Best Video Format

1. shippocaio
   Member

   

   Hi,

   i just wanted to know which format is the best?

   Avi?  MOV?  MPEG2?  WMA?  Other?

    

   Any help would be appreciated.

   P.S.: Size is no problem!  :)

   Posted 1 year ago # Login to Send PM

2. craderscott
   Member

   

    MPEG, MPEG2, MPEG4, WMA are all compressed. I believe MOV is compressed too, AVI is uncompressed and the best format to save in if there will be editing done later or if new copies will be made

   Posted 1 year ago # Login to Send PM

3. jerronsmith
   Moderator

   

   @Craderscott

   Actually this is a common misconception, it isn't the format that that determines whether you have compression or not. The amount or lack of compression is a matter of which codec is used at the time of the files creation. There are compressed AVI and MOV files and there are uncompressed AVI and MOV files.

   @shippocai

   The best for what? What do you want to use the video for? How is it being deployed? Web? Blu-ray? Something else?

   In general each file format, and codec have there specific strengths and weaknesses.

   Jerron Smith
   Editor-Animator-Educator
   blog: http://www.thepixelsmith.blogspot.com

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4. brandon0409
   Member

   

   I edit on a MAC.  ALL formats encoded in FCP are encoded in MOV format.  They are all compressed at different ratios.  Basically the MOV is just a container, just like AVI.

   AVI seems to be the most popular format for containers.

   MPEG and WMV are very very difficult to edit cleanly because of the amount of compression even on the best setting.

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5. desmondclark
   Member

   

    This is good to know. I'm a newb and just trying to navigate my way through the seas of formats, compressions, and craziness.

   Posted 1 year ago # Login to Send PM

6. BarefootMedia
   Member

   

   The reason AVI is is so popular is that whenit is compressed, it is done by intra-frame compression.  The compression is limited to individual frames.  MPG2 (in fact all MPG formats) compress across several frames, called a GOP.  Compression across several frames can cause problems during editing because many of the frames are compressed by looking back at previous frames.  So any individual frame is not likely to contain all the data to make the frame.  This is the complaint many folks have about the AVCHD formats.  Panasonic has developed an AVCHD format that uses only intra-frame (versus the usual inter-frame) compression.  However, the bit rate & file size require special high speed and high capacity flash media.

   As mentioned earlier, MOV files are a bit different as the format can adjust to a variety of bit rates with quality ranging from as good as AVI to less than MPG4 files.   The easiest way to compare formats is to compare their bit rates.  The higher the bit rate, the better the video's quality.  However, you may not always want or need the highest bit rates possible.  For example, the MPG2 files that make up a DVD video are significantly compressed when compared to AVI's (and high quality MOV's) but it would be hard for you (or even me) to actually see the difference.  So while I always archive the highest quality video from the production, I will distribute in a format appropiate to the audience.  So I keep the best quality video available for future projects or re-edits for higher quality playback devices.

   I don't know if I've added anything helpful to the thread, but thanks for reading.  And good luck with your productions.

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7. louie
   Member

   

    So Panasonic intra-frame AVCHD.  Do you know any other hd intra-frame formats ?

   Posted 1 year ago # Login to Send PM

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