What are video formats?

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The term explains how video data is or has been recorded on a data carrier. The type of video data recording is basically defined by four different reference points. These are:

the movie format (image resolution and aspect ratio). Check out Part 1 of this article series titled Film Formats
the refresh rate (also called the refresh rate). The frame rate is specified in hertz (Hz) or as fps (frames per second, German = images per second)
color depth, which describes the ability to differentiate between color values and brightness values
the soundtrack
Regardless of the purpose for which you want to create a video, the video format determines its quality and usability.

The data formats are NOT the same as the video formats. The data format establishes how video data is presented in a purely technically structured manner and is read (interpreted) by software on a computer system for processing.

Data formats have nothing to do with video format, movie formats, frame rates, color depths, and sound. Normal users rarely come into contact with data formats when communicating with movies and videos. The situation is different with data and video formats.

Video formats (“formatted videos”) can be identified by their file extensions (for example, * .mp4 or * .mov or * .mpg). Video formats can be classified according to different criteria, depending on the subject: for example, according to the size and quality of the file (compression) or according to the content type of a file (container formats).

Movie format / aspect ratio difference

Just as data formats represent different things, the terms movie format and video format are NOT identical. In film format in which the question is understood thereafter for film and video, size and in what aspect ratio a film or video is on a recorded disc. Movie format and rotation formats are synonymous, while recording format, image format, image size, and projection format as subgroups further specify the term movie format.

Why is the video format important?

The video format is not important. But only if you watch your videos directly on your smartphone or upload your own videos directly to the Internet. But anyone who wants to communicate professionally with videos will want to edit their movies and will quickly have to deal with not only the content, but the technical quality as well.

Even those who “only” want their movies to be accessible to the public via YouTube or Vimeo or who want to embed their social video on their website via one of these video platforms will notice at the latest that there is something like a technical framework if the video file is not sent to upload is accepted. YouTube, for example, succinctly reports in this case: Before you can upload these types of files, you need to convert them to YouTube-compatible video formats. (The next chapter on conversion provides information on what this means and means.)

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Comparison of all video formats (2020)

MP4, MOV or AVI?

Every video fan at some point comes across the question: which video format is best for me?

Usually there is no general answer.

But don’t worry in this updated 2020 definitive guide, we’ve listed all the common formats as well as all the pros and cons of them.

After this post, you will know exactly which video format is right for you, what you can use each format for, and what advantages and disadvantages each is associated with.

To ensure you a pleasant reading flow, we have listed all the points in this article as a link below. If you are particularly interested in a topic, just click on the link and you will find the correct paragraph.

1. WMV

2. MJPEG

3. MPEG I and MPEG II

4. MPEG IV

5. MPEG VII

6. MKV

7. AVI

8. MOV

9. MP4

10. FLV

11. RM

12. OGG

13. MTS

But before going through each video format, a brief introduction to understand the individual formats.

Anyway, why are there so many formats?

The choice of video formats is great because many companies want to implement their own file format. Video formats are actually file containers with different content, initially only image and sound, which can be saved separately. Containers can contain more information such as captions, menu structures, time codes, or comments for further processing.

Sound and picture can be compressed inside the container with a wide variety of codecs. A codec uses algorithms to convert data packets, digital audio or video files in such a way that they save space. Depending on the codec that can be viewed, the quality of a video may differ in image and sound quality.

You have to know that:
1. The video format answers the following question: how digital video data is technically recorded.

2. There are formats that keep the data compressed (= reduced, lossy) or uncompressed.

3. The type of compression is determined by the so-called codecs.

4. By far the most popular types are: MP4, WebM, and OGG.

5. Video formats like MP4 can contain additional information like images, texts.

6. It is possible to copy (= transcode) from one video format to another.

1. WMV

Although WMV files take up very little disk space, they are not really widely used. Despite the fact that Microsoft planned and pushed it with great expectations.
Of course, the fact that they take up very little space makes them sacrifice in quality. The WMV player by essence is Windows Media Player, which although it is available for many platforms, is still a brake that you basically need to have the Microsoft media player to be able to reproduce it.

