When we talk about the quality of videos or audio, many doubts arise in people’s minds, as there are many terms that are very confusing for the user. For example, people talk about kbs, people talk about bitrate, the sample rate and many other terms that are not clear in people’s mentality are mentioned.
But in the end the question is always the same, what is it that is truly decisive to have a better video quality or better audio quality? The answer can be simple if we summarize it: because the difference in quality will depend on the amount of information that is stored, because the more we will have more detail.
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 in them on the Internet or on a DVD:
The video and its codec (When the video is so heavy, it must always be encoded and subsequently decoded). They are simply mathematical algorithms to compress and decompress the video file.
The audio and its different formats or containers.
The file that contains the audio and video. The container
Let’s 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 needed 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. Suitable for surround or surround sounds
Windows Media Audio: The worst quality of all the above, is the Windows format.
Formats of Digital Audio and Video Containers
.mp4
.mov
.avi
.mkv
.flv
.swf
.m4v
The truth is that it is a world and more when the big companies live thinking only of leading their own markets and not from the point of view of the user they have had abandoned for years. Obviously these are not all there are but if I wanted to include the best known.
But if we are talking about a file or files that any DVD or download from the Internet can have in any format or container type Mp4, mkv, avi with greater quality, we must remember that the important thing is the amount of information that they carry inside, it is say the Mbs to which this video is exported.
It is as if we have a 16-ton truck and we put a box of oranges inside 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 a file of this type you will be able to understand what each of the things that are attached to it means. I must admit that it is not easy but that with that global vision and knowing what each one means you feel better when facing him.
And you know some kind of format that you are using and do you think it is missing here? This is a live article to be developed among all and thus clarify all more.
