MP3 audio format for music and language
- The MP3 Format (also: MPEG-1 Audio Layer 3) is a pure Audio Format. The compression in this Format, for example, music or language can thus be space-saving to store, but this is accompanied with a slight loss of sound quality. The encoding is standardized, MP3 files always have the extension .mp3.
MP4 can also contain Video, images, graphics or texts
- In MP4 (also called MPEG-4 Part 14) is a Container Format for Multimedia content, the on "QuickTime" from Apple is based. In contrast to the MP3 Format, MP4 files may contain both Audio additional content such as Video, images, graphics or texts.
- To maintain compatibility, however, there are certain restrictions, so not every Format is allowed to be contained in a MP4 Container. For Videos, MPEG-4 Part 10 (AVC/H. 264), MPEG-1 Video, MPEG-2 Video and MPEG-4 Part 2 are permitted. Audio files may have formats of MP1, MP2, MP3 or AAC. For images in the formats JPEG and PNG are accepted, with pictures and text (subtitles) BIFS.
- Analog to .mp3 is the official file extension .mp4, however, are also often used to other extensions, which provide information on the existing content of the container type. Are common, among other things .m4v for pure video files (without Audio) or .m4a for audio-only files (usually AAC files).
