

And it has gone through several revisions since its birth. It was initially developed to hold low-data video and audio files for streaming over the internet. MP4 was standardized by the Motion Picture Experts Group (MPEG), an alliance of working groups established jointly by ISO and IEC.

m4b: MPEG-4 audio format container for audiobooks and podcasts. m4v: MPEG-4 Visual bitstreams and sometimes standing for the video stream in MP4 file. m4p: MPEG-4 audio with copyright protection like Apple DRM. m4r: MPEG-4 audio used as Apple Ringtone. m4a: MPEG-4 files with audio only and often found in Apple devices, e.g. mp4: The general MPEG-4 files that contain both video and audio. But since it can hold different types of multimedia files, it could come with various filename extensions as below: The official and the most common file extension for MP4 is. But note that, MP4 stores data instead of compressing them, so it has to work with other codecs, for example, H.264/AVC and HEVC for video, AAC, and MP3 for audio, and 3GPP Timed Text for subtitles. Simply put, MP4 acts like a wrapper around multimedia files and associated data that's necessary for playing the file correctly. In addition to video and audio, the MP4 format container also holds still images and subtitles. MP4, aka MPEG-4 Part 14 (or ISO/IEC 14496-14), is the 14th part of the MPEG-4 standard that defines the container format for compressed digital audio and visual data.

With a better understanding of MP4 file format, you can play, edit, and share MP4 files without any trouble.

In this post, we will introduce MP4 file format from its features, specifications, history, advantages, disadvantages, and the differences between MP4 and other formats. But do you know what MP4 is on earth? Why it is so popular? mp4 files from digital cameras, smartphones, online video platforms, and so forth. MP4 seems like the most popular video format used everywhere in our digital life.
