Glossary of Media Files Compatible with the NDS​

Made by KingdomBlade​

Introduction:​

Just a quick entry.. not my best but it certainly works fine. It's a list of media files playable on the DS and the homebrew designed to be used with them. It has anchor tags now so feel free to clicky-clicky the table if contents. I decided to inject some wit into it, so it doesn't look like a worn out wall of text. You'll get what that means. If anyone thinks of some other compatible files (that DOESN'T work exclusively to the iPlayer and SCDSTWO), just post here. Just remember that all the homebrew listed is on the bottom of this post. The music section has been extended to become more precise. Please also inform me if the Chiptune and Tracker formats work with the iPlayer/SCDSTWO.
A. Video

• AVI
• DPG
• DSM
• DSV
• MP4
• SMF

B. Audio

1. Music Formats
   • AAC
   • FLAC
   • M4A
   • MP1
   • MP2
   • MP3
   • OGG
   • TTA
   • WAV
   • WMA
2. Tracker Formats
   • 669
   • AMF
   • GDM
   • IT
   • MED
   • MIDI
   • MOD
   • MTM
   • ULT
   • UNI
   • XM
3. Chiptune (VGM) Formats
   • AY
   • GBS
   • HES
   • NSF
   • SPC
4. Playlist Formats
   • M3U
   • PLS
   • WPL
   • XSPF

C. Image

• BMP
• CBDS
• GIF
• JPG
• PNG
• PSD
• TIF
• RAW

D. Document

• EPUB
• FB2
• HTML
• INI
• PDF
• TXT
• XHTML

E. Resources

F. Special Thanks

A. Video​

“Wouldn't it be nice if our lives were like video players, and we could 'fast forward' through bad times?" - Peanuts​

AVI
Description: The standard Audio Video Interleave format that was originally introduced by Microsoft. It is probably the most common format for movie files.
Can Be Opened Using: Tuna-viDS (has to be converted specifically), iPlayer, DSTWO iPlayer Plugin

DPG
Description: An nDs-mPeG file that is native for usage on the Nintendo DS, and thus optimized for use on the system. The files are segregated into 4 kinds, DPG 1, 2, 3, and 4.
Can Be Opened Using: Moonshell 2

DSM
Description: Typically stands for Digital Sound Module, however that seems incorrect when used as a video file. A file with bad compression rate but very good quality.
Can Be Opened Using: DSMPlay

DSV
Description: Stands for DS Video and manages to have good quality and prefers to use wavelet encoding.
Can Be Opened Using: DSVideo

MP4
Description: This format stands for MP4 and is most commonly seen in
Can Be Opened Using: iPlayer, DSTWO iPlayer Plugin, MP4 Player DS (no sound)

SMF
Description: Stands for Spinal Media Format, and works with Spinal's player.
Can Be Opened Using: Spinal Movie Player, MENUdo mPlayer

B. Audio​

"Music is the movement of sound to reach the soul for the education of its virtue." - Plato​

Music Formats
Music formats used for general listening.​

AAC
Description: AAC stands for Advanced Audio Coding and is a lossy digital audio scheme. I don't encounter this format too often, so I'm not sure if this is common or not.
Can Be Opened Using: Moonshell 2, DSTWO iPlayer Plugin, iPlayer

FLAC
Description: FLAC is a lossless audio format that stands for Free Lossless Audio Codec. It is royalty free.
Can Be Opened Using: Moonshell 2, DSTWO iPlayer Plugin, iPlayer, LMP-ng

M4A
Description: M4A stands for MPEG 4 Audio, and it is an audio format using the MP4 codecs but audio only. This format is commonly mixed up with MP3 due to the similar usage.
Can Be Opened Using: Moonshell 2, DSTWO iPlayer Plugin, iPlayer

MP1
Description: Stands for MPEG-1 Audio Layer I. It is still widely supported although the codec it uses is largely outdated.
Can Be Opened Using: Moonshell 2, DSOrganize, iPlayer, DSTWO iPlayer Plugin

MP2
Description: Stands for MPEG-1 Audio Layer II. It is the standard for Audio Broadcasting.
Can Be Opened Using: Moonshell 2, DSOrganize, iPlayer, DSTWO iPlayer Plugin

MP3
Description: The generally used format for music, MP3 files stand for MPEG-2 Audio Layer III. They are extremely common.
Can Be Opened Using: Moonshell 2, DSOrganize, LMP-ng, DSBrowser, iPlayer, DSTWO iPlayer Plugin

OGG
Description: A multimedia format that is commonly associated with its audio layer, Vorbis, and is such very often an audio format.
Can Be Opened Using: Moonshell 2, DSTWO iPlayer Plugin, iPlayer, LMP-ng