Advantages: very high compression possible

Disadvantage: very little used

2. MJPEG

Motion JPEG (MJPEG) is a video codec in which each individual image is compressed separately as a JPEG image. Unlike MPEG-compressed videos, MJPEG-compressed videos have a quality that is independent of image movement. This standard is often used in older digital cameras. Due to the individual compression of all individual images, with this format it is possible to cut a frame from a video clip accurately without the need to recode it, which is generally only possible with MPEG keyframes.

Advantages: high compression, high quality, web standard, very flexible

Disadvantage: computationally intensive

3. MPEG 1 and 2 (Moving Image Expert Group) * .mpg

Video format developed by a group of experts with standardized compression methods. The advantages of MPEG movies are comparatively small files with good image quality, but low resolution. In practice, MPEG-II movies are far superior to MPEG-I movies in terms of resolution and image quality.

Advantage: widespread use, can be played on almost any device

Disadvantage: outdated, no HD, correspondingly poorer video quality

4. MPEG 4 (Moving Image Experts Group) * .mp4

Video format developed by a group of experts with standardized compression methods.

Originally, the aim of MPEG-4 was to support systems with low resources or narrow bandwidths (mobile phones, videophones, …) with a relatively small loss of quality. Since H.263, an ITU standard for video compression and decoding, had already met these requirements successfully, it was integrated into MPEG-4 as part 2 without major changes.

MPEG-4 movies are even more compressed and do not have a noticeable loss of quality: very small files with very good resolution. In practice, MPEG-4 places somewhat higher demands on the performance of the computer, since highly compressed data must first be “decompressed” again when played back.

Advantages: high compression, high quality, web standard, very flexible

Disadvantage: computationally intensive

5. MPEG 7

MPEG-7 is an ISO standard (ISO / IEC 15938) that was adopted in 2002 and was defined by the Moving Picture Experts Group, or MPEG for short. MPEG-7 is not a real compression standard, but it is used to describe multimedia data with the help of meta information and is stored in the form of one or more XML documents. It can be added to the time code, for example, to mark certain events or, for example, to synchronize the lyrics with a song.

Advantages: good content organization

Disadvantages: many complex XML schemas

6. MKV

One could suppose that it is based on a concept that we could qualify as similar to other containers such as MP4 and AVI, the Matroska Video (MKV) format is open source, which makes it different to a good extent .. MKV has the ability to be a container of a number, we would say that there are unlimited video and audio channels in addition to multilingual subtitles in a file, which is why it could be said that today it occupies a predominant place on the Internet when it comes to competing with other formats.

Advantages: good video quality, very good compression compression.

Disadvantage: certain playback limitations, depending on the device.

7. AVI

AVI takes its name from “Audio Video Interleave”. AVI is one of the most widely used formats and can be played almost everywhere.
It has been widely known for many years since Microsoft gave it a lot of strength and it has been one of its base formats..

Advantage: wide distribution

Disadvantage: inflexible

8. MOV

This format was developed by Apple and achieved a lot of acceptance. I used QuickTime Player from the beginning. An advantage of MOV is that it is possible to use many different CODECS for either compressing audio files or video files. It is compatible with practically all platforms (Mac and Windows, iOS, iPhone and iPad.)

Advantage: It has earned a place that puts it as a standard format for professionally produced work

Disadvantage: Not all devices are capable of playing it

9. MP4

It can be said that it comes from or is based, in some way, on QuickTime, MP4 has earned the most important place when it comes to being the ideal format to be shared on networks. MP4 has almost no loss and has a great quality surpassing many of its competitors. MP4 is compatible with most computers and phones.

Advantages: video compression without noticeable loss of quality

Web standard

Versatile in use

Cons: not suitable for streaming

10. FLV

FLV or Flash Video format is mainly used for streaming video files online through Adobe Flash Player. FLV video files retain good quality even after being compressed, so users can upload videos online faster. Now its almost dead since Flash does not work in most web browsers.

