Common Video File Formats

Video Production Oakville – The Captain’s Blog

Common Video File Formats

Howdy everyone … it’s John Secondi here with another instalment of our “Captain’s Blog” from Groovy Concepts.

When it comes to your video production, there are many different video formats you may wish to consider. Each of these formats serves its own unique purpose so have a quick read to learn more.

There are two main parts that make up any video and they are the “codec” and the “container”. The “codec” refers to the video file compression while the container stores the information about the digital file itself (audio and video files, etc.).

There are several types of “codecs” such as: FFMpeg, DivX, XviD, and x264. For video “containers” we have: AVI, FLV, WMV, MP4, and MOV file formats.

AVI (Audio Video Interleave)

The AVI format is a Microsoft technology and is one of the oldest video formats. It remains the standard format for most users. AVI files are playable across platforms like Windows, Macintosh and Linux supported by all web browsers. The most common “codecs” used with AVI format are M-JPEG or DivX and this depends on your specific needs.

FLV (Flash Video Format)

FLV files from Adobe Flash are somewhat older and less popluar these days. This format uses Sorenson Spark or VP6 video compression (more on video compression in our next blog). This format was one of the original YouTube formats and has since been largely replaced by the MP4 format in most cases. Adobe Flash software and the plugins used to support it have become less widely used over the past several years.

WMV (Windows Media Video)

WMV was originally developed by Microsoft and was designed for web streaming to compete with RealVideo. This format features the smallest video file size which can result in poor video quality, however with the faster internet speeds these day, this format is becoming less used by the day.

MOV (Apple QuickTime Movie)

Our Apple fans out there know that the QuickTime file format is used on most every Mac system and is a popular format found across the internet. QuickTime X is the updated format for more modern OSX (Mac) operating systems. The benefits of the MOV file format is in the highest possible quality of your video production projects. With quality comes size so be aware of certain challenges when editing and moving these types of files around your computer network.

MP4 (Moving Pictures Expert Group 4)

MP4 (MPEG-4 Part 14), was developed by the Motion Pictures Expert Group, the group responsible for setting industry standards. This video format uses separate compression for audio and video tracks with the video being compressed with MPEG-4 or H.264 video encoding and audio by using AAC compression. MP4 files remain small with reasonably high quality after being compressed.

When you need a helping hand with your video production and editing here in Oakville, give Groovy Concepts a call. We have the experience to do it right.

We. Are. Video Production. Oakville.

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