TTA
Description: A lossless audio codec that stands for True Audio. It is based on adaptive prognostic filters.
Can Be Opened Using: Moonshell 2

WAV
Description: WAV stands for Waveform Audio File Format. It's commonly seen in recordings and such, such as DSOrganize's default recording program.
Can Be Opened Using: Moonshell 2, DSTWO iPlayer Plugin, iPlayer, DSOrganize

WMA
Description: A Microsoft made audio format that is somewhat used and can be kept at high quality. Stands for Windows Media Audio.
Can Be Opened Using: Moonshell 2, DSTWO iPlayer Plugin, iPlayer

Tracker Formats
Digital Audio formats used to store sounds of instruments and play them in sequences. Made using software called trackers.​

669
Description: The 669 format is a tracker format for digital music made in Composer 669 or Unis 669.
Can Be Opened Using: Moonshell 2, MENUdo mPlayer

AMF
Description: The AMF format can stand for either DSMI Advanced Module Format or ASYLUM Music Format, both of which are tracker formats.
Can Be Opened Using: Moonshell 2, MENUdo mPlayer

GDM
Description: A tracker format that stands for General DigiMusic.
Can Be Opened Using: Moonshell 2, MENUdo mPlayer

IT
Description: Impulse Tracker is a multi-track digital sound tracker (music sequencer). It was one of the last tracker programs for the DOS platform.
Can Be Opened Using: Moonshell 2, MENUdo mPlayer, DSOrganize

MED
Description: OctaMED is a popular sound tracker for the Commodore Amiga.
Can Be Opened Using: Moonshell 2, MENUdo mPlayer

MIDI
Description: MIDI stands for Musical Instrument Digital Interface and is used for music that rely on electronic instruments.
Can Be Opened Using: Moonshell 2, DSTWO iPlayer Plugin, iPlayer

MOD
Description: The MOD format is an extremely popular electronic sound format made with trackers. It's very common.
Can Be Opened Using: Moonshell 2, MENUdo mPlayer, DSOrganize

MTM
Description: MTM stands for MultiTracker Module and is a digital sound file very similar to MOD.
Can Be Opened Using: Moonshell 2, MENUdo mPlayer

ULT
Description: A tracker format that stands for Ultra Tracker.
Can Be Opened Using: Moonshell 2, MENUdo mPlayer

UNI
Description: This is the default and internal format of the popular program MikMod.
Can Be Opened Using: Moonshell 2, MENUdo mPlayer

XM
Description: XM, standing for "extended module", is an audio file type introduced by Triton's Fast Tracker 2. It's very widespread.
Can Be Opened Using: Moonshell 2, MENUdo mPlayer, DSOrganize, NitroTracker

Chiptune (VGM) Formats
Music formats extracted from video game files.​

AY
Description: AY is a music format extracted from ZX Spectrum / Amstrad CPC game files.
Can Be Opened Using: Moonshell 2

HES
Description: Stands for Hudson Entertainment System. It is a music format used for PC Engine / TurboGrafx game files.
Can Be Opened Using: Moonshell 2

GBS
Description: GBS stands for Game Boy Sound System. As you also may have guessed, it is the music format used for Gameboy game files.
Can Be Opened Using: Moonshell 2

NSF
Description: Stands for NES Sound Format, and as you may have guessed, it is the music format seen in NES game files.
Can Be Opened Using: Moonshell 2, DSOrganize

SPC
Description: An SPC700 sound file (or SPC) is a video game music file consisting of scores and music data from RAM used by the SNES or Famicom games.
Can Be Opened Using: Moonshell 2, DSOrganize

Playlist Formats
Playlists that contain information on which multimedia files to play that are located on the memory.​

M3U
Description: M3U is a playlist file that is the most common of its kind. M3U is normally for multimedia, however due to the high usage of it in MP3 players, it has become associated with music files. It does not have any music files actually on it.
Can Be Opened Using: Moonshell 2, DSTWO iPlayer Plugin, iPlayer, LMP-ng

PLS
Description: PLS is a computer file format that stores multimedia playlists. It is a more expressive format than basic M3U, as it can store (cache) information on the song title and length.
Can Be Opened Using: DSOrganize

WPL
Description: Stands for Windows Media Player Playlist and is Microsoft's own playlist format.
Can Be Opened Using: Moonshell 2

XSPF
Description: XSPF stands for XML Shareable Playlist Format, and is an XML format for sharing playlists.
Can Be Opened Using: DSOrganize

C. Image​

"The image is an image." - Lenny Kravitz​

BMP
Description: Microsoft's own image format, it's quality good however compression is very bad, but it is still very common.
Can Be Opened Using: Moonshell 2, DSOrganize, A Large Number of OS's

