| Material Type | Use Type | Wrapper File Format | Video Codec | Audio Codec | Bit-Depth/ Bitrate | FPS Minimum | Display Minimum | Color Sampling ratio | Source |
| All moving image carriers | Preservation master | MXF (.mxf) | Motion jpeg2000 (.mj2) | Broadcast wave (.bwv) | 10 or 12 bit | Original (usually 29.97 for video and 24 for film) | Original | 4:2:2 | |
| Mezzanine | Quicktime (.mov) | H.264 | Wave (.wav) | maximum 18 mbps to ensure DVD compatibility | Original (usually 29.97 for video and 24 for film) | 1280 x 720 (720p) for 16:9 aspect ratio (widescreen); or 480 x 360 for 4:3 aspect ratio | 4:2:2 | ||
| Access | MPEG-4 (.mp4) | H.264 | MPEG-3 (.mp3) | .5 mbps to 15 mbps | Original, but if necessary to reduce file size use even fraction (1/2, 1/3, etc.) | 640 x 360 pixels for 16:9 aspect ratio (widescreen); or 480 x 360 for 4:3 aspect ratio | 4:2:2 | ||
| Notes from IMAP Video Preservation workshop: | |||||||||
| Equipment obsolescence is the greatest threat to any video archive. | |||||||||
| Duplication to an “evergreen” “preservation format” | |||||||||
| • Preservation Formats | |||||||||
| – Same or better quality than original | |||||||||
| – Proven track record of use | |||||||||
| – Seek the highest sampling and least compression | |||||||||
| – Choose reputable technologies and machineries | |||||||||
| – Consider purpose of reformatting (for broadcast, digital asset management migration, etc). | |||||||||
| • Lossless compression, 8 or 10 bit, open format | |||||||||
| • Digital tape formats have capture and compression issues as well as tape deterioration | |||||||||
| • Digital files have management and expense issues | |||||||||
| Preservation file formats | |||||||||
| • Depends on source format & quality (can adopt more than one format) | |||||||||
| • Don’t use a target format with higher resolution than source | |||||||||
| • Open (not proprietary) formats recommended (consider forward migration) | |||||||||
| “Open” preservation file formats | |||||||||
| • Uncompressed 8-bit or 10-bit | |||||||||
| • JPEG2000 | |||||||||
| • DV25 and DV50 | |||||||||
| Uncompressed 8-bit or 10-bit - When would you use? | |||||||||
| Encoding from high quality originals - Use as preservation, not mezzanine format | |||||||||