Video format help

[Yobbo]

Hi All

Could somebody please advise me as to which is the best file format for
video.

I've saved some DVD content as AVI and it created a huge file and the file
wouldn't play unless the right codec was installed in my friend's laptop.
All very messy.

I've tried WMV, which did create a smaller file size, but I thought AVI was
the standard? If WMV makes smaller files and no codec issues then why
doesn't everybody simply use WMV?

Is AVI really MPEG-4?

I've seen that I can save a file as MPEG-1 or MPEG-2 and I didn't know if
these would be better formats, ie compatibility and file size wise.

Any pointers you can give to fill the huge gaps in my knowledge would be
really appreciated.

Thanks

 

[PapaJohn]

the best format is the one that fills your needs.... who is your audience
and how are you getting the video to it? The best format varies with your
answers.

your friends laptop could be an Apple

 

[cwdjrxyz]

Hi All

Could somebody please advise me as to which is the best file format for
video.

I've saved some DVD content as AVI and it created a huge file and the file
wouldn't play unless the right codec was installed in my friend's laptop.
All very messy.

I've tried WMV, which did create a smaller file size, but I thought AVI was
the standard? If WMV makes smaller files and no codec issues then why
doesn't everybody simply use WMV?

Is AVI really MPEG-4?

I've seen that I can save a file as MPEG-1 or MPEG-2 and I didn't know if
these would be better formats, ie compatibility and file size wise.

Any pointers you can give to fill the huge gaps in my knowledge would be
really appreciated.

Thanks

The best format is ripping the DVD to the HD in the usual DVD format.
Of course you can not do this for the many commercial DVDs that are
encrypted(at least legally in many countries). Many media players will
play DVDs on the HD. The HD file is a digital clone of the DVD, and
thus is as good as you can get. But the storage space will be the same
as on the DVD which can range from about 4 to 8 GB per movie for
standard DVDs and much more for the new HD DVDs..

Most of the compressed formats come in a variety of quality
settings(degree of compression) and the more the compression, the
lower the quality. The best setting is often called lossless. This in
theory gives no loss of quality, but only a moderate amount of space
is saved. A lossless file may be about 1/2 the size of the
uncompressed file. Both WMV and Real video formats have lossless
versions. Also versions labeled variable bit rate tend to save a bit
more space than versions not so labeled do for a given average
compression ratio. Avi files come in several versions of video and
audio formats, and not all players will play all of them without added
codec support.

The type of video you record will determine how much you can compress
without serious problems. The smaller the screen size of video you
use, the more compression you can get away with. That is why many
videos on the web are made quite small. A fairly still scene, such as
a person reading the news, can tolerate much more compression that
very fast action movies, such as some sports.

 

[RalfG]

Replying inline:

Hi All

Could somebody please advise me as to which is the best file format for
video.

I've saved some DVD content as AVI and it created a huge file and the file
wouldn't play unless the right codec was installed in my friend's laptop.
All very messy.

I've tried WMV, which did create a smaller file size, but I thought AVI
was
the standard?

AVI is a defacto standard. In recent years Microsoft has essentially
abandoned the AVI format in favour of WMV.

If WMV makes smaller files and no codec issues then why

There are CODEC issues, IINM, WMV uses proprietary Microsoft codecs. We've
got them but others don't. There may also be playback issues, with high
resolution WMV requiring more processing power than a comparable AVI.

doesn't everybody simply use WMV?

Proprietary MS? Hasn't been around long enough? Could be just a matter of
time. AVI is a long established, widely used format and can make use of a
large variety of existing 3rd party CODECs.

Is AVI really MPEG-4?

AVI is the Audio Video Interleave file format. The video it contains could
be encoded using any of a variety of video and audio file CODECs, including
MPEG-4 variants like DivX, Xvid, 3ivx and others. Audio in AVI files can
also be compressed in any of a number of formats, commonly Mp3 or Ac3.

http://www.jmcgowan.com/avi.html#Definition

I've seen that I can save a file as MPEG-1 or MPEG-2 and I didn't know if
these would be better formats, ie compatibility and file size wise.

Depends what you want to do with the files.

http://www.winxdvd.com/wmv-to-dvd.html

Any pointers you can give to fill the huge gaps in my knowledge would be
really appreciated.

Try here too:

http://www.doom9.org/index.html?/guides.htm


http://www.digital-digest.com/software/topcategory-1.html