chars · not written by Vinony

~7 min read

Encyclopedic overview

MP4 (formally MPEG-4 Part 14) is a digital multimedia container format most commonly used to store video and audio, but it can also be used to store other data such as subtitles and still images. Like most modern container formats, it allows streaming over the Internet. The only filename extension for MPEG-4 Part 14 files as defined by the specification is .mp4.

MPEG-4 Part 14 is a standard specified as a part of the MPEG-4 specifications, formally as ISO/IEC 14496-14:2003. Unlike the audio-only compression formats MP3 and MP2, MP4 is a container format that can hold various types of media from various codecs. During the 2000s, portable media players were sometimes erroneously advertised as "MP4 players", even if they may play a different format like AMV video and not necessarily the MPEG-4 Part 14 format.

Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “MPEG-4 Part 14” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.