Ogg is a patent-free, fully open multimedia bitstream container format designed for efficient streaming and file compression (storage).
The name "Ogg" refers to the file format which includes a number of separate independent open source codecs for audio, video and text (e.g. subtitles). Files ending in the .ogg extension may be of any Ogg media filetype, and because the format is free, Ogg's various codecs have been incorporated into a number of different free and commercial media players.
The term "ogg" often refers to the audio file format Ogg Vorbis, that is, Vorbis-encoded audio in an Ogg container. Other prominent components of Ogg are its video codec Theora, and the human speech audio compression format, Speex.
It is the official file format in use for Wikipedia's audios and videos.
The format consists of chunks of data each called an Ogg Page. Each page begins with the "OggS" string to identify the file as Ogg format.
A serial number and page number in the page header identifies each page as part of a series of pages making up a bitstream. Multiple bitstreams may be multiplexed in the file where pages from each bitstream are ordered by the seek time of the contained data. Bitstreams may also be appended to existing files, a process known as chaining, to cause the bitstreams to be decoded in sequence.
A BSD-licensed library, called libogg, is available to encode and decode data from Ogg streams. Independent Ogg implementations are used in several projects such as RealPlayer and a set of DirectShow filters.
The following is the field layout of an ogg page header:
0 1 2 3 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1| Byte +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+ | capture_pattern: Magic number for page start "OggS" | 0-3 +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+ | version | header_type | granule_position | 4-7 +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+ | | 8-11 +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+ | | bitstream_serial_number | 12-15 +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+ | | page_sequence_number | 16-19 +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+ | | CRC_checksum | 20-23 +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+ | |page_segments | segment_table | 24-27 +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+ | ... | 28- +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
Capture Pattern - 32 bits
The capture pattern or sync code is a magic number used to ensure synchronisation when parsing ogg files. Every page starts with the four byte sequence 'OggS'. This assists in resynchronising a parser in cases where data has been lost or is corrupted, and is a sanity check before commencing parsing the page structure.
Version - 8 bits
This field indicates the version of the ogg bitstream format, to allow for future expansion. It is currently mandated to be 0.
Header Type - 8 bits
This is an 8 bit field of flags, which indicates the type of page which follows. The rightmost or least significant bit is considered bit 0, with value 0x01, the next least significant digit is bit 1, with value 0x02. The third is bit 2, with value 0x04, and so on.
Granule Position - 64 bits
A granule position is the time marker in ogg files. It is an abstract value, whose meaning is determined by the codec. It may for example be a count of the number of samples, the number of frames or a more complex scheme.
Bitstream Serial Number - 32 bits
This field is a serial number which identifies a page as belonging to a particular logical bitstream. Each logical bitstream in a file has a unique value, and this field allows implementations to deliver the pages to the appropriate decoder. In a typical vorbis+theora file, one stream will be the audio (vorbis), and the other will be the video (theora)
Page Sequence Number - 32 bits
This field is a monotonically increasing field for each logical bitstream. The first page is 0, the second 1, etc. This allows implementations to detect when data has been lost.
Checksum - 32 bits
This field provides a checksum of the data in the entire page, performed with the checksum field set to 0. This allows verification that the data has not been corrupted since it was created. Pages which fail the checksum should be discarded.
Page Segments - 8 bits
This field indicates the number of segments that exist in this page. It also indicates how many bytes are in the segment table which follows this field. There can be a maximum of 255 segments in any one page.
Segment Table
The segment table is an 8 bit vector of values indicating the length of each segment within the page body. The number of segments is determined from the preceding Page Segments field. Each segment is between 0 and 255 bytes in length.
The segments provide a way to group segments into packets, which are meaningful units of data for the decoder. When the segments length is indicated to be 255, this indicates that the following segment is to be concatanated to this one and is part of the same packet. When the segments length is 0-254, this indicates that this segment is the final segment in this packet. Where a packets length is a multiple of 255, the final segment will be of length 0.
Where the final packet continues on the next page, the final segment value will be 255, and the continuation flag will be set on the following page to indicate that the start of the new page is a continuation of last page.
The Ogg bitstream is defined in RFC 3533 and its MIME media type (application/ogg) in RFC 3534. The current Ogg version, released on November 27, 2005, is 1.1.3.
Being a Container format, ogg can embed third-party codecs (such as DivX, Dirac, XviD, mp3 and others) but usually Ogg is used with the following:
Ogg files | Container formats | Free multimedia codecs, containers, and splitters
Ogg | Ogg | Ogg | Ogg | Ogg | Ogg | Ogg | Ogg | Ogg | Ogg | Ogg Vorbis | Ogg | Ogg | Ogg | Огг | Ogg | Ogg Vorbis