Digital Video File Types: Video:
Common containers and formats for compressing video include MOV, MP4 1080p, MP4
1080i, MP4 720p, MP4 360p, MP4 240p, FLV 480p, AVI, WMV.
Digital Video Containers and File Quick Chart Explanation:
Option
AVI
Format
Video
Description
.AVI stands for Audio Video Interleave. It is Microsoft’s
video container format. .AVI files are good for Windows
Media Player (WMP) and other online video players. The
video retains quality, but they’re large files.
MOV
Video
A .Mov is a container file created by Apple to play
QuickTime movies. .MOV and Mpeg 4 containers use the
same MPEG-4 codecs and are usually interchangeable.
MOV files do work on PCs. MOV files are large files, but they
look great.
MPEG4/MPEG
Video
MPEG stands for Motion Picture Experts Group. Many video
cameras output footage in the MPEG format. YouTube
converts uploaded videos to either Flash (FLV) or MPEG
(MPG) formats. MPEG4 was created for the internet. It gives
excellent quality and a small file up to 5x smaller than MOV
files.
MP4 1080p or
Video
1080i(HD)
Full 1920x1080 widescreen HD resolution perfect for HD-TV,
Blu-Ray disks and high quality streaming. NBC and PBS
broadcast in 1080i.
MP4 720p (HD)
Video
Standard 1280x720 HD resolution perfect for HD-TV,
tablets, laptops and desktops. ABC, Fox and ESPN broadcast
in 720p.
MP4 H.264
Video
Codec for Blu-Ray disks. Widely used for YouTube, Vimeo,
iTunes, Flash and also for HD-TV. Sony’s HD video cameras
use AVCHD, which is H.264.
MP4 360p
Video
640x360 resolution for standard definition (non HD) devices
with a much smaller file size.
MP4 240p
Video
640x360 resolution for standard definition (nonHD) devices
with a smaller file size. This is always a Flash Video format.
1 Use the MP4 360p rather than MP4 240p.
FLV (FLASH)
Video
Flash is the most common file used online and they play in
the Adobe Flash Player that almost all computer users have
downloaded on their computers for free. Apple is moving
away from Flash so these files don’t work on iPhones and
iPads. Many video sharing sites convert any video you
upload to Flash files for sharing. The file sizes are of good
quality and they’re small.
FLV 480p
Video
640x480 pixel Flash Video Format best for movies on a
tablet or similar large mobile device.
FLV 360p
Video
640x360 pixel Flash Video Format great for blogs and most
mobile devices.
FLV 240p
Video
320x240 pixel Flash Video Format aimed at mobile devices
and mobile websites.
NTSC 525
Video
Non-HD, analog standard definition video used in the U.S.
All TVs in the U.S. broadcast NTSC from 1941 until the
conversion to HD. Aspect ratio 4:3. 30 frames per second.
525 scanned lines. Not an online/digital format choice for
streaming.
WMV
Video
A WMV is a Windows Media Player format. They’re very
compressed and don’t look great. They’re also PC (nonMac)
oriented. The files are so tiny that you can email video.
Tutorial:
15 minute Video slideshow tutorial on Video compression and file formats:
Warning, this video starts with a very cheesy opening, but the information is good and easy
to understand.
http://www.spike.com/video-clips/a5tdv2/video-file-formats-tutorial
Why Compress Video?
Video files are incredibly large files that cannot be streamed on the Internet without
compression. The different video formats listed above use different types of compression
algorithms to shrink the video file sizes. The goal of compression is to achieve the smallest
file size possible without degrading the video file to a noticeable extent.
Codec stands for compression and decompression. Compression formats are built to
2 remove material. Different video players pay attention to the codec algorithm to try to
reinsert material for quality purposes. The differences in these codecs is the main reason a
video player plays only certain types of videos.
Digital Video Containers:
MPEG/MPEG 4, .AVI and .MOV and .WMV are video container files. A container is a wrapper
around data with specifications that determine how the metadata and the different data
elements interact. The container (mov, wmv, avi and/or mpeg4) does not describe how the
data is encoded. Instead, the container file is programmed to identify and arrange the data.
This data includes audio and video streams, subtitles, chapter information and meta-data
(tags), as well as information that keeps all of the data in sync when it is played.
Giz (Matt Buchanon) Explains Every Video Format You Need To Know:
http://gizmodo.com/5093670/giz-explains-every-video-format-you-need-to-know
“Videos are packaged in containers or wrappers that stuff things like the
audio, navigational info, etc. along with the video in a single pretty file.
Naturally, there are about as many of them as there are codecs. To be
clear, you would take a video encoded with, say, H.264, and wrap it up as
a .mp4 or .avi file” or as a .mov or .wmv file.”
“In order to play a video file, your setup has to be able to handle both the
actual video codec and the container. It's why you can try to play an AVI
file and Windows Media Player laughs at you, even though it totally
played one a minute ago— the container was no problem, but it didn't
have the right codec.”
For more information, visit these sites:
Wikipedia Digital Container Format Explanation http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_container_format
Grula, Lorraine: The Basics of Web Video File Formats and Video Containers from the Reel SEO site. http://www.reelseo.com/basics-­‐web-­‐video-­‐file-­‐formats-­‐video-­‐containers/ ©2012 ReelSEO Bright Hub: Video Formats Explained – Understanding the Different Video Formats by Rhonda Callow http://www.brighthub.com/multimedia/video/articles/4761.aspx Fluffbucket: Video Files and Editing http://www.fluffbucket.com/othettutorials/video/format.htm 3