Advantages: high compression.

Disadvantage: almost dead.

11. RM (Real Average) * .rm

A collective term for the file formats of the software maker RealNetworks, in particular the Real-Audio audio format and the Real-Video video format. It is used primarily in streaming applications. Real files are lossy, but the quality of real video files is still comparatively good, especially with high compression.

Files compressed with RealVideo are lossy. The quality of RealVideo files is generally comparatively good with high compression, older versions are poor with low compression compared to MPEG for example. However, the quality of the newer versions is comparable to MPEG-4 video codecs like Xvid or DivX as well as Windows Media Video 9. RealVideo usually occurs in the RealMedia container and then has its file extension .rv, .ram, .rm, or .rmvb.

Pros: RTP support

Disadvantages: compressed real video movies are lossy

12.Ogg .ogg

Ogg is a container file format for multimedia files, so it can hold audio, video, and text data at the same time. Ogg was designed with the goal of offering a free and unrestricted software patent alternative to proprietary formats for efficient storage and streaming of multimedia content. The ability to transmit is the decisive design feature: everything that is packaged in an Ogg container can be transmitted without additional adjustments. This distinguishes Ogg from formats that are only capable of streaming in certain ways (like Matroska) or not capable of live streaming (like MP4). Ogg streams can be grouped and chained without having to adjust the individual stream.

Ogg Theora is not very common in the video field. However, it is enjoying increasing popularity in the open source scene. For HD videos, the Matroska format, which is also free, is gaining more and more ground outside of the open source scene, so it remains to be seen what role Ogg Theora will play in the future.

Advantage:

– Diversity of platforms

– open source code

– Easy to handle

5.1 surround information: playback without pauses

Disadvantage:

– High bit rate ranges

13. MTS

MTS is a video format for HD video from camcorders from manufacturers such as Panasonic and Sony. This format produces a high-quality video that is larger than the same video in any other format. The format is only compatible with some devices. If you want to play an MTS file on an Android or iOS device, for example, it is almost impossible. Only Blu-ray players, the Sony PlayStation 3, and a handful of other devices support the MTS format. To use MTS videos on other devices, you need to convert MTS to MP4. Of course, MTS files can also be converted to other popular formats like AVI, MKV, and WMV.

Advantages: high quality

Cons: inflexible

Well now that we have reviewed all the formats, the following question arises:

What is the best video format?

The different video formats have very different capabilities, some allow you to have many different tracks, some with subtitles and several audio tracks simultaneously. Obviously each format is only capable of being processed by some specific codecs. So, if we see that some can contain many tracks and that each one uses a different codec, we will understand that the resulting size will be very different, as well as the quality and resolution. That is, each format will offer very different results.

However, there is no clear answer to the question of what is the best video format. However, you could say that a particular format is the best and a good all-rounder.

MP4: a good all-rounder

The MP4 format is always right. All common browsers and operating systems support it. It also combines HD image quality with a small file size. This allows the user to save the video to hard drive or cloud, share it with others, play it on common mobile devices, or upload it to a video platform.

Video formats for mobile and web devices
Videos intended for a mobile device should take up little space. The MP4 format, which is compatible with iOS and Android, is ideal here. MOV format is also possible for Apple devices.

When asked which video format is best for a video on a website, the user needs to consider what formats the browser supports. Again, MP4 is the best option due to its high compatibility. The Google WebM video format works flawlessly, at least on Microsoft and Android devices.

Technical factors in video formats

In each video file format, each factor performs a function: each video has a frame rate and a color depth, a format, and a soundtrack. Depending on these four factors, the video takes on a certain aspect and size. For example, the higher the resolution of the film format and the higher the frame rate, the more information should be included. Therefore, such a file will also take up more space on your hard drive. By compressing the file, its size can be reduced, but this generally comes at the expense of quality.

advice

Different video formats not only determine the quality and size of the file, but also determine which devices can play it. That is why video formats are generally chosen based on the media that will be used to play the video file.

