Editing Material Exchange Format (section)

== Summary ==
MXF, when used in the form of "Operational Pattern OP1A" or "OPAtom", can be used as a ''container'', ''wrapper'' or ''reference file'' format which supports a number of different streams of coded "[[essence (media)|essence]]", encoded in any of a variety of [[video compression format|video]] and [[audio compression format]]s, together with a [[Metadata (computing)|metadata]] wrapper which describes the material contained within the MXF [[computer file|file]]. Other "Operational Patterns" can contain or reference multiple materials, just like a simple timeline of a video editing program.

MXF has full [[timecode]] and metadata support and is intended as a platform-agnostic stable standard for future professional video and audio applications.

MXF was developed to carry a subset of the [[Advanced Authoring Format]] (AAF) data model, under a policy known as the [[Zero Divergence Directive]] (ZDD). This theoretically enables MXF/AAF workflows between [[Non-linear editing system|non-linear editing]] (NLE) systems using AAF and cameras, servers, and other devices using MXF.