iFrame is a digital video format developed by

Apple An apple is an edible fruit produced by an apple tree (''Malus domestica''). Apple trees are cultivated worldwide and are the most widely grown species in the genus '' Malus''. The tree originated in Central Asia, where its wild ances ...

. It is based on existing industry standards, such as AVC/H.264,

AAC AAC may refer to: Aviation * Advanced Aircraft, a company from Carlsbad, California * Alaskan Air Command, a radar network * American Aeronautical Corporation, a company from Port Washington, New York * American Aviation, a company from Cleveland, ...

and

QuickTime QuickTime is an extensible multimedia framework developed by Apple Inc., capable of handling various formats of digital video, picture, sound, panoramic images, and interactivity. Created in 1991, the latest Mac version, QuickTime X, is a ...

, and can be used with compatible Mac and PC applications. The format has been created to simplify

video editing Video editing is the manipulation and arrangement of video shots. Video editing is used to structure and present all video information, including films and television shows, video advertisements and video essays. Video editing has been dramatical ...

. Many non-Apple editing tools do not require conversion of video from source to intermediate format, instead allowing to edit the original videos directly. Traditionally, Apple video editing tools like

Final Cut Pro Final Cut Pro is a series of non-linear editing, non-linear video editing software programs first developed by Macromedia, Macromedia Inc. and later Apple Inc. The most recent version, Final Cut Pro 10.6.4, runs on Macintosh, Mac computers power ...

and

iMovie iMovie (known at times as iMovie HD) is a preinstalled video editing application developed by Apple Inc. for macOS, iOS, and iPadOS devices. It was originally released in 1999 as a Mac OS 8 application bundled with the first FireWire-en ...

have required conversion of video from its original format into intermediate format such as

ProRes 422 Apple ProRes is a high quality, "visually lossless" lossy video compression format developed by Apple Inc. for use in post-production that supports video resolution up to 8K. It is the successor of the Apple Intermediate Codec and was introdu ...

or AIC for editing. With iFrame such conversion is no longer needed starting from iMovie '09.

Overview

iFrame video and audio is encoded using

lossy compression In information technology, lossy compression or irreversible compression is the class of data compression methods that uses inexact approximations and partial data discarding to represent the content. These techniques are used to reduce data size ...

. Only intraframe compression is enabled; every frame is a stand-alone

i-frame In the field of video compression a video frame is compressed using different algorithms with different advantages and disadvantages, centered mainly around amount of data compression. These different algorithms for video frames are called pic ...

. Video is encoded with the AVC/H.264 compression scheme. Audio is encoded with the

codec. The compressed audio and video are

multiplexed In telecommunications and computer networking, multiplexing (sometimes contracted to muxing) is a method by which multiple analog or digital signals are combined into one signal over a shared medium. The aim is to share a scarce resource - a ...

into a

file. To reduce data rate and hardware requirements, video frame has size of 960 horizontal by 540 vertical pixels with

pixel aspect ratio Pixel aspect ratio (often abbreviated PAR) is a mathematical ratio that describes how the width of a pixel in a digital image compares to the height of that pixel. Most digital imaging systems display an image as a grid of tiny, square pixel ...

of 1:1, which results in 16:9 display aspect ratio.

Progressive scanning Progressive scanning (alternatively referred to as noninterlaced scanning) is a format of displaying, storing, or transmitting moving images in which all the lines of each frame are drawn in sequence. This is in contrast to interlaced video used ...

at 30 or 25

frames per second A frame is often a structural system that supports other components of a physical construction and/or steel frame that limits the construction's extent. Frame and FRAME may also refer to: Physical objects In building construction * Framing (c ...

reduces data rate even further, but may result in increased “judder” when compared to the traditional rate of 60 or 50 images per second (fields or complete frames depending on scanning type) used for television broadcast. As of 2013, Apple has not made detailed information about this recording format publicly available.

Relation to other technologies

Frame size of 960 by 540 pixels nicknamed

qHD The graphics display resolution is the width and height dimension of an electronic visual display device, measured in pixels. This information is used for electronic devices such as a computer monitor. Certain combinations of width and height ar ...

became popular among manufacturers of

smartphone A smartphone is a portable computer device that combines mobile telephone and computing functions into one unit. They are distinguished from feature phones by their stronger hardware capabilities and extensive mobile operating systems, whic ...

s, including Apple's own iPhone.

Hardware products

* October 2009: Sanyo HD2000A, FH1A dual cameras * April 2010: Sanyo Xacti VPC-SH1 * July 2010: Panasonic HM-TA1 HD pocket camcorder * October 2010: JVC Picsio GC-FM2 pocket camcorder * December 2010: Panasonic SDX1 camcorder * February 2011: Canon PowerShot SX230 HS, PowerShot SX220 HS, IXUS 310 HS (aka PowerShot ELPH 500) * February 2011: Nikon S9100 * March 2011: Panasonic HDC-HS900, HDC-TM900, HDC-SD900, HDC-SD800, HDC-SD90, HDC-TM90 * May 2011: Panasonic HDC-SD40, HDC-SD41, HDC-TM40 * September 2011: Canon PowerShot SX40 HS * November 2011: Canon PowerShot S100 * February 2012:

Canon PowerShot G1X The Canon PowerShot G1 X is a large sensor digital compact camera announced by Canon on January 9, 2012. It was replaced by the Canon PowerShot G1 X Mark II The Canon PowerShot G1 X Mark II is a large sensor digital compact camera A camer ...

, PowerShot SX240 HS, PowerShot SX260 HS; Nikon

COOLPIX P510 The Nikon Coolpix P510 is an ultrazoom bridge camera announced by Nikon (, ; ), also known just as Nikon, is a Japanese multinational corporation headquartered in Tokyo, Japan, specializing in optics and imaging products. The companies held by ...

* January 2012: Panasonic HC-V700; Canon 110 HS * February 2012: Panasonic HC-X900(M) * May 2012: Nikon AW100 * August 2012: Canon SX160 IS * September 2012:

Canon Powershot SX50 HS The Canon PowerShot SX50 HS is a 12.1 megapixel PowerShot made by Canon Canon or Canons may refer to: Arts and entertainment * Canon (fiction), the conceptual material accepted as official in a fictional universe by its fan base * Literar ...

* November 2012: Canon Powershot G15 * January 2013: Nikon Coolpix S9500 * September 2013 Nikon COOLPIX L620 * September 2014:

Canon Powershot SX60 HS The Canon PowerShot SX60 HS is a digital ultra-zoom bridge camera announced by Canon Inc. on September 15, 2014. It has one of the longest zoom ranges of any digital camera. It features a 65x optical zoom A zoom lens is a mechanical assembly ...

Software products

* iMovie * Final Cut Express, Final Cut Pro X

References

External links