IEC TS 63499:2024

IEC TS 63499 ®
Edition 1.0 2024-02
TECHNICAL
SPECIFICATION
Encoding guidelines for interoperable master format – Application #6

All rights reserved. Unless otherwise specified, no part of this publication may be reproduced or utilized in any form
or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and microfilm, without permission in writing from
either IEC or IEC's member National Committee in the country of the requester. If you have any questions about IEC
copyright or have an enquiry about obtaining additional rights to this publication, please contact the address below or
your local IEC member National Committee for further information.

IEC Secretariat Tel.: +41 22 919 02 11
3, rue de Varembé info@iec.ch
CH-1211 Geneva 20 www.iec.ch
Switzerland
About the IEC
The International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) is the leading global organization that prepares and publishes
International Standards for all electrical, electronic and related technologies.

About IEC publications
The technical content of IEC publications is kept under constant review by the IEC. Please make sure that you have the
latest edition, a corrigendum or an amendment might have been published.

IEC publications search - webstore.iec.ch/advsearchform IEC Products & Services Portal - products.iec.ch
The advanced search enables to find IEC publications by a Discover our powerful search engine and read freely all the
variety of criteria (reference number, text, technical publications previews, graphical symbols and the glossary.
committee, …). It also gives information on projects, replaced With a subscription you will always have access to up to date
and withdrawn publications. content tailored to your needs.

IEC Just Published - webstore.iec.ch/justpublished
Electropedia - www.electropedia.org
Stay up to date on all new IEC publications. Just Published
The world's leading online dictionary on electrotechnology,
details all new publications released. Available online and once
containing more than 22 500 terminological entries in English
a month by email.
and French, with equivalent terms in 25 additional languages.

Also known as the International Electrotechnical Vocabulary
IEC Customer Service Centre - webstore.iec.ch/csc
(IEV) online.
If you wish to give us your feedback on this publication or need

further assistance, please contact the Customer Service
Centre: sales@iec.ch.
IEC TS 63499 ®
Edition 1.0 2024-02
TECHNICAL
SPECIFICATION
Encoding guidelines for interoperable master format – Application #6

INTERNATIONAL
ELECTROTECHNICAL
COMMISSION
ICS 33.160.01  ISBN 978-2-8322-8348-6

– 2 – IEC TS 63499:2024 © IEC 2024
CONTENTS
FOREWORD . 3
1 Scope . 5
2 Normative references . 5
3 Terms and definitions . 5
4 Mapping AVC/H.264 streams into IMF . 6
4.1 IMF overview . 6
4.2 IMF Application #6 . 7
5 Recommended codec constraints for IMF Application #6 . 7
5.1 General . 7
5.2 Codec constraints . 7
5.3 Placement of parameter set (SPS/PPS) . 8
5.4 Multi-slice encoding of AVC/H.264 Stream . 9
5.5 Occurrence condition of NAL unit . 10
Bibliography . 12

Figure 1 – Interoperable Master Package (IMP) . 6
Figure 2 – Image Track File . 6
Figure 3 – Example of applying the IMF . 7
Figure 4 – Example of placing SPS and PPS in each picture. 8
Figure 5 – Example of placing SPS and PPS at the start of each GOP . 9
Figure 6 – Example of placing SPS and PPS at the start of the stream . 9

Table 1 – NAL unit types associated with video ES specified in ISO/IEC 14496-10 . 10

INTERNATIONAL ELECTROTECHNICAL COMMISSION
____________
ENCODING GUIDELINES FOR INTEROPERABLE
MASTER FORMAT – APPLICATION #6

FOREWORD
1) The International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) is a worldwide organization for standardization comprising
all national electrotechnical committees (IEC National Committees). The object of IEC is to promote international
co-operation on all questions concerning standardization in the electrical and electronic fields. To this end and
in addition to other activities, IEC publishes International Standards, Technical Specifications, Technical Reports,
Publicly Available Specifications (PAS) and Guides (hereafter referred to as “IEC Publication(s)”). Their
preparation is entrusted to technical committees; any IEC National Committee interested in the subject dealt with
may participate in this preparatory work. International, governmental and non-governmental organizations liaising
with the IEC also participate in this preparation. IEC collaborates closely with the International Organization for
Standardization (ISO) in accordance with conditions determined by agreement between the two organizations.
2) The formal decisions or agreements of IEC on technical matters express, as nearly as possible, an international
consensus of opinion on the relevant subjects since each technical committee has representation from all
interested IEC National Committees.
3) IEC Publications have the form of recommendations for international use and are accepted by IEC National
Committees in that sense. While all reasonable efforts are made to ensure that the technical content of IEC
Publications is accurate, IEC cannot be held responsible for the way in which they are used or for any
misinterpretation by any end user.
4) In order to promote international uniformity, IEC National Committees undertake to apply IEC Publications
transparently to the maximum extent possible in their national and regional publications. Any divergence between
any IEC Publication and the corresponding national or regional publication shall be clearly indicated in the latter.
5) IEC itself does not provide any attestation of conformity. Independent certification bodies provide conformity
assessment services and, in some areas, access to IEC marks of conformity. IEC is not responsible for any
services carried out by independent certification bodies.
6) All users should ensure that they have the latest edition of this publication.
7) No liability shall attach to IEC or its directors, employees, servants or agents including individual experts and
members of its technical committees and IEC National Committees for any personal injury, property damage or
other damage of any nature whatsoever, whether direct or indirect, or for costs (including legal fees) and
expenses arising out of the publication, use of, or reliance upon, this IEC Publication or any other IEC
Publications.
8) Attention is drawn to the Normative references cited in this publication. Use of the referenced publications is
indispensable for the correct application of this publication.
9) IEC draws attention to the possibility that the implementation of this document may involve the use of (a)
patent(s). IEC takes no position concerning the evidence, validity or applicability of any claimed patent rights in
respect thereof. As of the date of publication of this document, IEC had not received notice of (a) patent(s), which
may be required to implement this document. However, implementers are cautioned that this may not represent
the latest information, which may be obtained from the patent database available at https://patents.iec.ch. IEC
shall not be held responsible for identifying any or all such patent rights.
IEC TS 63499 has been prepared by subcommittee TA 6: Storage media, storage data structure,
storage systems and equipment, of IEC technical committee TC 100: Audio, video and
multimedia systems and equipment. It is a Technical Specification.
The text of this Technical Specification is based on the following documents:
Draft Report on voting
100/4091/DTS 100/4116/RVDTS
Full information on the voting for its approval can be found in the report on voting indicated in
the above table.
The language used for the development of this Technical Specification is English.

