Guidelines: MXF Application Specification
Audio-Visual Working Group

Draft under development.
The Working Group began drafting an MXF Application Specification for Archiving and Preservation (AS-AP) in 2009. When complete, AS-AP will offer a detailed specification for a file "wrapper," one key part of a digital file format for audio-visual preservation. The specification includes a list of permitted encoded essences (the underlying content bitstreams) and outlines aspects of the metadata to be embedded to support long term content management. More information is provided in the background documents listed below.

In 2010, the Working Group approached the Advanced Media Workflow Associationexternal link (AMWA) about the continued development and eventual publication of this specification. AMWA is a broadcast-industry organization dedicated to the incubation of MXF Application Specifications and related guidelines. In 2012, the AMWA board accepted the continued development of the FADGI specification as an official AMWA project, under the new rubric of AS-07, to include the production of a reference implementation and validation tools. Work will continue during 2013.

AS-AP/AS-07 is intended to serve reformatting programs that produce digital-file copies of videotapes, motion picture films, or other audio-visual items for long-term management. The specification is also intended to define a container for born-digital content when the native encoded essence (the underlying bitstream, as acquired by an archive) is judged to be suitable for retention for at least the medium term. The specification will be extensible over time. The initial emphasis is on the reformatting of videotapes (analog and digital) and the formatting of content that arrives at an MXF-file production system as an uncompressed digital video stream. The video to be reformatted may be in standard or high definition (multiple aspect ratios) and, for many archives, the preferred picture encodings will be uncompressed or lossless-compressed JPEG 2000.

We encourage participation in the development process by other interested audio-visual archives. Please send us your comments.

SPECIFICATION UNDER DEVELOPMENT

• Current FADGI draft: MXF Application Specification for Archiving and Preservation, version 1k, October 5, 2012.
      • Note that this PDF file includes a "bookmark" table of contents.
      • This version of AS-AP, like its predecessors, includes a number of provisional elements that will be refined in the AMWA development process.
• Earlier draft: MXF Application Specification for Archiving and Preservation, version 1h, August 15, 2011.
• Earlier draft: MXF Application Specification for Archiving and Preservation, version 1d, October 20, 2010

BACKGROUND DOCUMENTS

• Background paper, 14 pages, October 2010.
• Preservation Video File Format Issues and Considerations, 11 pages, August 2011.
• Working list of generalized user requirements, 3 pages, January 2013. Comments welcome.
• Notes from user-community technical meeting at AMIA/IASA joint conference, 5 pages, November 2010
• JPEG 2000 profile illustrative sketch, 3 pages, October 2010.

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Working Groups

Still Image Working Group
This group is involved in a cooperative effort to develop common digitization guidelines for still image materials.

Audio-Visual Working Group
The goal for this working group is to identify, establish, and disseminate information about standards and practices for the digital reformatting of audio-visual materials by federal agencies.