Flash format write only. Flash format is another
popular format that may appear on the web or standalone flash
player. Compared to other video formats, the flash format is
small, fast and ideal for web streaming purpose. SWF files are
completed, compiled and published files that cannot be edited.
FLV files are Flash video files, as created by Macromedia Flash,
Sorenson Squeeze or On2 Flix.
AVI (DivX, XviD, MS MPEG-4, Uncompressed,
Cinepak and other)
AVI stands for Audio Video Interleave. It is
a special case of the RIFF (Resource Interchange File Format).
AVI is defined by Microsoft. AVI is the most common format
for audio/video data on the PC. AVI is an example of a de
facto (by fact) standard
AVI Files are a special case of RIFF files. RIFF is the Resource
Interchange File Format. This is a general purpose format
for exchanging multimedia data types that was defined by Microsoft
and IBM during their long forgotten alliance.
MPEG (MPEG-1, MPEG-2 Video)
MPEG is both a file format and a codec for digital
video. There are actually three forms of MPEG: MPEG video, for
picture only; MPEG audio; and MPEG systems, which includes both
audio and video tracks.
MPEG files provide excellent picture quality but can be very
slow to decompress. For this reason, many MPEG decoding systems
are hardware-assisted, meaning that you need a board to play
MPEG files reliably without dropping a lot of frames. Although
software decoders definitely exist (and there are some very
good ones out there), they tend to require a lot of processor
power on your system and also usually support MPEG video only
(they have no soundtrack).
A third drawback of MPEG video as a standard for the Web is
that MPEG movies are very expensive to encode. You need a hardware
encoder to do so, and the price ranges for encoders are in the
thousands of dollars. As MPEG becomes more popular, those prices
are likely to drop. But for now, unless you already have access
to the encoding equipment or you're really serious about your
digital video, a software-based format is probably the better
way to go.
MOV Apple video format for the Macintosh,
read only.
Although QuickTime was developed by Apple for
the Macintosh, QuickTime files are the closest thing the Web
has to a standard cross-platform movie format (with MPEG a close
second). The Apple system software includes QuickTime and a
simple player (called MoviePlayer or SimplePlayer). For PCs,
QuickTime files can be played through the QuickTime for Windows
(QTfW) package, and the freely available Xanim program will
play them under the X Window System and UNIX. QuickTime movies
have the extension .qt or .mov.
QuickTime supports many different codecs, particularly CinePak
and Indeo, both of which can be used cross-platform.
MPEG-4 (MPEG-4 Video, IPOD, PSP, and Mobile)
MPEG-4 is an ISO/IEC standard developed by MPEG
(Moving Picture Experts Group), the committee that also developed
the Emmy Award winning standards known as MPEG-1 and MPEG-2.
MPEG-4 is a standard used primarily to compress
audio and video (AV) digital data. The uses for the MPEG-4 standard
are web (streaming media) and CD distribution, conversation
(videophone), and broadcast television, all of which benefit
from compressing the AV stream.
(Advanced Audio Coding) An audio compression technology
that is part of the MPEG-2 and MPEG-4 standards. AAC, especially
MPEG-4 AAC, provides greater compression and superior sound
quality than MP3 (MP3 is also an MPEG specification).
MPEG-4 AAC are supported on Apply's ipod, mobile,
Sony PSP and etc.
3GP (Mobile Video, 3GP, 3G2)
Third Generation Partnership Project sometimes
called 3GPP it is a multimedia container format defined by 3GPP
for use on 3G mobile phones. It is a simplified version of MPEG-4
Part 14 (MP4). 3GP files have the filename extension .3gp or
.3g2.
3GP stores video streams as MPEG-4 or H.263, and
audio streams as AAC-LC formats.
WMV / ASF (Windows Media Video)
Formerly known as .ASF file format from Microsoft.
A .WMV file includes a video stream (compressed using MS MPEG4
or WMV1 codec) combined with WMA encoded audio stream. The file
format is proprietary and backward incompatible. Currently,
dedicated to slow dialup connections, this media format does
not allow even sub-VHS video quality due to blurred picture.
WMA audio quality, compared to MPEG Layer3 of the same bitrate,
isn't better either.
You may wish to use Windows Media format to create smallest
files that are suitable to send by e-mail, however you must
keep in mind that .WMV file works like "one way ticket"
- once created, it can't be edited anymore, without horrific
quality loss. As opposite, AVI files compressed with MPEG4 video
codec are still editable and often it is possible to retain
source video quality.
Real Networks Video, write only.
It is a streaming media format known as RealMedia with the file
extension .rm using RealAudio audio compression and RealVideo
video compression (RealVideo, also known as ClearVideo, is Iterated
Systems fractal video compression).
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