CBDS
Description: A comic book format that can be converted from multiple formats, such as a simple folder of images to a PDF file.
Can Be Opened Using: Comic Book DS

GIF
Description: Commonly used for compressing files to use for the internet.
Can Be Opened Using: Moonshell 2, DSOrganize, A Large Number of OS's, iReader

JPG
Description: An image format that is probably the standard for common usage, due to its good compression and quality.
Can Be Opened Using: Moonshell 2, DSOrganize, A Large Number of OS's, iReader

PNG
Description: A format characterized by the outstanding quality, best for saving high quality images.
Can Be Opened Using: Moonshell 2, DSOrganize, iReader, A Large Number of OS's

PSD
Description: A format for Adobe Photoshop that contains all image information including layers.
Can Be Opened Using: Moonshell 2

TIF
Description: A format often used for graphic art and popular among designers.
Can Be Opened Using: Moonshell 2, DSOrganize, iReader

RAW
Description: An image that has not yet been processed by anything comparable to negatives.
Can Be Opened Using: DSOrganize

D. Document​

"It's not about trying to be funny all the time. It's more of a document that hopefully is funny." - David Cross​

EPUB
Description: A common e-book format used for most ebook viewers.
Can Be Opened Using: IkuReader, DSLibris

FB2
Description: FB2 stands for Fiction Book. It's an XML based e-book format that's popular in Russia.
Can Be Opened Using: IkuReader

HTML
Description: HTML is a format for web pages.
Can Be Opened Using: iReader, Moonshell 2

INI
Description: A setting file normally used for the settings of applications. It works much like a text file.
Can Be Opened Using: DSOrganize (w/ editing), most text readers

PDF
Description: PDF is a standard format for saving documents and is extensively used.
Can Be Opened Using: Ands-PDF, iReader

TXT
Description: The text format is used for standard text and comes in multiple encodings.
Can Be Opened Using: Nearly all OS's and organizing applications, DSReader, IkuReader, iReader

XHTML
Description: XHTML is an XML based format intended to extend the functionality of HTML pages, but in our case, it's going to be an e-book format.
Can Be Opened Using: DSLibris

E. Resources​

"When every resource is focused, one's power to solve a problem multiplies tremendously." - Norman Vincent Peale​

Moonshell 2 - THE media player for the DS. Works with a large array of files.
iPlayer OS - The flashcart designed specifically for media, iPlayer is ideal for those that don't need NDS games.
DSTWO iPlayer Plugin - A plugin for the DSTWO made to read a variety of media taking advantage of the hardware.
tuna-viDs - A homebrew that makes it possible to watch AVI files without extra hardware.
DSMPlay - No filetrip link. A good video format that is sort of bad at compression.
DSVideo - A video player designed to play the DSV format.
Spinal's Movie Player - Created by Spinal, this is designed to work for the SMF format.
DSOrganize - An organizer/media player/PDA/file browser homebrew. It can read a wide array of multimedia files.
LMP-ng - A skinnable music player that has an iPod-like interface.
DSBrowser - Allows you to explore both slots. Comes with a handy MP3 player.
Comic Book DS - Loads CBDS comic files. Skinnable and comes with its own special converter.
DSReader - A book reader with an attractive interface and font support.
IkuReader - IkuReader is an ebook reader that supports multiple ebook formats (including epub) and has font support.
DSLibris - DSLibris is an ebook reader with a simplistic and comfy interface with epub and xhtml support.
iReader - An ebook reader and image viewer that comes as a plugin for the SCDSTWO.
MENUdo mPlayer - A standalone version of the media player from MENUdo.
Nitro Tracker - A tracker application used for creating music and exporting to XM and WAV formats.

F. Special Thanks​

"I just want to thank everyone who made this day necessary." - Yogi Berra​

- Buleste (for notifying me about the iReader)
- SifJar (for telling me what DSV means)
- Dter ic (for alphabetizing my list)
- FAST1619 (for telling me what DSM means)
- Rydian (for informing me that BMP is not of bad quality,and for the VGM and Tracker formats)
- Berthenk (for giving extended descriptions of a few files)
- SamAsh07 (for telling me what DSM stands for)
- tj_cool (for adding anchor tags again, it would look like total piss without them)

 

[Buleste]

You've missed the iReader plugin for the SCDS2 which can read txt, pdf, html (never tried that though) and ini files and display BMP，JPEG，JPG，PNG，TIF，gif image files.

 

[KingdomBlade]

You've missed the iReader plugin for the SCDS2 which can read txt, pdf, html (never tried that though) and ini files and display BMP?JPEG?JPG?PNG?TIF?gif image files.

