Chapter 02

Data and File Format Standards for Multimedia.

 Data &file format standardization is crucial for the sharing of data among
multiple applications and for exchanging information between applications.
 The personal computer industry and more specifically, the Microsoft-
Windows-based systems form the largest base multimedia systems.
 The following multimedia file formats are need in the Personal Computer
Environment.
1. Rich-text format (RTF)
2. Tagged image file format (TIFF)
3. Resource image file format (RIFF)
4. Musical instrument digital interface (MIDI)
5. Joint Photographic Experts Group (JPEG)
6. Audio Video Interleaved (AVI)

Rich-Text Format

 RTF was designed to create a standard Format for texts that included
presentation information (color, Font, attributes, etc.) and is designed to
support the graphics characters available with most character sets.
 RTF extended the range of information carried through from one word-
processor application or desktop publishing system to another; as long as
both applications had a cross-section of RTF implementations, they could
share formatting information by translating it to their native formatting
controls.
 The key formatting information carried across in RTF document files.
1.Character set determine the characters, supported in a particular
implementation. (Windows ANSI, IBM PC, IBM 850)
2. Font table all fonts used in the document. these fonts are then
mapped to the fonts available in the receiving
application for displaying the id.
3.Document formatting Provides for true document margins. (helps ensure that
when a document is printed by a receiving
application, the printed page looks very similar to the
original page.
4.Section formatting Section breaks & page breaks. (Formatting infn
specification the space above & below section)
5.Paragraph formatting RTF specification defines control characters for
specifying paragraph justification tab positions, left,
right & first indents relative to document margins and
the spacing between paragraphs (style sheets)
6.General formatting. Footnotes, annotation, bookmarks & pictures

7.Character formatting bold, italic, underline, strikethrough, shadow text,

outline text, hidden text, subscripts, superscripts

8.Special characters hyplens, non-breaking spaces, backslashes & so on

TIFF (Tagged Image File Format)

 TIFF provides tags that store information about resolution, color, the
compression scheme used for capturing, the data & time of capture & time
of capture & even the creator who created the file.
 A search through file is quick, since tag location are found through pointers
& tags are identified using 32-bit Ascll strings.
 A tagged file allows one to add new information at any time.
 Designed to represent raster image data generated by scanners, frame
grabbers, & paint/photo retouching applications, with several color spaces
color models & different date compression schemes.
 TIFF is extensible, allowing new functionality of imaging devices to be
added by enhancing the specification without sacrificing the down ward
compatibility.
 The baseline TIFF specification offers the following formats.
1. Binary, Gray-scale, palette color, and RGB full-color images.
2. Uncompressed images [(run-length encoding) & modified Huffman
data compression schemes]
 TIFF extensions specification offers the following additional formats.
1. Tiled images & that use the color models: CMYK, YC5Cr & CIEL*a*b.
2. Compression schemens (CCIT Group 3 2D, CCIT Group 4 2D, LZW &
JPEG)
TIFF structure
0 Intel or Motorola Byte Order
2 Version Number
4 Pointer to the first image file
directory
No of bytes
2 *Header contains & bytes
2 represent the byte order for the
4 file formats(intel/Motorola)

Image File Directory

-TIFF File format header- represent the version number

Of TIFF(v 5/6)
A pointer to the first IFD
IFD is a variable-length table
Containing directory entries.
*first 2 bytes contain the total no of No. of bytes
Number of Entries
Entries in the table. 2
Directory Tag ID 2
Entries Data type 2 DE-1
Length 4
Value off 4

DE 2

DEN
Offset to Next IFD
Directory entry
1.first 2 bytes: Tag number/tag ID
2.second 2 bytes: Byte values for supported data types(unsigned,ASII,unsigned
integer, unsigned word)
3.4 bytes: length/count for that datatype.
4. 4 bytes: data/pointer: if the data is equal or less than 4 bytes, the value field
Contains The actual data. If the data is more than 4 bytes then the value field
Contains a pointer to the data as an offset in the TIFF file.

RIFF(Resource interchange File Format)

 Provides framework for Microsoft Windows Based applications.

 It can be used to convert a custom file format to a RIFF File format & by
wrapping a RIFF structure around it.
 RIFF is a tagged file format & uses tags to tag information.
 Advantages provided by tagged file formats:
1. Search is quick.
2. Changes or updates are handled more easily through changing
tags or adding new tags.
3. More space is provided for new information by adding another
tagged block to the file.
 RIFF file formats consists of blocks of data called chunks.
 Each chunk contains 4-char ASII string ID called tag, 4 bytes containing the
size of the chunk data,& then data.
 The RIFF specification defines the following kinds of chunks.
1. RIFF chunks-defines the contents of the RIFF file.
2. List chunk -allows embedding additional file information such
as archival location, copyright information, creation data & so
on.
 3. Sub chunk - allows adding more information to a primary
chunk when the primary chunk is not sufficient.

ID
4
Size
4
Form type
4 RIFF chunk data

ID 4 sub chunk
SIZE 4
DATA
Sub chunk
id
size
data

MIDI File Format

 Provides storing for separate tracks of Music for each instrument

so that they can be read & synchronized when they are played.
 MIDI contains chunks of data 2 types of chunks
1. Header chunks(14 bytes)
o Identifier string(4-character string)-MThd
o Data size for the header chunk(4 bytes)
o Data (4 bytes)
2.Track chunk
o Identifier (4-char string) MTrk
o Track length(4-bytes)
o MIDI messages are in the rest of the chunk
  MIDI is a system specification consisting of both h/w & s/w components
that define inter connectivity & communication protocol electronic
synthesizers,sequencers,rhythm machines, personal computers & other
electronic musical instruments.
 Inter connectivity defines the standard cabling scheme, connector type &
input/output circuitry that enable these MIDI instruments to be
interconnected with each other.
 Communication protocols uses multibyte messages. There are two types of
messages: channel messages and system messages.
Channel messages:
o 3 bytes in a message.(1-byte called status byte, & other
two types are called data bytes)
o Each MIDI voice has a channel number & messages are
sent to the channel whose channel number matches
the channel number encoded in the lower nibble of the
status byte.
System messages:
o Applies to the complete system rather than specific
channels & do not contain any channel numbers.
Device Independent Bitmap(DB)

JPEG
 Microsoft has extended the DIB file format standards for both JPEG still &
motion images.
 JPEG still images:
o JPEG DIB for still images allow embedding JPEG image data
as a contiguous stream of data.
o Standard file format is generated which can be moved
across platforms & applications.
  JPEG motion images:
o The motion JPEG DIBS cannot be used as standalone disk
file as they are not complete; instead they will be
embedded in an AVI RIFF file format.
 JPEG DIBs contain a file header structure called BITMAP FILEHEADER, a
bitmap information header called BITMAP INFOHEADER, a color table
structure called RABQUAD, and an array of bytes for bitmap.

MICROSOFT AVI
 AVI is a low-cost, low-resolution video on the desktop
 It is a software only solution(Not a part of os)
 Designed to playback video at 15 frames/sec in a160*120 windows with 8-
bit sound.
 Scalable.
 Performance under AVI depends on the underlying h/w used with it.
 AVI provides several dialog boxes to select windows size, frame rate, quality
& compression algorithm.