Common video formats on different platforms

The most widely used video platform on the net is obviously YouTube. However, the social network Facebook also has wide coverage. On both websites you can upload multiple videos and share them with a large audience. Therefore, common video formats must be actively supported on both platforms. The same is true if you want to upload the different video formats to the platforms. Among other things, both providers accept the following video formats:

MOV
MP4
AVI
WMF
FLV
WebM

However, the time it takes for the platform to make the video and convert it depends on both the file size and the chosen video format, so you should choose the appropriate video format. This also applies to embedding video formats on your website.

The different video formats: advantages and disadvantages
Basically, we need to distinguish containers (container formats) from codecs. When we talk about video formats, we generally mean the container format, which contains video, audio, and metadata. The container ensures that all the information within a file can be retrieved. Instead, the so-called codec is used to encode the video, which mainly refers to the type and strength of compression. The most popular codecs are H.264, H.265, VP8 and VP9. To encode a video, you need a video editing program.

The MP4 file format

The MP4 file format has long been one of the most popular video formats on the web. Thanks to good compression coupled with good video file quality, excellent compromises can be achieved. The codecs used for MP4 are mainly H.264 or H.265.

Advantage

The format offers a good compromise between image quality and compression and is particularly compelling due to the simple ability to bundle multiple audio tracks and additional elements into a single format.

Disadvantages

MP4 files are often heavily compressed using standard codecs, making processing and creation difficult.

The AVI file format

The abbreviation AVI stands for Audio Video Interleave and means that in this format the video and audio tracks are directly linked to each other. The format is widespread, but technically obsolete.

Advantage

This format is mainly characterized by a very high level of acceptance. There is hardly any player and hardly any browser that does not support AVI files.

Disadvantages

The technical limitations of the file format and, above all, the lack of ability to use multiple audio tracks mean that fewer and fewer users are using the AVI file format.

The MKV file format

The MKV format is currently one of the most popular video formats on the net. It is a powerful container format that can integrate not only video files but also audio tracks, menus, and many other functions.

Advantage

The MKV format is particularly compelling due to the high quality of video files and the wide range of functions in which the format can be used. The format can only be used with the appropriate codec, but it is freely available on the net.

Disadvantages

The disadvantages of the format are mainly the low compression properties, so it is not possible to create very compact files.

The MOV file format

This video format was developed by Apple and is designed primarily for use with Quicktime. However, the format is no longer up to date and is therefore rarely used for network applications.

Advantage

The advantages of the format are mainly the ease of use in the Apple environment and the very high compression, which allows to obtain small files.

Disadvantages

Due to the very high compression of video files, a consequent loss of images and information occurs.

VIDEO FORMATS: A BRIEF REVIEW OF THE MOST KNOWN

When facing the world of video, you have to take into account a series of concepts. Thus, we must be clear about the differences between the container format, the video codec, the video specification and the audio codec:

Video formats

Container format

This type of file contains several elements and, at least, video and audio.

The video codec

It is often confused with the video format, but it really is not the same. It is not a mandatory element, since if no codec is specified, the video will be uncompressed, that is, in RAW format. Therefore, a codec is generally chosen to compress the video. And depending on which codec we choose, a better or worse quality will be achieved and, in turn, a larger or smaller size.

The video specification

Each video codec is usually based on a specific video specification (H262, H263, H264, H265), which is nothing more than a set of standards that define how they should behave.

The audio codec

As with the video, we can have several audio channels included in the file. In addition, they are usually also compressed with a certain codec, in order to save space: MP3, WMA, etc.

Video formats

Types of container formats

AVI format

It is probably one of the best known container formats. Corresponds to the English acronym of Audio video interleave. It was developed by Microsoft in 1992 and is one of the most popular formats, perhaps due to its wide use on Windows platforms. Being one of the most basic, it only allows audio and video channels.

Among the codecs that we can find are the DivX codec and the XViD.

MKV format (Matroska)

It is an open source container format, created in 2002.

