Tag: video formats in after effects

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Currently we find countless video formats. Depending on the quality you are looking for, the video will be exported one way or another. In this post I help you differentiate and understand each of the formats and codecs so that I can apply it to your editing projects.

You can find various formats intended for both web pages and videos on Youtube or Vimeo, as well as to project in cinema quality or to view them on your mobile device or Tablet.

camera_2If there were no different video formats, we would be very limited when it came to doing any type of video production, since they would occupy countless megabytes, and they would all have extreme quality, which would make it difficult to carry out projects for an exclusive job. By the way, if you are looking for websites to download copyright free videos for your projects, here I leave you the best free video pages in HD and 4K

It is not the same to export a quality video for YouTube or any online platform than to export them for a mobile device or a film shoot. Each one has essential characteristics that make everything optimized to get the most out of your production.

Many times the problem with all these options and formats is compatibility. Each device records in a different format and we can have problems when playing them, so it is very interesting to know what options there are and how to manage them to avoid headaches.

The first of all is to differentiate between these important concepts:

Definition of container format and video codec

To clarify concepts it is important to define what a container format is with what a video codec is, totally different things. The container format is the file format, the drawer that encompasses all the material (video, audio, etc.) while the video codec is the format that is related to the part of the video and is not absolutely essential.

Container format: Every video file has a format inside, which can be AVI, MPG, H264, MOV, WMV etc. This one has several elements inside, among them the video and the audio generally. But they could also contain embedded subtitles, even multiple audio files with different languages.

Video codecs: Video codecs are the files that are inside the container format, therefore you have to know how to differentiate these two concepts. If there are no codecs there would be no problem since these are files that help compression. Depending on the choice of the codec you can have worse or better quality.

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Main video formats: AVI.MPEG, WMV, MOV, ETC

MPEG, different codecs for each use

It is based on the QuickTime format, which we will talk about later. In addition to video and audio it also allows storing subtitles or still images. Another of its advantages is that with MPEG you can stream. It is the standard format for digital video compression and depending on the type of codec it will be ideal for one use or for another.

If your goal is to burn your video to CD, MPEG-1 will be the codec you have to use. On the other hand, if you want a quality product on DVD, choose MPEG-2. When you want to create an audio file, your codec is the famous MP3. And finally, probably the most used by users, MP4 for the web.

If you are thinking of including a video in your Editafácil publication, we definitely recommend the mp4 format

AVI, quality but heavy

AVI is a digital video storage standard created by Microsoft in 1992. With the AVI format, videos of high quality but too heavy are obtained, therefore its use for the Internet is not recommended.

There are different compression codecs for AVI, but DivX and XviD offer the best compression-quality ratio.

AVI is ideal for storing original videos directly from the camera encoded in DV, it also allows including multiple audio streams, that is, including soundtracks in different languages.

MOV, the Apple format

MOV has been developed by Apple and has its own codec that is updated regularly. In addition to the MOV extension it can appear with the QT (QuickTime) extension

It has a very good quality-to-weight ratio, which makes it an ideal format for the web. Like the MPEG format, AVI also supports streaming.

Digital video format

WMV, Windows Media Video

It is a set of compression codecs that, as its name suggests, belongs to Windows and although it can be viewed by different players, nothing is better than Windows Media Player. It can even be a problem for users who do not use the Bill Gates operating system.

The result file is usually packaged in a multimedia container such as AVI, if it is only video in WMV and if it is only audio in WMA.

Occasionally, WMV format videos include features derived from the use of DRM (digital rights management) that prevents the viewing of the videos, but that can be easily removed with utilities such as SIdda or drm2wmv.

Windows Media Video: WMV

Here we leave you our small summary of digital video formats, and although not all of them are, yes they are all of them. Do you use any of these formats? Would you recommend another?