Multimedia Research Institute

Multimedia technology, from top to bottom, inside and out

Last updated: July 10, 2005 (Recent Changes)

Check out Breaking Eggs And Making Omelettes, a blog dealing with multimedia technology and reverse engineering.

Introduction to the MRI: Why does this site exist?
Multimedia Technology Basics: This document describes the basic information you should know about FourCCs, AVI Codecs, ASF Codecs, WAV Codecs, MOV Codecs, RM Codecs, YUV Codecs, RGB Codecs, Lossy and Lossless Codecs and more.
Lecture Notes Of A Graduate Video Coding Course: These are the lecture notes for a graduate level Digital Video Coding and Compression class. Much of the material on this site jumps right into the specific technical details of formats. As a theoretical foundation, the concepts discussed in these PDF notes are essential for understanding modern video compression technologies.
Multimedia Exploration Journal: A journal detailing research into exotic vintage multimedia formats unearthed from used software shops.
Codec Research Mailing List: Join this mailing list to discuss codec matters.

This section contains information about all kinds of general-purpose and special-purpose multimedia transport (file) formats.

This section contains technical descriptions of many different production video codecs.

This section contains technical descriptions of many different production audio codecs.

This section contains information on various network protocols that are used to stream multimedia over networks.

This section contains links to a variety of multimedia samples for the purpose of testing or just expanding your collection.

July 10, 2005
- Added a link to the formal Nullsoft Video (NSV) specs on formats page
- Updated Multimedia API document on other topics page
May 12, 2005
- Added a new Multimedia Exploration Journal entry
- Added Vorbis errata document on audio codecs page

Maintained by Mike Melanson, mike at multimedia.cx