Question

Video formats: what should you keep in mind?

Answer 1

Technical aspects of video formats
The most common video formats: full list
Different video formats and their respective advantages and disadvantages
Video Formats Summary - Comparison Table
The MP4 file format
The AVI file format
The MKV file format
The MOV file format
The OGG file format
The VOB file format
The WMV file format

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Video formats: what should you keep in mind?

Before presenting the most common video formats in a practical comparison table, we are going to define specifically what a video format is. It is a specific type of file that contains all the relevant information about the video . Depending on the file, they can contain image files, sound files, menus, or even subtitles..

Index

1. Technical aspects of video formats
2. The most common video formats: full list
3. Different video formats and their respective advantages and disadvantages
   1. The MP4 file format
   2. The AVI file format
   3. The MKV file format
   4. The MOV file format
   5. The OGG file format
   6. The VOB file format
   7. The WMV file format
4. Video Formats Summary - Comparison Table

Technical aspects of video formats

Each video file format has different aspects to consider. Each video has its own frame rate and color depth, its own cinematic format, and its own audio track . Based on these four factors, not only the appearance of the video changes, but also the size of the file. Thus, for example, the higher the resolution of the format and the frame rate, the more information the file will contain and therefore the more space it will occupy on the hard disk. By compressing the files, this size can be reduced, but the quality is reduced in return.

advice

Different video formats not only determine the quality and size of the file, but also which playback devices it will be compatible with. For this reason, when deciding which is the best video format, one usually thinks about the final device on which the files are to be played. A good way to create videos in different formats to later integrate them on platforms is to store the files in a suitable memory in the cloud..

The most common video formats: full list

The most popular video platform on the web is undoubtedly YouTube . However, the social network Facebook follows it in the ranking with a very large network of users. Both allow users to upload videos of different types and thus share them with the public and, therefore, always support the most common formats. Both one and the other accept the following video formats:

• MOV
• MP4
• AVI
• WMF
• FLV
• WebM

However, the time each platform requires to process and convert the files will depend on both their size and the chosen video format. Therefore, it might be worth the effort to choose the most suitable format, also when it comes to including different video formats on your own website.

Different video formats and their respective advantages and disadvantages

It is important to distinguish, first, between so-called container formats and video codecs . When talking about video formats, it is generally referred to as containers. This type of format stores video, sound and metadata data and ensures that all of them are accessible within the file. The codecs, on the other hand, have to do with the encoding of the videos, which mainly affects the type and degree of compression. The most popular video codecs are H.264, H.265, VP8 and VP9, ​​and a video editing program is required to encode a video..

The MP4 file format

The MP4 format has long been one of the most popular video formats on the web. Thanks to a good combination of compression capacity and video quality, the format as a whole gives excellent results. The most commonly used codecs in MP4 are H.264 and H.265.

Advantage

This format offers a good combination of image quality and compression and has the great advantage of allowing you to easily group several audio tracks and additional elements in the same format .

Drawbacks

Standard codecs tend to compress MP4 files heavily , making them difficult to open and edit.

The AVI file format

AVI stands for Audio Video Interleave and indicates that the audio and video tracks are directly interrelated. It is a very widespread format, but one that is already lagging behind in technical terms.

Advantage

This format is mainly characterized by its great acceptance . There are hardly any players or browsers that do not accept files in AVI format.

Drawbacks

The MKV file format

The MKV format is currently one of the most popular on the net. It is a high-performance container format that can not only contain video files, but also audio tracks, menus, and many other functions.

Advantage

The main attraction of the MKV format is the high quality of the video files and the wide variety of functions it allows to perform . Although it is only possible to use the format with the corresponding codec, it is available to any user on the network.

Drawbacks

The disadvantages of this format have to do above all with its low compression capacity , which hardly allows the creation of files that take up little space.

The MOV file format

This video format was created by Apple with the main objective of using it in Quicktime. However, the format has not been technically state-of-the-art for a long time, and is therefore rarely used in web applications.

Advantage

The biggest advantage of this format is the ease with which it can be used in Apple environments and its high compression capacity, which allows you to create very small file sizes.

Drawbacks

Precisely, the high compression capacity is also the main disadvantage of this format, since video files lose in image quality and information : the compressed files that are created are relatively small and compact, but the result in most cases makes compression worthless.

The OGG file format

The OGG video format was developed, among other things, to inject some flexibility into the structure of the market, which, in many cases, is dominated by holders of intellectual property rights. Because of this, OGG became one of the first formats to support popular Linux environments, allowing it to quickly establish itself in the market.

Advantage

The main advantage of the OGG file format is that it is widely used and does not have an authorization code , which means that it can be played natively in most browsers. For this reason, this video format is very convenient, for example, if you want to add videos to your own website.

Drawbacks

Although it is a very popular format, it also has drawbacks: both the Safari browser, and older versions of Internet Explorer, are only partially compatible with OGG , which can lead to display problems.

The VOB file format

The VOB video format has quickly become the standard for DVD and is therefore mainly used on this type of medium. In the network, however, it cannot be used due to lack of licenses and its low compression capacity.

Advantage

This format can be played smoothly on any DVD player and has the added benefit of low compression. In addition, it allows to unify several audio tracks.

Drawbacks

The VOB format is not suitable for use on the network , since it cannot be loaded on the different platforms and also on a website of its own. Playing files in this format requires a codec that is not available to the general public.

The WMV file format

The WMV format was developed by Microsoft and is still very widespread. As it allows Digital Rights Management (DRM) mechanisms to be applied, it is often used whenever video files need to be protected from unauthorized copying.

Advantage

WMV is accepted and can be played without problems on all end devices with Microsoft operating systems .

Drawbacks

Since the format has become somewhat outdated, with large files it only works in parts. Additionally, it has limitations on file size and video quality .

Video Formats Summary - Comparison Table

Video format	Developer company	Release year	Means of application	Container format?
MP4	Moving Picture Experts Group	2003	Initially Apple, now compatible with many devices	Yes
AVI	Microsoft	1992	All common video platforms and end devices	Yes
MKV	Matroska	2003	It only works on some players	Yes
MOV	Manzana	1991	Mainly used in Apple end devices	Yes
OGG	Xiph.Org Foundation	2008	Compatible with many platforms and players	Yes
VOB	DVD Forum	1997	Mainly for DVD	Yes
WMV	Microsoft	2000	Used on all digital media that require copy protection	No

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