The Pro-MPEG/AAF Association Material Exchange Format (MXF)

This paper will describe the Material eXchange Format (MXF) currently under joint development by the Pro-MPEG forum [1] and the AAF (Advanced Authoring Format) Association [2]. — An MXF file is a ‘wrapper’ for containing audio-visual material in a playable stream format. Each file contains a comprehensive metadata structure together with component parts which enable MXF files to be written and read directly by AAF compliant hardware and software tools. The entire coding structure is based on the recently approved SMPTE standards relating to metadata coding using the KLV syntax [3] and standardised metadata dictionary items [4]. At the time of writing, the work is progressing to conclusion, but is not yet complete. — Therefore, some aspects described in this paper represent work-in-progress and may be subject to change in the final specification. — This paper will describe the MXF format with particular emphasis on the file data structure and modelling for the metadata.

Published

2000-10

Content type

Original Research

DOI

10.5594/M00156

ISBN

978-1-61482-933-1