The main file types used are listed below you can also access a word document outlining an even bigger range of file types.
Sound
Name: MP3
How it works: MP3 is a form of sound compression which allows users to have a lossy version of the sound subsidising for size it uses, MP3 is an audio specific format which removes sounds that cant be heard by the human ear.
History: The proposal of psychoacoustics (cancellation of noise which is unheard) was apparently first proposed in 1979 by an individual named Manfred Schroeder and M. A. Krasner, modern works on lossy compression such as the MP3 and MPEG are based on the early works of Prof Oscar Bonello.
Name: WAV
How it works: Commonly the wav form of sound contains uncompressed audio in pulse code modification. However WAV files are capable of storing compressed audio. WAV is basically used to store uncompressed sound so there is not real working to it
History: The file type is basically developed by Microsoft and IBM as a joint effort to create a standard for storing audio on PCs.
Name: OGG
How it works: OGG s are the standard used in MAC and linux systems as audio files, not restricted by software patents the OGG file format is generally used to be manipulated into other types of files. It is unrestricted by patent and is designed for efficient streaming and manipulation.
History: Officially OGG became a standard in 2006/2007 however its development being open source cannot be pinpointed to a time or a place.
Video
Name: AVI
How it works: AVI files allow audio and video to be looped back synchronously, AVI also divides data into blocks or chunks with one optional chunk, the first chunk identifies size and frame rate, the second chunk contains the audio visuals and the third optional chunk defines the physical address within the chunks.
History: The history of the AVI began with Microsoft developing it in 1992 for its use in video for windows technology. Most AVI files also use the file format extensions developed by the Matrox OpenDML group. These files are supported by Microsoft, and are unofficially called “AVI 2.0″
Name: MOV/MPEG
How it works: The MOV and MPEG files have some similarities that can be seen both thoroughly developed by apple and both usually running in quick time allow the user to implement different styles of video and audio, in a MOV file 3d interactivity can also be created using an apple player this is known as QTVR in an MPEG however this is not possible.
History: The MPEG has gone through 4 major stages of development known as MP1-MP4 developing aspects from video compression to sound compression. The MOV file has gone through the development of adding QTVR capabilities allowing users to interact so much more with 3D environments.
Still Images
Name: JPEG
How it works: JPEG creates and organises how an image is converted from bytes back into an image, JPEG is a method of compression used for photographic images. There are different types of JPEG compression methods such as progressive, baseline and lossy. Progressive allows multiple passes on the image gradually adding quality baseline loads the image without loosing quality and lossy just takes of colour or quality to create a smaller size.
History: The committee was created in 1986 and first took out there standards for JPEG in ’92, which was later approved by ISO in ’94.
Name: TIFF
How it works: TIFF works like most other still image compression formats but it has one special ability, TIFF is a flexible and adaptable file format. It can handle multiple images and data in a single file through the inclusion of “tags” in the file header.
History: TIFF is currently under the ownership of Adobe however it was first created by Aldus for use with what was then called desktop publishing. TIFF has had major updates since 1992, including minor technical updates.
Name: GIF
How it works: GIF is an 8-bit-per-pixel bitmap image format that was introduced by CompuServe in 1987 and has since come into widespread usage on the World Wide Web due to its wide support and portability. GIF images are compressed using the Lempel-Ziv-Welch (LZW) lossless data compression technique to reduce the file size without degrading the visual quality.
History: First created in 1987 by CompuServe, and later the compression technique was developed in 1985.
