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Anybody know anything about video file codecs????
- Thread starter TC2
- Start date
The differences are in the compression. Of these three video types, AVI has the least compression, which results in a larger video file, but a better video quality. Next would be MOV. A little more compressed than AVI, and a little less quality video. MPEG4 is most compressed. Understanding compression: Example MPEG: mpeg will take several video frames that are very similar (with little changes in them from frame to frame) and compress them together. Do this throughout the video, and you end up with a much smaller file, but a greater loss in quality. Hope this helps a little. To make it more confusing MPEG4 files can and often often named with AVI extensions.
The same applies somewhat to audio files. mp3 is the audio portion of mpg. Apple's .AAC format that you get from iTunes is basically .mp4. It hasn't really caught on because people don't want to pay royalties to Apple for using it when they're already paying for mp3 too; same with Microsoft's WMV. You have to pay royalties if you build a software or hardware music player that handles those formats. There is an open source format called .OGG that is free to use.
The same applies somewhat to audio files. mp3 is the audio portion of mpg. Apple's .AAC format that you get from iTunes is basically .mp4. It hasn't really caught on because people don't want to pay royalties to Apple for using it when they're already paying for mp3 too; same with Microsoft's WMV. You have to pay royalties if you build a software or hardware music player that handles those formats. There is an open source format called .OGG that is free to use.
justinjones1963
New member
codecs = compression decompression
Basically it is a method of compressing data for video purposes. There are a ton of codecs out there.
Also, *.avi, *.mpg/mpeg etc. all refer to the file type not necessairly which codec is being used. There are many different codecs that are used for avi's - it all depends on the company that produces the video.
The bottomline with codecs is that over time they develop new ones so quality of the video can be increased with a smaller file size. The more they can compress the data, without losing quality, the better. You can thank the online industry for the development of high quality streaming video.
Also, some codecs are proprietary, for example Apple's codecs for their mpeg4 can only be played on their Quicktime. Same for Real Player. The best files and codecs are ones I can play on any system. For example the generic Indeo AVI codec can be played on MS Media Player, Quicktime and Realplayer.
Unless you are making commercial quality videos/internet videos you really need not worry about codecs. The biggest pain is sometimes I download videos and I cannot get he video to work - or I have to find the codec and install it. For example, some videos use the DIVX codec and you need to go to the DIVX site to obtain it.
Basically it is a method of compressing data for video purposes. There are a ton of codecs out there.
Also, *.avi, *.mpg/mpeg etc. all refer to the file type not necessairly which codec is being used. There are many different codecs that are used for avi's - it all depends on the company that produces the video.
The bottomline with codecs is that over time they develop new ones so quality of the video can be increased with a smaller file size. The more they can compress the data, without losing quality, the better. You can thank the online industry for the development of high quality streaming video.
Also, some codecs are proprietary, for example Apple's codecs for their mpeg4 can only be played on their Quicktime. Same for Real Player. The best files and codecs are ones I can play on any system. For example the generic Indeo AVI codec can be played on MS Media Player, Quicktime and Realplayer.
Unless you are making commercial quality videos/internet videos you really need not worry about codecs. The biggest pain is sometimes I download videos and I cannot get he video to work - or I have to find the codec and install it. For example, some videos use the DIVX codec and you need to go to the DIVX site to obtain it.
TC2
New member
Dial_tone said:
not to fond of WMV, I encoded the same 2 movies, 1 in WMV and the other in AVI.
The AVI came out noticibly smoother and more "polished" looking, the WMV had a blocky look to the picture.
My phone has a video recorder and I noticed that the mpeg4 setting gave me like 9 hours or record time and the AVI setting gave me like 3 hours.
I tried both and to me they both looked the same with maybe the AVI being slightly better at frame rate.
I just figured that anything that took up more space would be a better quality file.
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