Among the most common codecs that we can find are H264.

WebM format

It is a project that is based in Matroska. Initially, it was developed by the company On2 Technologies, but in 2010 it became part of Google, which released the source code, guiding it to use with HTML5 as a free standard.

As for the codec used by WebM we find the VP8, which has evolved to the current VP9, giving great performance.

MPG format

Rather than being a format, it is a specification, standardized by the Moving Picture Experts Group (MPEG). MPG files are used to create movies that are distributed on the Internet and, depending on their compression, we find the versions MPG-1 or MPG-2.

MP4 format

The MPEG-3 specification was discontinued and never developed, the MPEG-4 standard later being defined.

The commonly used codecs are x264.

HEVC format

The MPEG-H / HEVC (High Efficiency Video Coding) specification is considered H.265, and doubles the performance of its predecessor, supporting resolutions that could reach 8K (UHDTV).

WHAT IS THE BEST WEB VIDEO FORMAT?

mp4, mov, mkv, avi, mpeg … Formats, containers and codecs how to choose? Is there a video format that is compatible with all browsers and on all media? And if it exists, what is it? The answer is in this article.

All these questions we asked ourselves at the beginning of our activity in Kalyzée. First, the issue of the best format seemed rather complicated to us as it had to take into account distribution mode (transmission, pseudo-transmission), browser compatibility (Chrome, Firefox, Safari, Opera, Internet Explorer) with its various versions and navigation support (desktop) , tablet and mobile computers).

The competition between Apple, Google, Microsoft and Adobe, all the major players in the choice of video formats, does not help at all; everyone is trying to pull the rug to himself. We all remember Steve Jobs’ resounding choice, in April 2010, to stop using flash (Adobe) on iPhone, iPod touch and iPad. A brave (not to say bloated) decision with a Flash present on 99% of desktops!

WHAT IS DIGITAL VIDEO?

A digital video is a file that contains images, audio and text (metadata) placed in a container. In this container, images, audio and text are compressed because the transmission network infrastructure cannot support the load of built-in audio-visual transmissions. We can say that digital video files are audiovisual zip files. Compression and decompression of these files are done using codecs.

The container is a file format that contains audio and video streams, codec information and metadata.
A codec (acronym coding-decode) is an algorithm for compressing / decompressing a digital audio-visual signal.

CONTAINER AND VIDEO FORMAT

The format of a video file is specified with the name of its container (MP4, MOV, AVI, FLV, MKV, ASF, etc.). There are about twenty containers, the most important of which are listed below. These containers have been developed over time by various companies and communities to adapt to technological developments. A container can enclose several audio and video tracks. Metadata can be: title, abstract, keywords, credits, chapters, subtitles, etc.

The best YouTube video format

The best format for YouTube videos is codec. The codec is the part of the software that deals with the encoding and decoding of the information that make up the transmission of audio or video. The newer codecs also deal with compression and decompression. Therefore, when coding and decoding the signal, they use mathematical algorithms that can save space at the cost of quality.

compression

When playing video files, compression is performed using mathematical functions that reduce the number of frames per second or the resolution of the pixels that make up the image. In audio files, compression is done by removing the frequencies that cannot be fully perceived by the human ear and the number of bits that make up the sound information.

Container

The best option for the extension is mp4. The frame rate should match the recorded and edited one. The most popular container formats are MKV or AVI.

Video formats

Youtube uses the HD 1080p streaming format and MPEG-2 Steam supports the DVD format and is saved with an .MPG extension. If you cannot send the video in MPEG-2 format, select MPEG-4 format.

MPEG-2
Audio codec: MPEG Layer II and Dolby AC-3
Audio bit rate: 128 kbps or higher
MPEG-4
Video codec: H.264
Audio codec: AAC
Audio bit rate: 128 kbps or higher

Minimal audiovisual duration

The minimum duration is 33 seconds, excluding black and static images on the video channel and silence and background noise on the audio channel.

