Some modern video encoding standards, such as H.264/AVC, allow the use of multiple reference frames.
Another video format that supports multiple reference frames is Snow, which can handle up to eight.
This is not as true for animated sources, where repetitive motion can make high numbers of reference frames more useful.
This can considerably raise the memory usage of the decoder for videos with large numbers of reference frames.
Stand-alone players that can play AVC/MKV files from recorded DVDs or USB sticks may not be able to handle the maximum possible 16 reference frames.