Timestamp

A timestamp is a sequence of symbols and code information, denoting the date or time when a certain event occurred. The International Organization of Standardization (ISO) has defined ISO 8601 which standardized timestamps. Timestamps are important in video containers for correct seeking inside streams and synchronization with audio or subtitles.

In terms of video streaming we usually differentiate the following types of TS:

• DTS (decoding time stamp) tells in what order the frames should be decoded.
• PTS (presentation time stamp) tells in what order the frames should be shown.