Digital Video Formats Guide

[Monkey]

I am making this guide for all of those people out there who store digital video on their computers, or for those who want to know which formats to use.

The Basics: What is a Codec, Format, and Who Cares?

Digital video is an evolving technology. Every year, many new versions of digital videos are created. The Format is basically how the file is stored on a computer, and it also determines what kind of player (RealPlayer, Windows Media Player etc.) can be used to open it. Some common examples of formats are AVI, MPEG, WMV, and RM. Each has its own good and bad qualities. For each of these formats, there is a set of rules that they are coded with. These rules, or containers are called codecs. The codec is used to literally code the video into the certain format. The certain codecs that were used to create the file must also be present on the computer that is playing the file. The codecs encode and decode the video file. Each format has varying amounts of codecs that can be used for it. Some codecs are much better than others. This guide will recommend some excellent codecs.

The Best Format and Codec for Storage on a Computer
The .AVI format is one of most common and best formats you can use if you want to store a video on your computer. It compresses files to a very small size while retaining excellent quality. The best codec that can be used for this format is the Divx 6.1 Codec. This is not free, however a free trial named "The Divx Create Bundle" can be downloaded at www.divx.com. The Divx 6.1 codec is regularly updated, and is very easy to use, while it also is able to be tweaked easily to allow for more speed or quality. This format should only be used on files that will be stored on the computer or another hard or flash drive (USB Drives or HDDs). WARNING: Unless you are an advanced DVD author, do NOT use the full uncompressed codec for AVI, it will require upwards of 60GB for a 2 hour long movie.

The Best Format and Codec for a Portable Video Player
There are many portable video players out there, such as the Sony PSP, or the Video iPod. This section is not for portable DVD Players. As for the iPod, manually encoding videos is very hard to do for the device, so you are better off using iTunes to import your non-protected(See section on protected files) files on to the iPod. For the Sony PSP or other devices such as the Archos Video Jukebox, the MPEG format is the most commonly used format. MPEG has two versions: 1 & 2. MPEG 1 is the recommended file format for the portable devices, and uses the extension of .mpg. Usually the player will come with an encoder for converting these files and automatically placing them on the player. This format is quite large compared to the AVI format, and should not be used for storage on a computer.

The WMV Format, and DRM File Protection
The WMV (Windows Media Video) is a common file format for videos that Microsoft recommends, while it is mostly hated by more advanced users. The format has mediocre quality and compression, and should not be used very much unless a video requires that format. This technology is also infamous for its DRM (Digital Rights Management) coding. The DRM software is built into Legally bought videos that are downloaded from the internet, such as rental movies from www.movielink.com. The DRM protection restricts the use of the file, from the amount of times it can be played or copied, to the devices that it can be played on. These files can usually only be played with RealPlayer or Windows Media Player 10. (Real.com and Microsoft.com respectfully). You will NOT be able to convert any DRM protected files. It is simply not possible at the time. It is recommended that you avoid WMV and DRM protected files altogether. Non-DRM protected WMV files can be converted to any format, using any converter such as one from www.winavi.com (Pay for use).

The DVD Format

DVDs use an advanced format, and these files cannot be manually converted without the help of a program such as easy DVD Clone (www.easydvdclone.com Free Trial). When you first open a DVD in Windows Explorer, you will see folders such as VIDEO_TS and AUDIO_TS. In these folders there will be files of the .VOB extension. These are DVD encoded files that are unlike regular digital video formats, and they are huge in size, and are not compressed much (The files go up to 2GB each). They must be converted using a program specifically meant for them. The files are usually converted into AVI files with these programs. Copy-Protected DVDs can also be copied, but I will not list the details here due to legal issues.

The RM (Real Media) Format
The Real Media (.RM) format is used specifically by RealPlayer (www.Real.com). The compression and quality is mediocre, and should not be used in most cases.

I Want to Play Most Types of Video Files, What Can I Download?

First, download the VLC Media Player (www.vlc.com). This player may not be pretty, but it plays literally any video file out there. Also, to play some files, you will need codecs. The K-Lite Codec pack will do you fine (http://www.codecguide.com/download_kl.htm). With this combination of programs, you will be able to play virtually any video file on the internet.