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usnationalarchives / digital-preservation

NARA digital preservation file format risk analysis and preservation plans
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Digital Video - reference the codec as an underlying vulnerability factor #30

Open DigitalBedrock1 opened 4 years ago

DigitalBedrock1 commented 4 years ago

Digital video formats are listed (MOV, AVI, etc.). However, the video codec stream inside that format also has risk. For example, ProRes, found inside MOV files, is a proprietary codec owned by Apple. While preferred formats are not listed for digital video, there should be a reference to the video codec as an underlying vulnerability factor.

dangormanjr commented 4 years ago

What is the possibility of NARA acquiring proprietary technical specs for in-house use only, not to be shared with visiting researchers?

lljohnston commented 4 years ago

Yes, we maintain an in-house specification/standards library.

As to codecs, this is something we are aware of and we are considering updating the metrics to take codecs into consideration. We are also aware that it will greatly increase the complexity of the analysis of A/V formats so we're putting thought into the right approach.

jyw321 commented 3 years ago

One more issue I would like to raise is about the library of codecs held by different organizations/softwares. For example, rendering a video into H.264, if we use Adobe Premiere, the resulting codec would be mp41/mp42. But if the video is rendered in FFmpeg, the codec would be isom/mp41. There are still debates in the field about different libraries licensed to different organizations, and it is still nebulous that whether the different licensing affects the risk of the digital files.