ISO/IEC 15938-5:20 03规定了用于描述多媒体内容的元数据系统。ISO/IEC 15938-5:20 03通过使用描述定义语言(DDL)(参见ISO/IEC 15938-2)指定每个描述工具的规范语法和包括每个描述工具的每个组件(属性和元素)的语义的规范语义来指定包括ISO/IEC 15938-5:20 03的多媒体描述方案(MDS)描述工具(描述方案、描述符和数据类型)。ISO/IEC 15938-5:20 03还提供了信息丰富的示例，说明在创建符合ISO/IEC 15938-5:20 03的描述时描述工具的实例化。ISO/IEC 15938-5:20 03定义了以下基本元素:模式工具（根元素、顶级类型、描述元数据和包）、基本数据类型（整数、实数、向量、矩阵）、链接和媒体本地化工具（空间和时间本地化）、基本描述工具（语言、文本、分类离子方案）。ISO/IEC 15938-5:20 03定义了描述多媒体内容的特征和与多媒体内容相关的不可变元数据的以下内容描述工具:结构描述工具(多媒体内容的时空片段)和语义描述工具(与多媒体内容相关或由多媒体内容捕获的“真实世界”语义，包括对象、事件、概念等)。ISO/IEC 15938-5:20 03另外定义了用于内容元数据的以下描述工具:媒体描述（存储格式、编码）、创建和生产（标题、创建者、分类、目的）和使用（访问权限、发布）。内容描述和元数据工具在内容描述工具使用内容元数据工具的意义上是相关的。例如，创建和生产的描述或媒体信息可以附接到单独的视频或视频片段，以描述多媒体内容的结构和创建和生产。ISO/IEC 15938-5:20 03还定义了用于导航和访问(浏览、总结)、内容组织(集合和模型)和用户交互(关于多媒体消费和使用历史的用户偏好)的描述工具。最后，ISO/IEC 15938-5:20 03定义了分类方案，其组织描述工具使用的术语。

ISO/IEC 15938-5:2003 specifies a metadata system for describing multimedia content. ISO/IEC 15938-5:2003 specifies the Multimedia Description Schemes (MDS) description tools (Description Schemes, Descriptors, and datatypes) that comprise ISO/IEC 15938-5:2003 by specifying the normative syntax of each description tool using Description Definition Language (DDL) (see ISO/IEC 15938-2) and the normative semantics including semantics of each component of each description tool (attributes and elements). ISO/IEC 15938-5:2003 also provides informative examples that illustrate the instantiation of description tools in creating descriptions conforming to ISO/IEC 15938-5:2003.

ISO/IEC 15938-5:2003 defines the following basic elements: schema tools (the root element, top-level types, description metadata, and packages), basic datatypes (integers, reals, vectors, matrices), linking and media localization tools (spatial and temporal localization), basic description tools (language, text, classification schemes). ISO/IEC 15938-5:2003 defines the following content description tools, which describe the features of the multimedia content and the immutable metadata related to the multimedia content: structure description tools (spatio-temporal segments of multimedia content) and semantic description tools ("real-world" semantics related to or captured by the multimedia content, including objects, events, concepts, and so forth). ISO/IEC 15938-5:2003 defines additionally the following description tools for content metadata: media description (storage format, encoding), creation and production (title, creator, classification, purpose), and usage (access rights, publication). The content description and metadata tools are related in the sense that the content description tools use the content metadata tools. For example, a description of creation and production or media information can be attached to an individual video or video segment in order to describe the structure and creation and production of the multimedia content. ISO/IEC 15938-5:2003 also defines description tools for navigation and access (browsing, summarization), content organization (collections and models), and user interaction (user preferences pertaining to consumption of multimedia and usage history). Finally, ISO/IEC 15938-5:2003 defines classification schemes, which organize terms that are used by the description tools.