Audio-Video Transport WG                               Y Lim, D. Singer
Internet Draft                                   net&tv, Apple Computer
Document: draft-lim-mpeg4-mime-03                          October 2004
Category:                                            Expires March 2005


                    MIME Type Registration for MPEG-4


Status of this Memo

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   This document is a submission of the IETF AVT WG.  Comments should
   be directed to the AVT WG mailing list, avt@ietf.org.


Abstract

   This document defines the standard MIME types associated with MP4
   files. This also document recommended use of registered MIME types
   according to the type of contents.



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   Table of Contents

   1. Introduction...................................................3
   2. Selection of MIME types for MP4 files..........................3
   3. IANA Considerations............................................4
      3.1 MP4 file with visual presentation..........................4
      3.2 MP4 file without visual presentation.......................5
      3.3 MP4 file without visual presentation.......................6
      3.4 IOD in binary format.......................................7
      3.5 IOD in textual format......................................8
   4. Security Considerations........................................9
   5. Acknowledgments................................................9
   6. Full Copyright Statement......................................10
   7. Intellectual Property Notice..................................10
   8. References....................................................11
   9. Author's Addresses............................................11
























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1. Introduction

   This document describes standard definition of MIME types associated
   with MP4 files and the guidelines for using them.

   MPEG-4, ISO/IEC 14496, is a standard designed for the representation
   and delivery of multimedia information over a variety of transport
   protocols[3].  It includes interactive scene management, visual and
   audio representations as well as systems functionality like
   multiplexing, synchronization, and an object descriptor framework.

   The historical approach for MPEG data is to declare it under "video",
   and this approach is followed for ISO/IEC 14496.  In addition some
   MIME types are defined under "audio" and "application" for the
   streams not containing visual presentation.

   Amendment 1 of the ISO/IEC 14496 standard (also known as version 2)
   includes a standard file type for encapsulating ISO/IEC 14496 data.
   This file type can be used in a number of ways: perhaps the most
   important are its use as an interchange format for ISO/IEC 14496
   data, its use as a content-download format, and as the format read by
   streaming media servers.

   These first two uses will be greatly facilitated if there is a
   standard MIME type for serving these files (e.g. over HTTP).

   The ISO/IEC 14496 standard is broad, and therefore the type of data
   that may be in such a file can vary. In brief, simple compressed
   video and audio (using a number of different compression algorithms)
   can be included; interactive scene information; meta-data about the
   presentation; references to ISO/IEC 14496 media streams outside the
   file and so on. Different top-level MIME types are used to identify
   the type of the contents in the file.

2. Selection of MIME types for MP4 file

   The MIME types to be assigned to MP4 files are selected based on the
   contents. Basic guidelines of selecting MIME types are as follows:

   a) if the file contains neither visual nor audio presentations, but
   only for example MPEG-J or MPEG-7, use application/mp4

   b) for all other files, including those which have MPEG-J etc. in
   addition to video or audio streams, video/mp4 should be used,
   although:

   c) for files with audio but no visual aspect, including those which
   have MPEG-J etc. in addition to audio streams, audio/mp4 may be used.

   In either case, these indicate files conforming to the "MP4"
   specification (ISO/IEC 14496-1:2000, systems file format).

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3. IANA Considerations

   This section describes the MIME types and names to be used with
   various MPEG-4 contents. Sections from 4.1 to 4.5 register five new
   MIME types.

3.1  MP4 file

   MIME media type name:        video

   MIME subtype name:   mp4

   Required parameters: none

   Optional parameters: none

   Encoding considerations:     base64 generally preferred; files are
   binary and should be transmitted without CR/LF conversion, 7-bit
   stripping etc.

   Security considerations:     See section 5 of RFC XXXX

   Interoperability considerations:     A number of interoperating
   implementations exist within the ISO/IEC 14496 community;  and that
   community has reference software for reading and writing the file
   format.

   Published specification: ISO/IEC 14496-1:2001.

   Applications:        Multimedia

   Additional information:

   Magic number(s):     none
   File extension(s):   mp4 and mpg4 are both declared at
   <http://pitch.nist.gov/nics/>
   Macintosh File Type Code(s): mpg4  is registered with Apple

   Person to contact for info:  David Singer, singer@apple.com

   Intended usage:      Common

   Author/Change controller:    David Singer, ISO/IEC 14496 file format
   chair


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3.2 MP4 file with audio but without visual presentation

   MIME media type name:audio

   MIME subtype name:   mp4

   Required parameters: none

   Optional parameters: none

   Encoding considerations:     base64 generally preferred; files are
   binary and should be transmitted without CR/LF conversion, 7-bit
   stripping etc.

