Differences between WebM and MP4 – Compare in terms of image quality, file size, compatibility, etc.

A common question is which is better, WebM or MP4.

For example, for “mp4” and “webm”, which one has better image quality, which one consumes more space under the same conditions, and which one should be selected to convert or download the video for storage? There are several things.

What is WebM: An open video file format developed and published by Google. A subset of the VP8 format for video compression, the Vorbis format for audio compression, and the Matroska format (MKV / MKA) for the file format (container format).

MP4: One of the file formats for storing video data compressed in MPEG-4 format. MP4 is a format derived from ISO / IEC 14496 Part 12 developed based on the Apple QuickTime media technology file format, and has a structure that follows many of the conventional QuickTime formats.

Let’s take a look at the commonalities and differences of WebM MP4
WebM and MP4: image quality
This is an important point when selecting the video format to see if the video is displayed in high quality. Which is better than WebM MP4 in terms of image quality? In fact, the image quality of WebM and MP4 is closely related to the codec. In short, the MP4 format provides ultra-high definition picture quality that is in no way inferior to DVD playback screens.

On the other hand, WebM also provides high image quality, but compared to MP4, WebM seems inferior in image quality. Here, the difference between WebM VP8 video codec and MP4 h.264 video codec will be described as an example. VP8 and H.264 achieve approximately the same image quality at the same bit rate. But now H264 is a little better?

WebM and MP4: size
When importing videos to your iPhone iPad Xperia Andorid portable device or posting them to an online video sharing site, the file size is important. Both WebM and MP4 have excellent compression performance and can save videos in a small size. And videos in MP4 format can be easily downloaded from the website in no time using a high-speed broadband connection. However, the size of the MP4 file can naturally increase because our goal is to achieve a high image quality similar to that of a DVD.

WebM, which is often used for streaming over the Internet, is popular on Google sites. For videos viewed in a browser, the WebM format is recommended because it has a smaller file size and better image quality than MP4.

WebM and MP4: compatibility and versatility
If you want to play videos on your smartphone or tablet, please choose MP4 format. It is no exaggeration to say that MP4 is the most supported video format right now. Not only is it compatible with Apple products and services, it can also be used on Android devices. So that you can comfortably enjoy MP4 videos using iPhone, iPad, Android, Chrome browser, Safari, IE 10 (using Flash and HTML5) and other players.

From the above WebM MP4 comparison, WebM is exposed to a more serious situation. However, both Microsoft and Apple have announced that they will support WebM on their smartphones and operating systems. And Windows and Mac OS computers can rely on Flash for WebM compatibility. As a video format developed for the Web, WebM shows overwhelming performance.

Differences in audio quality of mp4 and webm?

“WebM” and “MP4” are video formats (containers), so they are containers for video and audio.

There is another format (codec) for the audio inside, so I think the sound quality will change depending on the compression rate (performance) even at the same bit rate.

In other words, if the audio formats of the “WebM” and “MP4” files created by the caller use different audio formats, it is not possible to compare them simply by the size of the bitrate.

There is also a bitrate mode, like
“CBR (constant bit rate)”,
“VBR (variable bit rate)” and
“ABR (Average Bit Rate)”
.

Generally speaking, the amount of data is specified as
“CBR” = the same in any situation
“VBR” = changes depending on the situation
“ABR” = the average of the set is specified
.

Depending on the specifications of the video conversion software used, if you compare “WebM” and “MP4”, they probably both use advanced codecs with a high compression ratio and the quality and capacity of the audio data. There may not be a big difference, but there can be a considerable difference in capacity between “CBR” and “VBR”, so you may need to be careful about this.

It is safe to specify whether your video converter supports audio “dubbing”. Then there will be no deterioration.

And I think it is better to re-encode only the video with a lower bitrate.

In the “audio bitrate much higher for webm” situation, if both use advanced audio codecs, I think the webm file is likely to have higher sound quality. However, MP4 files may not degrade to a level that can be perceived by the human ear.

The video encoding is deep so if you are unsure you can either rip the audio or use the same bitrate and lower the video bitrate for encoding.

However, even if the audio is re-encoded at the same bit rate, it may not be recognized by the human ear unless it is in a lossless compression format (a format that can fully restore the original data), but it deteriorates a bit. .Keep in mind.