MJPEG files

What are MJPEG files? MJPEG files, short for Motion JPEG files, are multimedia files where each video frame or interlaced field of a digital video sequence is separately compressed as a JPEG image. The resulting streams quality of MJPEG files is independent from the motion in the image, different from MPEG video, where quality often decreases when small images move rapidely. MJPEG compression is used for high quality video where you can do frame accurate editing. It is often used in mobile appliances such as digital cameras.

MJPEG file format has the capability to send very high-quality pictures, but it requires an enormous amount of bandwidth - as much as a T-1 circuit - to produce full-motion video. MJPEG files does not use interframe coding, unlike MPEG, and is easier to edit with a nonlinear editor. However, MJPEG images are among the largest to store on a digital medium and require large amounts of disk space to meet the needs of most businesses today. It is perhaps the most inefficient coder/ decoder (codec) to use in an application such as physical security where the camera needs to be on for extended periods of time. This technology is better for applications when a "snapshot" photo is the desired outcome.