|
Matroska is a project to develop an open source multimedia container format similar to Apple's QuickTime or Microsoft's Advanced Streaming Format.
The project was announcing on December 7 2002 as a fork of the Multimedia Container Format project, after disagreements with that project's creator about the use of the Extensible Binary Meta Language (EBML) instead of XML to describe a files content. The founders of the Matroska project believe that use of EBML brings them a number of advantages over XML, including making it easier to extend the format in the future as new developments occur or as the project goals change.
The project has a number of goals:
- create a modern, flexible, extensible, cross-platform multimedia container format that allows streaming across the Internet, fast seeking within a file and DVD-like chapter menus
- develop a set of tools for the creation and editing of Matroska files, licensed under the GNU General Public License
- develop libraries that can be used to allow developers to add Matroska support to their applications, licensed under the GNU Lesser General Public License.
- work with hardware manufacturers to include Matroska support in embedded multimedia devices
- support native Matroska support in various operating systems including Windows through DirectShow, Linux through the Gstreamer multimedia framework and Haiku through its Mediakit.
External link
|
