PostScript (171 KB)
Word (175 KB)MPEG-4 Integrated Intermedia Format (IIF): Basic Specification
Contribution M2978, 42nd MPEG Meeting, San Jose, CA, January 1998
Introduction
This document specifies an intermedia format that provides for the encapsulation of MPEG-4 content in a set of one or more files. The format allows efficient streaming even in highly demanding environments such as media servers, or, at the user's choice, introduces various types of access data objects in the file. Random access as well as sequential segment-based data access to objects is supported. Proper extensions to allow streaming without prior processing of the data, referred in this proposal as direct streaming, are supported as well. The different access modes allow users to balance hardware resources against efficient data access for a variety of media and applications. Files intended for streaming applications can be stored with minimum overhead, in a format suitable to the network requirements, while files intended for random access mass storage can provide additional functionality. In particular, taking advantage of the random access characteristics of the underlying physical medium, it can allow direct access to arbitrary points within the scene description or audiovisual object information. Beyond random access for playback purposes, such functionality is also useful in editing operations in which one wishes, for instance, to extract a particular elementary stream from a file.