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Standard Encoder formats and codecs

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Warning

Azure Media Services will be retired June 30th, 2024. For more information, see the AMS Retirement Guide.

This article contains a list of the most common import and export file formats that you can use with the StandardEncoderPreset.

Input container/file formats

File formats (file extensions) Supported
FLV (with H.264 and AAC codecs) (.flv) Yes
MXF (.mxf) Yes
GXF (.gxf) Yes
MPEG2-PS, MPEG2-TS, 3GP (.ts, .ps, .3gp, .3gpp, .mpg) Yes
Windows Media Video (WMV)/ASF (.wmv, .asf) Yes
AVI (Uncompressed 8bit/10bit) (.avi) Yes
MP4 (.mp4, .m4a, .m4v)/ISMV (.isma, .ismv) Yes
Microsoft Digital Video Recording(DVR-MS) (.dvr-ms) Yes
Matroska/WebM (.mkv) Yes
WAVE/WAV (.wav) Yes
QuickTime (.mov) Yes

Audio formats in input containers

Standard Encoder supports carrying the following audio formats in input containers:

  • MXF, GXF, and QuickTime files, which have audio tracks with interleaved stereo or 5.1 samples

or

  • MXF, GXF, and QuickTime files where the audio is carried as separate PCM tracks but the channel mapping (to stereo or 5.1) can be deduced from the file metadata

Input video codecs

Input video codecs Supported
AVC 8-bit/10-bit, up to 4:2:2, including AVCIntra 8 bit 4:2:0 and 4:2:2
Sony XAVC / XAVC S (in MXF container) Yes
Avid DNxHD (in MXF container) Yes
DVCPro/DVCProHD (in MXF container) Yes
Digital video (DV) (in AVI files) Yes
JPEG 2000 Yes
MPEG-2 (up to 422 Profile and High Level; including variants such as Sony XDCAM, Sony XDCAM HD, Sony XDCAM IMX, CableLabs®, and D10) Up to 422 Profile
MPEG-1 Yes
VC-1/WMV9 Yes
Canopus HQ/HQX No
MPEG-4 Part 2 Yes
Theora Yes
YUV420 uncompressed, or mezzanine Yes
Apple ProRes 422 Yes
Apple ProRes 422 LT Yes
Apple ProRes 422 HQ Yes
Apple ProRes Proxy Yes
Apple ProRes 4444 Yes
Apple ProRes 4444 XQ Yes
HEVC/H.265 Main Profile

Input audio codecs

Input Audio Codecs Supported
AAC (AAC-LC, AAC-HE, and AAC-HEv2; up to 5.1) Yes
MPEG Layer 2 Yes
MP3 (MPEG-1 Audio Layer 3) Yes
Windows Media Audio Yes
WAV/PCM Yes
FLAC Yes
Opus Yes
Vorbis Yes
AMR (adaptive multi-rate) Yes
AES (SMPTE 331M and 302M, AES3-2003) No
Dolby® E No
Dolby® Digital (AC3) No
Dolby® Digital Plus (E-AC3) No

Output formats and codecs

The following table lists the codecs and file formats that are supported for export.

File Format Video Codec Audio Codec
MP4

(including multi-bitrate MP4 containers)
H.264 (High, Main, and Baseline Profiles), HEVC (H.265) 8-bit AAC-LC, HE-AAC v1, HE-AAC v2
MPEG2-TS H.264 (High, Main, and Baseline Profiles) AAC-LC, HE-AAC v1, HE-AAC v2

Captioning and subtitles

The following table lists the types of captions supported by Media Services.

Standard Notes
WebVTT WebVTT is the W3C standard for displaying timed text for the HTML5 text track element. This is the standard that Media Services uses for live transcription during live events which is provided by Azure Cognitive Services. You can also use this standard to easily add captions and subtitles to be consumed by a player client such as Azure Media Player.
TTML inside .ismt (Smooth Streaming text tracks) Media Services dynamic packaging enables your clients to stream content in any of the following formats: DASH, HLS, or Smooth Streaming. However, if you ingest fragmented MP4 (Smooth Streaming) with captions inside .ismt (Smooth Streaming text tracks), you can deliver the stream to only Smooth Streaming clients.
CEA-708 and EIA-608 (708/608) CEA-708 and EIA-608 are closed-captioning standards for the United States and Canada.

Currently, captioning is supported only if carried in the encoded input stream. You need to use a live media encoder that can insert 608 or 708 captions in the encoded stream that's sent to Media Services. Media Services delivers the content with inserted captions to your viewers.

Ad insertion

The following table lists the ad insertion formats supported by Media Services.

Standard Notes
SCTE-35 SCTE-35 is a digital signaling system that's used to cue advertising insertion. Downstream receivers use the signal to splice advertising into the stream for the allotted time. SCTE-35 must be sent as a sparse track in the input stream.

Currently, the only supported input stream format that carries ad signals is fragmented MP4 (Smooth Streaming). The only supported output format is also Smooth Streaming.

Encoding samples

See the extensive list of Encoding Samples.

Get help and support

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