The choice of audio and video codecs and containers affects video quality and file size. Here we show you how to find the format that best suits your needs.
Decades and decades of developments in the audiovisual field have led to a result that can be seen as strange in a way. While in other sectors the continuous development has led to a very pronounced standardization (think of the DOC or PDF format), the situation in multimedia is at least worse.
One example is the world of audio formats, which is animated by strong “competition” and a variety of available options. Indeed, it is no less than that of video formats. In this case, we actually have to deal with a separation between codecs and containers (we’ll see what they are and what role they play) that will make things even more complicated. So when converting a movie, you need to be careful to choose the right codec and video format to avoid creating files that are too large or simply unreadable. In short, the mistake is just around the corner.
Differences between containers and codecs
Before analyzing the situation and determining the most commonly used video formats, some basic concepts need to be clarified: First: What is the difference between the codec and the container? In the audio world, if the codec used to digitize the audio track matches the “final” file format, the codecs used in the video differ from the file format that the video file will adopt at the end of the digitization process. The reason will be explained soon and is in the multimedia nature of a video.
A film actually contains video and audio data: the conversion or playback software must be able to analyze both multimedia transmissions and therefore requires different algorithms that work with one or the other type of data transmission. This is exactly what codecs do: Since the name, code and decoding of data (audio and video) consist of films, you can convert them to another video format or play them back with a media player. Even with regard to containers, it is enough to use the literal meaning of the word: These are files that contain both the video and audio sequences and “provide” codecs for reading and playback.
What are the most common codecs?
As already mentioned, a codec is responsible for compressing and decompressing the video files and determines how they are played on the screen of the PC or smart TV. Each operating system provides the user with dozens and dozens of different codecs, each useful for encoding and decoding a particular type of file, even if new ones can be installed by downloading special software or packages from the Internet. Among the most commonly used codecs we find FFmpeg, Divx, Xvid, H.264 and its development H.265, VP9 and VP 10 (also known as the name of the Google codec).
What are the most commonly used containers?
Containers, on the other hand, have the task of “bundling” the audio and video stream processed by the codecs and can therefore be used for the media player software. Containers are determined, among other things, by the “final” video file format. The most common are: Avi, Wmv, Mov, Flav and Mp4.
-Avi. The AVI video format (short for Audio Video Interleave), developed by Microsoft and introduced in 1992 as part of its video for Windows technology, is one of the oldest used today. It is so widespread and used that many consider it to be the de facto industry standard. Its simple infrastructure (elementary, one would almost say) makes it easy to use on different operating systems (Windows, MacOS, Linux, Android and the most popular browsers) and enables the “storage” of streams that are processed by different codecs
Flv. This is the video format that resulted from compression by Adobe Flash software and was developed almost exclusively for playing movies on the Internet. If it could be seen as the de facto standard for video file formats on the web until a few years ago, this is no longer the case today: The spread of HTML 5 and the discovery of some bugs in the software caused it to change a bit On the one hand, however, the FLV video file format remains a favorite for those who generally create video for the network: with its compression algorithms, you can indeed get good quality small videos
