Bitstream format

A bitstream format is the format of the data found in some stream of bits used in a digital communication or storage application. The term typically refers to the format of the output of an encoder or the format of the input to a decoder when using data compression.

Standardized interoperability specifications such as the video coding standards produced by MPEG and the ITU-T and the audio coding standards produced by MPEG often specify only the bitstream format and the decoding process, while allowing individual encoder implementations to be designed using any methods whatsoever that produce bitstreams the conform to the specified bitstream format.