MXF

MXF stands for Material eXchange Format and is a container format for time based media such as video and audio. MXF files allow a number of essences encoded in a given codec to be (theoretically) stored in the same file as the metadata which may be used to described it. The implementation of MXF varies across different software systems, some will not actually use the same file to store data but rely on a single MXF header file with linked video, audio and XML metadata stored as separate files. Despite some problems with the handling of MXF it is gaining widespread acceptance among the A/V industry as a means of archiving time based media.