Because I keep forgotting where _exactly_ I saw this article ..... http://basalgangster.macgui.com/RetroMacComputing/The_Long_View/Entries/2013... scroll down to Quicktime Does it All (but you can read whole thing if you like) --------- Quicktime was basically a complete library for creating video editing programs. It included standard code for selecting a video digitizer, copying and pasting movies, even setting a selection in a movie (effectively setting in and out points for an edit), and cutting or copying only that selection. It included built-in support for superimposing styled text on movies, and even for scrolling text to make titles and credits. All that made it much bigger than other Apple APIs at the time. In fact it was not one API, but rather a collection of them. -------- So, basically it explains existence of controls you can see for example in ffmpeg-4.2/libavformat/mov.c : static const AVOption mov_options[] = { {"use_absolute_path", "allow using absolute path when opening alias, this is a possible security issue", OFFSET(use_absolute_path), AV_OPT_TYPE_BOOL, {.i64 = 0}, 0, 1, FLAGS}, {"seek_streams_individually", "Seek each stream individually to the to the closest point", OFFSET(seek_individually), AV_OPT_TYPE_BOOL, { .i64 = 1 }, 0, 1, FLAGS}, {"ignore_editlist", "Ignore the edit list atom.", OFFSET(ignore_editlist), AV_OPT_TYPE_BOOL, {.i64 = 0}, 0, 1, FLAGS}, {"advanced_editlist", "Modify the AVIndex according to the editlists. Use this option to decode in the order specified by the edits.", OFFSET(advanced_editlist), AV_OPT_TYPE_BOOL, {.i64 = 1}, 0, 1, FLAGS}, {"ignore_chapters", "", OFFSET(ignore_chapters), AV_OPT_TYPE_BOOL, {.i64 = 0}, 0, 1, FLAGS}, {"use_mfra_for", "use mfra for fragment timestamps", OFFSET(use_mfra_for), AV_OPT_TYPE_INT, {.i64 = FF_MOV_FLAG_MFRA_AUTO}, -1, FF_MOV_FLAG_MFRA_PTS, FLAGS, "use_mfra_for"}, {"auto", "auto", 0, AV_OPT_TYPE_CONST, {.i64 = FF_MOV_FLAG_MFRA_AUTO}, 0, 0, FLAGS, "use_mfra_for" }, {"dts", "dts", 0, AV_OPT_TYPE_CONST, {.i64 = FF_MOV_FLAG_MFRA_DTS}, 0, 0, FLAGS, "use_mfra_for" }, {"pts", "pts", 0, AV_OPT_TYPE_CONST, {.i64 = FF_MOV_FLAG_MFRA_PTS}, 0, 0, FLAGS, "use_mfra_for" }, { "export_all", "Export unrecognized metadata entries", OFFSET(export_all), AV_OPT_TYPE_BOOL, { .i64 = 0 }, 0, 1, .flags = FLAGS }, { "export_xmp", "Export full XMP metadata", OFFSET(export_xmp), AV_OPT_TYPE_BOOL, { .i64 = 0 }, 0, 1, .flags = FLAGS }, { "activation_bytes", "Secret bytes for Audible AAX files", OFFSET(activation_bytes), AV_OPT_TYPE_BINARY, .flags = AV_OPT_FLAG_DECODING_PARAM }, { "audible_fixed_key", // extracted from libAAX_SDK.so and AAXSDKWin.dll files! "Fixed key used for handling Audible AAX files", OFFSET(audible_fixed_key), AV_OPT_TYPE_BINARY, {.str="77214d4b196a87cd520045fd20a51d67"}, .flags = AV_OPT_FLAG_DECODING_PARAM }, { "decryption_key", "The media decryption key (hex)", OFFSET(decryption_key), AV_OPT_TYPE_BINARY, .flags = AV_OPT_FLAG_DECODING_PARAM }, { "enable_drefs", "Enable external track support.", OFFSET(enable_drefs), AV_OPT_TYPE_BOOL, {.i64 = 0}, 0, 1, FLAGS }, { NULL }, }; Not sure if any of those more advanced options actually used now by CinGG, but they are there :} Another thing i found, about DV (a bit old, like from 2006 at best, still historical perspective I like to read (more than code!): https://www.adamwilt.com/DV-FAQ-tech.html by Adam J. Wilt. (analog TV was strange and complicated thing ...) Random site with historical video editing machines (incl. CMX): http://www.vtoldboys.com/editingmuseum/index.htm