Frame rates

Videos must have the native frame rate without resampling. For film originals, a progressive master with 24 or 25 frames per second delivers the best results. Frame rates are typically set at 24, 25, or 30 frames per second.

It is not advisable to use resampling techniques as they vibrate the images and often result in poor video quality. Examples: Sampling and transmission like “Telecine Pulldown”.

Dimensions

Videos must use native aspect ratios, and uploaded videos should never contain the black letterbox and pillarbox stripes. The YouTube player uses frames that allow you to view videos correctly without cutting or stretching images.

Video resolution

YouTube wants high-definition videos.

For videos intended for sale and rental, you must specify a minimum resolution of 1920 x 1080 with an aspect ratio of 16: 9.
YouTube does not require a minimum resolution for free content or advertising content, but recommends a resolution of at least 1280 x 720 for videos with an aspect ratio of 16: 9 and a resolution of at least 640 x 480 for videos with an aspect ratio. 4: 3.
If the videos are of poor quality, they will not be visible to the public on YouTube and will be used as a reference for the content ID. These videos generally have a “quarter” (320 x 240) resolution. However, the videos must contain more than 200 lines to create effective references.

Bit rate

The bit rates depend on the codec. This is the number of bits per unit of time (attention! We are talking about bits, not bytes), which is generally measured in kilobits per second. With more format, the quality or resolution of the film or audio, the higher the more information per second. Videos should be optimized based on frame rate, aspect ratio, and resolution, not bit rate.

What types of formats exist in digital video?

Who has not ever wondered what H264 means or what is an Mp4, Mkv or Avi file. These are some of the questions that we all ask ourselves when we are talking about digital video in some of the applications that we see online to find out which format or format has more quality or how I can convert a file to another file.

What in my measure can contribute is to shed light on the distinctions that exist when we talk about video formats within the different types that are applied to digital video and that there are three important parts to distinguish between them on the Internet or on a DVD:

The video and its codec (As the video has so much weight, it must always be encoded and subsequently decoded). They are simply mathematical algorithms to compress and decompress the video file.
Audio and its different formats or containers.
The file that contains the audio and the video. The container
Let’s go to see which are the most popular and try to explain them:

Digital Video Formats

MPEG: Moving Pictures Expert Group (Mpeg1, Mpeg2, Mp4 or Mpeg4)
AVI: It is the standard format but the one with the most weight. (Xvid or Divx)
WINDOWS MEDIA: Format developed by Microsoft. (. Mp4 or .asf)
MOV: Format developed by Apple. Quicktime required to read it. Low weight.Ideal for Web (.m4v or .mov)
FLV: Adobe Flash format. Use Sorensen Spark codec. (.flv)
Digital Audio Formats

Mp3 or MPEG-1 Audio Layer 3: Tablet with imperceptible signal loss for humans. (1Mb / Min)
Aiff: Audio Interchange File Format. It has no compression and uses PCM modulation so they are very heavy (10 Mb / Min.)
AAC: Advanced Audio Coding. Mpeg-2 compression. Indicated for surround or surround sounds
Windows Media Audio: The worst quality of all the previous ones, is the Windows format.
Digital Video and Audio Container Formats

.mp4
.mov
.avi
.mkv
.flv
.swf
.m4v

The truth is that it is a whole world and more when the big companies live thinking only about leading their own markets and not from the point of view of the user whom they have had abandoned for years. Obviously these are not all there are but I have wanted to include the best known.

But if we are talking about a file or files that any dvd may have or downloaded from the Internet in any format or container such as Mp4, mkv, avi with greater or lesser quality, it must be remembered that what is important is the amount of information that they contain, is say the Mbs this video is exported to.

It is as if we have a 16 ton truck and we put a box of oranges inside it when it can carry 1000 boxes of oranges. what we are going to see is oranges but with a very low quality.

I hope I have shed some light on this world of digital video and how the next time you face such a file you will be able to understand what each of the things attached to it means. I have to admit that it is not easy, but with that global vision and knowing what each one means, you feel better when facing it.