   Security considerations:     See section 5 of RFC XXXX

   Interoperability considerations:     A number of interoperating
   implementations exist within the ISO/IEC 14496 community;  and that
   community has reference software for reading and writing the file
   format.

   Published specification:      ISO/IEC 14496-1:2001.

   Applications:        Multimedia

   Additional information:

   Magic number(s):     none
   File extension(s):   mp4 and mpg4 are both declared at
   <http://pitch.nist.gov/nics/>
   Macintosh File Type Code(s): mpg4  is registered with Apple

   Person to contact for info:  David Singer, singer@apple.com

   Intended usage:      Common

   Author/Change controller:    David Singer, ISO/IEC 14496 file format
   chair




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3.3 MP4 file with MPEG-4 system stream and
    neither visual nor audio presentation

   MIME media type name:application

   MIME subtype name:   mp4

   Required parameters: none

   Optional parameters: none

   Encoding considerations:     base64 generally preferred; files are
   binary and should be transmitted without CR/LF conversion, 7-bit
   stripping etc.

   Security considerations:     See section 5 of RFC XXXX

   Interoperability considerations:     A number of interoperating
   implementations exist within the ISO/IEC 14496 community;  and that
   community has reference software for reading and writing the file
   format.

   Published specification:      ISO/IEC 14496-1:2001.

   Applications:        Multimedia

   Additional information:

   Magic number(s):     none
   File extension(s):   mp4 and mpg4 are both declared at
   <http://pitch.nist.gov/nics/>
   Macintosh File Type Code(s): mpg4  is registered with Apple

   Person to contact for info:  David Singer, singer@apple.com

   Intended usage:      Common

   Author/Change controller:    David Singer, ISO/IEC 14496 file format
   chair



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3.4  IOD in binary format

   MIME media type name:        application

   MIME subtype name:   mpeg4-iod

   Required parameters: none

   Optional parameters: none

   Encoding considerations:     base64 generally preferred; files are
   binary and should be transmitted without CR/LF conversion, 7-bit
   stripping etc.

   Security considerations:     See section 5 of RFC XXXX

   Interoperability considerations:     A number of interoperating
   implementations exist within the ISO/IEC 14496 community;  and that
   community has reference software for reading and writing the file
   format.

   Published specification:      ISO/IEC 14496-1:2001

   Applications:        Multimedia

   Additional information:

   Magic number(s):     none
   File extension(s):    none mp4 and mpg4 are both declared at
   <http://pitch.nist.gov/nics/>
   Macintosh File Type Code(s): mpg4 is registered with Apple

   Person to contact for info:  David Singer, singer@apple.com

   Intended usage:      Common

   Author/Change controller:    David Singer, ISO/IEC 14496 file format
   chair




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3.5 IOD in textual format

   MIME media type name:        application

   MIME subtype name:   mpeg4-iod-xmt

   Required parameters: none

   Optional parameters: none

   Encoding considerations:      none

   Security considerations:     See section 5 of RFC XXXX

   Interoperability considerations:     A number of interoperating
   implementations exist within the ISO/IEC 14496 community;  and that
   community has reference software for reading and writing the file
   format.

   Published specification: ISO/IEC 14496-1:2001 AMD2.

   Applications:        Multimedia

   Additional information:

   Magic number(s):     none
   File extension(s):   mp4 and mpg4 are both declared at
   <http://pitch.nist.gov/nics/>
   Macintosh File Type Code(s): mpg4 is registered with Apple

   Person to contact for info:  David Singer, singer@apple.com

   Intended usage:      Common

   Author/Change controller:    David Singer, ISO/IEC 14496 file format
   chair





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4. Security Considerations

   It is possible to inject non-compliant MPEG streams (Audio, Video,
   and Systems) in the MP4 file to overload the receiver/decoder's
   buffers which might compromise the functionality of the receiver
   or even crash it. This is especially true for end-to-end systems
   like MPEG where the buffer models are precisely defined.

   MP4 file supports storage of stream types including commands that
   are executed on the terminal like OD commands, BIFS commands, etc.
   and programmatic content like MPEG-J (Java(TM) Byte Code) and
   ECMASCRIPT. It is possible to use one or more of the above in a
   manner non-compliant to MPEG to crash or temporarily make the
   receiver unavailable.

