omf

Open Media Framework (OMF) is a data-exchange standard used in professional video and audio post-production to move material and project information between non-linear editing systems and related tools. Developed in the 1990s by the Open Media Framework Initiative, a consortium of industry vendors and users, OMF was designed to enable interoperability by packaging media essence (video and audio) and associated metadata, such as edit decision lists and timeline information, into portable interchange packages.

OMF defines the structure and metadata model that allows editors to transfer media between systems without re-encoding and to preserve edits, transitions, effects, and sequences. It supports various media types, synchronization data, audio channels, and effects instructions, and is commonly identified by the .omf file extension, sometimes used as a container on disk alongside media assets.

In practice, OMF facilitated cross-platform exchange during the 1990s and early 2000s, particularly in multiplatform workflows, and helped standardize basic interchange of media and project data. However, as post-production workflows evolved, OMF was gradually superseded in many environments by newer formats such as AAF (Advanced Authoring Format) and MXF (Material Exchange Format), which provide richer metadata, better long-form support, and stronger fragmentation handling. Nevertheless, OMF remains of historical importance and is still encountered when working with older projects or legacy editing systems that implemented the standard.