Thanks for the heads up!

 

[shamiko_]

a glossary is supposed to be in alphabetical order...

Spoiler: your list alphabetized

A. Video
AVI
DPG
DSM
DSV
MP4
SMF


B. Audio
AAC
FLAC
M3U
M4A
MIDI
MP3
OGG
RA
SPC
WAV
WMA

C. Image
BMP
CBDS
GIF
JPG
PNG
TIF

D. Document
EPUB
HTML
INI
PDF
TXT
XHTML

E. Resources

 

[SifJar]

Nice list. As for a definition for DSV, something like:

Stands for DS Video. Proprietary format for use with DS Video application[/p]

Also, I think you should note that DSVideo requires a special DLDI patch, different to most regular DLDI patches. (Regular DLDI patches usually patch ARM7, but it needs ARM9, or vice versa, can't remember which).

 

[FAST6191]

It was the vice versa SifJar- all DLDI work was kicked to ARM7 to allow the ARM9 to get on with things.

I will also mention http://meraman.dip.jp/index.php?NDS_BGMFILER#g1908e46 * as it a pretty nice player for some random tracker formats and has a top notch midi player, speaking of tracker and game formats there was the odd player made for them if memory serves but moonshell probably takes them out these days.

As for video I liked some of the others but aside from DSM which is a low compression format (which did not help when SDHC had not really come into play) but one of considerably better quality than DPG of the time (and probably to this date) made by moonshell's author.
DSV was SifJar said was for DSvideo- it worked quite well (moonshell arguably manages TV grade playback where this was about on the limit of human detection) but it was more of a proof of concept program using wavelet encoding (as opposed to the blocks used by the vast vast majority of codec/standards- Snow and Dirac being the main two examples of wavelet encoding elsewhere).

Frankly though unless you have an enhanced flash card it is DPG or nothing really unless you want to see the proof of concept stuff.

It was mainly for games but http://www.ds-video.com/ as well if you want. After this is was all mainly proof of concept (tunavids was predated by something from Abraxas (who later did the rather nice EZbuilder program that for many years was my chosen DPG encoder if I was not doing it by hand) and I recall something from Birslip/Beerslip many years ago on the video front).

*in case anybody was thinking about asking for other DS music homebrew if you have seen http://remaincalm.org/index.php/ds-music-apps I can only really offer the odd pointer after this.

 

[Rydian]

And now I know what DPG stands for!

Might want to add that some formats (such as WMA and others) could have DRM which will prevent them from playing on the DS.

Also add that an M3U by itself does not contain any music, you'll need to copy over the music files as well.

The quality of BMP is not poor, it's literally pixel-perfect as it's a raster bitmap format... but yes the compression is terrible and it should only be used when it's required.

 

[Berthenk]

Some additions, in bold:

Spoiler

WMA
Description: A Microsoft made audio format that is rarely used, but can be kept at high quality. Stands for Windows Media Audio
Can Be Opened Using: Moonshell 2, DSTWO iPlayer Plugin, iPlayer


MIDI
Description: MIDI stands for Musical Instrument Digital Interface and is used for music that rely on electronic instruments. Commonly made with a tracker, this audio format contains the instrument information, and triggers said instruments while playing the song. Higher quality instruments mean a bigger file size.
Can Be Opened Using: Moonshell 2, DSTWO iPlayer Plugin, iPlayer

 

[SamAsh07]

Been busy giving "final touches" to my tutorial and now I can finally see this one, it's amazingly done. +1

I never knew the DS could play that many types of video files, I only knew about .dpg


@KingdomBlade - DSM stands for Digital Sound Module, it's used by digital audio tracking programs and is playable by Media Player Classic on Windows OS

IDK whats .DSV though...I do know thats the extension used by DesMumE game saves, apart from that, no idea.

 

[KingdomBlade]

Thanks everyone. Methinks it's done and done. (except if tj_cool decides to add anchor tags) Oh and @ Rydian, hooray, I taught you something you didn't already know!

Gotta start working on the next tut.

 

[tj_cool]

Except if tj_cool decides to add anchor tags
Which I did:

CODE[a]anchorname[/a]

 

[Rydian]

Might want to add MOD and XM music formats, they're tracker formats (like MIDI, but much higher quality as they include their own samples).

Also NSF, HEF, GBS, and SPC formats, which are video game music rips.

 

[KingdomBlade]

Updated with anchor tags.

I'll probably update the remaining file formats that Rydian mentioned in a few hours.

 

[shamiko_]

anchor tag for "MED" is broken


MED
Description: OctaMED is a popular sound tracker for the Commodore Amiga.
Can Be Opened Using: Moonshell 2, MENUdo mPlayer

seems like its fixed now