   Authentication mechanisms can be used to validate of the sender and
   the data to prevent security problems due to non-compliant malignant
   MP4 file.

   A security model is defined in ISO/IEC 14496 Systems MP4 files
   containing MPEG-J contents which comprises Java(TM) classes and
   objects. MPEG-J defines a set of Java APIs and a secure execution
   model. MPEG-J content can call this set of APIs and Java(TM) methods
   from a set of Java packages supported in the receiver within the
   defined security model. According to this security model, downloaded
   byte code is forbidden to load libraries, define native methods,
   start programs, read or write files, or read system properties.


5. Acknowledgments

   This draft has benefited greatly by contributions from many people,
   including Mike Coleman, Jean-Claude Duford, Viswanathan Swaminathan,
   Peter Westerink, Carsten Herpel, Olivier Avaro, Paul Christ, Zvi
   Lifshitz, and many others.  Their insight, foresight, and
   contribution is gratefully acknowledged.  Little has been invented
   here by the author; this is mostly a collation of greatness that has
   gone before.


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6.     Full Copyright Statement

   Copyright (C) The Internet Society (2004).  This document is subject
   to the rights, licenses and restrictions contained in BCP 78, and
   except as set forth therein, the authors retain all their rights.

   This document and the information contained herein are provided on
   an "AS IS" basis and THE CONTRIBUTOR, THE ORGANIZATION HE/SHE
   REPRESENTS OR IS SPONSORED BY (IF ANY), THE INTERNET SOCIETY AND THE
   INTERNET ENGINEERING TASK FORCE DISCLAIM ALL WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR
   IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO ANY WARRANTY THAT THE USE OF
   THE INFORMATION HEREIN WILL NOT INFRINGE ANY RIGHTS OR ANY IMPLIED
   WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.


7.     Intellectual Property Notice

   The IETF takes no position regarding the validity or scope of any
   Intellectual Property Rights or other rights that might be claimed
   to pertain to the implementation or use of the technology described
   in this document or the extent to which any license under such
   rights might or might not be available; nor does it represent that
   it has made any independent effort to identify any such rights.
   Information on the procedures with respect to rights in RFC
   documents can be found in BCP 78 and BCP 79.

   Copies of IPR disclosures made to the IETF Secretariat and any
   assurances of licenses to be made available, or the result of an
   attempt made to obtain a general license or permission for the use
   of such proprietary rights by implementers or users of this
   specification can be obtained from the IETF on-line IPR repository
   at http://www.ietf.org/ipr.

   The IETF invites any interested party to bring to its attention any
   copyrights, patents or patent applications, or other proprietary
   rights that may cover technology that may be required to implement
   this standard.  Please address the information to the IETF at ietf-
   ipr@ietf.org.





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8. References
8.1 Normative References

   [1]Bradner, S., "The Internet Standards Process -- Revision 3", BCP
      9, RFC 2026, October 1996.

   [2]Bradner, S., "Key words for use in RFCs to Indicate Requirement
      Levels", BCP 14, RFC 2119, March 1997

   [3]H. Schulzrinne, et. al., "RTP : A Transport Protocol for Real-Time
      Applications", IETF RFC 1889, January 1996.

   [4]ISO/IEC 14496-1 "Information technology - Coding of audio-visual
      objects - Part 1 : Systems", 3rd ed. 2004

   [5]ISO/IEC 14496-12 "Information technology - Coding of audio-visual
      objects - Part 12 : ISO Base Media File Format", December 2003

   [6]ISO/IEC 14496-14 "Information technology - Coding of audio-visual
      objects - Part 14 : MP4 File Format", January 2004

   [7]ISO/IEC 14496-15 "Information technology - Coding of audio-visual
      objects - Part 15 : AVC File Format", 2004

9. Author's Addresses


   Young-Kwon LIM
   net&tv Inc.
   Room 802 Hanseo Building
   1582-6 Seocho-3-Dong Seocho-Gu
   Seoul, 137-875, Korea
   E-mail : young@netntv.co.kr
   TEL : +82-2-581-2305


   David Singer
   Apple Computer, Inc.
   One Infinite Loop, MS:302-3MT
   Cupertino  CA 95014
   USA
   Email: singer@apple.com
   Tel: +1 408 974 3162
































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