Which container will we all be using in 5 years' time?

[temporance]

AVI has arguably been the star of the last five years. It has great software support (think VirtualDub and AviSynth) and good support in stand-alone players (at least with xvid/DivX/mp3). But is AVI about to enter retirement?

I'd be interested to hear what people think will be the container of the future, and why. By this I mean the most popular container with widest support on standalone devices.

Please, please vote with your head not you're heart. This poll will be more informative if people don't just vote for the format they want to succeed. Note I'm not asking which you think is the "best" container.

I'll add my thoughts later, so as not to bias this poll any further.

[Yes, I did use search first, but there are no polls asking this exact question]

[GodofaGap]

MPEG TS is what is used for broadcasting and I think for HD-DVD/Blu-Ray (perhaps it was PS though), so if the choice is about what will receive most SAD support the choice is really a no brainer.

Of course, this is never been a one-size-fits-all kind of thing, there is simply no container of the future. Different containers will exist side-by-side, just like they do now.

[temporance]

I think it is PS - VOBs are PS.

Do you really think we'll be backing up and sharing in this format?

[Sharktooth]

IIRC Blu-Rays and HD-DVDs use TS (even if it is sub-optimal for storage), while standard DVDs use VOBs (a sort of PS).
However my personal preference goes to MP4 and MKV, but i voted for MP4 since it is in the MPEG standard.

[GodofaGap]

Do you really think we'll be backing up and sharing in this format?
Sharing perhaps not, but I don't share, don't care and don't even know what is popular for sharing right now. For backing up it depends on the quality of authoring software.

But you asked this:
I'd be interested to hear what people think will be the container of the future, and why. By this I mean the most popular container with widest support on standalone devices.

Other support than TS is just several miles away from being guaranteed on new SADs (not counting portables).

[bond]

IIRC Blu-Rays and HD-DVDs use TS (even if it is sub-optimal for storage), while standard DVDs use VOBs (a sort of PS).hddvd uses, like dvd, mpg ps
there is a rumour that bluray uses mpg ts, but i have yet to see the proove

AVI has arguably been the star of the last five years. It has great software support (think VirtualDub and AviSynth)in what way is avisynth related to avi?

and good support in stand-alone players (at least with xvid/DivX/mp3). But is AVI about to enter retirementavi (or any other "new" container) has next to no standalone support compared to mpg ps

mpg ps is simply the most widely supported video container (dvd, vcd aso) in the hardware sector and i would even say its the most widely supported container also in the software sector

and i also think that this will stay that way another 10 years (or how long mpg ps is around already...)

that said, why dont we place our avc and aac encodes in .mpg? mpeg defines exactly how to do it :D

[unmei]

To me you ask two different questions, because you include the "with the widest standalone support".

I have never cared about standalone support and i think i will still not think about classic standalones in 5 years. More likely about support in a small computer (HTPC-thing).

Because there are two different answers for me, i voted only for the second with standalone support: MPEG PS. Even tho many devices will support MP4, the broadest support will still be given to PS.

When we exclude the standalones with fixed support limits, i think it will be a coexistence of MP4 and MKV(-like).

MP4 will certainly get broad standalone support. As such i guess it will be the format for user-created PC-to-standalone/portable content.
It is too early to say what it will be like. It could become a good standard if it is limited to a few key features, but if implementors support all their own subset and/or private extensions it will turn out awful.

The matroska approach to me is the way for devices with user-definable capabilities (basicly, PCs) - whether it will still be called matroska in 5 years or it will be replaced by a similar, differently named container, i don't know. But i guess it will still be called matroska, 5 years are not that much.

[SeeMoreDigital]

Well because I'm an MPEG-4+AAC enthusiast (and have various hardware compatible players) I voted for MP4....

That said, because there's no effective way of storing AC3 or DTS audio within MP4, it might be handy to have muxers for placing MPEG-4 with AC3 (and other audio stream types) within MPG (PS).


Cheers

[GodofaGap]

I'm afraid the poll is turning out to be a popularity contest... while I am a big supporter of Matroska, I don't see it having the widest support on SADs in the future. Neither do I see that happening for MP4 (at least not for video content), but I am not a big supporter of it. :p

The simple conclusion is that widest support on SADs will be for whatever HD-DVD and Blu-Ray will use.

[Hyper Shinchan]

Well because I'm an MPEG-4+AAC enthusiast (and have various hardware compatible players) I voted for MP4....

That said, because there's no effective way of storing AC3 or DTS audio within MP4, it might be handy to have muxers for placing MPEG-4 with AC3 (and other audio stream types) within MPG (PS).


Cheers

I voted it for the same reason. About AC-3 I don't understand why Apple (or some other company that could ask registration of a new sample entry) don't register it, but there must be a reason for sure (they don't like it?).

here is a rumour that bluray uses mpg ts, but i have yet to see the proove
Just check out the documentation fro the official website. Elecard and Mainconcept tools also offer a BD complaint muxer, but I'm not sure that it's 100% complaint. They uses a particuale version of the MPEG-TS (specified packet size and so on).
mpg ps is simply the most widely supported video container (dvd, vcd aso)
VCD used MPEG-1 system, not MPEG-2 PS (and I think that they were particualr MPEG-1 system with a padding, just like SVCD added various extra info in the MPEG-2 PS as private contents).
I think that MP4 will become the most used format (excluding MPEG-2 TS and PS, but actually it's the same thing, we says "AVI is the most used format", but we mean "AVI is the most used format for backup purpose".) As I foretold for some guys is a great problem that actually there isn't a registered way to store AC-3 in MP4 (also if Haali muxer and splitter use a private stream, but this isn't likely to be used by other software/hardware).
Anyway actually the best choiche to store AVC video (assuming that it will become the succesor of the MPEG-4 ASP) and then playback it on an hardware player is through MP4. At the moment is more used in the ambient of the portable players (3GP phones, PSP, I-Pod) but I think that it will become spread in the future home players too (of course the next generation of HD players won't support it, they will focus on the HD-DVD or BD capabilities).