The MPEG File Format has been designed to satisfy a set of requirements, some of which are listed below

• Binary assets
• Hierarchical structure
• Backward- & forward-compatible
• Suitable to hold timed content
• Suitable to exchange content
• Self-contained (only contain data to be exchanged or all of them)
• Content can extend on more than one file
• Suitable for editing
• Suitable for streaming
• Can playback local file
• Can download and play the file
• Object oriented
• Separated content and metadata

The figure below depicts the MP File hierarchy in a specific instance

the meaning of some the boxes are

• ftyp (File Type): File type, version
  
• mdat (Media Data):
  Holds media data
  (several, non contiguous
  possible)
• moov (Movie):
  Holds metadata of a presentation
  
• mvhd (Movie Header):
  General info about the movie
  
• trak (Track):
  Holds metadata related to one stream
  
• hdlr (Handler):
  Stream type
• dinf/dref (Data Information/Data Reference): Data location (this or remote file)
  
• stbl (Sample Table):
  Holds metadata related to samples, sample by sample
• stsd (Sample Description): decoder configuration for the elementary stream
• stts (Sample To Time):
  DTS for each sample
  
• stsz (Sample To Size):
  Size of each sample