– 4 – IEC TS 63499:2024 © IEC 2024
This document was drafted in accordance with ISO/IEC Directives, Part 2, and developed in
accordance with ISO/IEC Directives, Part 1 and ISO/IEC Directives, IEC Supplement, available
at www.iec.ch/members_experts/refdocs. The main document types developed by IEC are
described in greater detail at www.iec.ch/publications.
The committee has decided that the contents of this document will remain unchanged until the
stability date indicated on the IEC website under webstore.iec.ch in the data related to the
specific document. At this date, the document will be
• reconfirmed,
• withdrawn, or
• revised.
IMPORTANT – The "colour inside" logo on the cover page of this document indicates
that it contains colours which are considered to be useful for the correct understanding
of its contents. Users should therefore print this document using a colour printer.

ENCODING GUIDELINES FOR INTEROPERABLE
MASTER FORMAT – APPLICATION #6

1 Scope
This document provides video encoding guidelines for the use of Interoperable Master Format
(IMF) Application #6 defined in SMPTE ST 2067-60.
These guidelines are applicable for any equipment which creates an IMF Image Track File using
AVC/H.264 as the video codec.
2 Normative references
The following documents are referred to in the text in such a way that some or all of their content
constitutes requirements of this document. For dated references, only the edition cited applies.
For undated references, the latest edition of the referenced document (including any
amendments) applies.
ISO/IEC 14496-10:2020, Information technology – Coding of audio-visual objects – Part 10:
Advanced video coding | Rec. ITU-T H.264 (08/2021), Advanced video coding for generic
audiovisual services
SMPTE ST 377-1:2019, Material Exchange Format (MXF) – File Format Specification
SMPTE ST 381-3:2017, Material Exchange Format (MXF) – Mapping AVC Streams into the
MXF Generic Container
SMPTE ST 2067-60:2023, Interoperable Master Format – Application #6 UHDTV Program
Workflow (AVC)
3 Terms and definitions
For the purposes of this document, the terms and definitions given in ISO/IEC 14496-10,
SMPTE ST 377-1, SMPTE ST 381-3 and SMPTE ST 2067-60 apply.
ISO and IEC maintain terminology databases for use in standardization at the following
addresses:
• IEC Electropedia: available at https://www.electropedia.org/
• ISO Online browsing platform: available at https://www.iso.org/obp

– 6 – IEC TS 63499:2024 © IEC 2024
4 Mapping AVC/H.264 streams into IMF
4.1 IMF overview
IMF is a framework of file-based workflow components for providing an interchangeable final
master file standardized in accordance with the SMPTE ST 2067 suite of standards. Figure 1
shows an Interoperable Master Package (IMP). Each essence component is generated as a
mono-essence Track File conforming to MXF OP1a. The Composition Playlist (CPL) points to
individual essence files and includes timeline-related metadata that can reference either the
entirety of a Track File or selected clips on the timeline. The combination of a Composition
Playlist and the referenced Track Files is called a Composition and corresponds to a single
audio-visual master. The Asset Map provides the location of all the necessary files, while the
list of files belonging to an IMP is contained in a Packing List (PKL). The required output is
generated using the Output Profile List (OPL), which describes how the selected virtual tracks
are transformed into signals for distribution.

Figure 1 – Interoperable Master Package (IMP)
Figure 2 shows an example of Image Track File. The picture essence is frame wrapped.

Figure 2 – Image Track File
The IMF has an advantage from a file management and a storage capacity point of view as
shown in Figure 3. In this simple example, there are two versions of a completed program in
which the video essence is identical but with soundtracks in different languages. Conventionally,
File_A and File_B will be generated separately even if the video essence is the same. Applying
the IMF approach, multiple versions can be created from a single package containing a common
set of essence components, resulting in an overall saving of required storage space.

Figure 3 – Example of applying the IMF
4.2 IMF Application #6
IMF Ap
...