Choosin’ For Online: A Quick Guide Through Video Formats

Choosin’ For Online: A Quick Guide Through Video Formats

Today, no one will be surprised by videos in the background on sites, and videos viewed on YouTube and other sites that are video aggregators numbering millions! That’s overwhelming in every sphere, either entertainment or business deals. Moreover, successfully filmed videos can bring real profits, and the matter is not even in the full meter or video clips – whose era began with the flourishing of TV industry.

We are talking about non-standard video content, which today has become part of digital marketing. The technical aspect of it takes many at a dead end here – which kind of video for website format this or that online resource use? After the advent of HD technology it is a 16:9 aspect ratio used commonly – widescreen movie format.

How About Incomprehensible Numbers: 480 pp or 720 pp

Here we come to the phenomenon. The graininess of a quality of video product is also important! A simple example: the clue image dimensions of 640×480 p and 1920×1080 have unequal area, but the aspect ratio for them is the same – both are 16: 9! So a big role in a format choice plays the screen resolution. The fact is, 1920×1080 – that’s what is widescreen format nowadays. Having some words, concerning the resolution: incomprehensible digits just show the height of the shooting – that is, for 720rr – this is shooting in 1280×720, and for 480rr – 640×480.

Some Facts Concerning Codecs?

Without understanding what is file-container and what is codec – that’s a hard deal to get through the video’s ideas and formats they have. Just try to comprehend briefly how the record process is held. They are separate tracks containing separately voiceover or soundtrack and image part that are recording in a parallel. And codec is a software that helps the media player to get the picture and sound during video playback in one stream. It’s a software, that has two different tasks in one – firstly it is squeeze the information coded in the video streams, and when you are starting viewing and pushing the “play” button on the screen, that’s codec which makes unpacking the information. Different codecs are responsible for quite a different process.

Some executes the sound processing others have a deal with high-quality image translation. Take the simplest example: you are going to the voyage and now that’s time to pack your luggage. Then, that’s a container file that plays the role of your suitcase. And that’s video and sound – the clothes and necessary things you are packing in the case. And your acts to hold them and pack tightly – that’s codecs themselves.

The Difference Between Video Formats for Web?

Despite the big number of very variable codecs, each type is codec-“friendly” with a certain type of software only. F. e. you have a MPEG file that gives you an opportunity to host video that was tightened to the compression by the MPEG-1 or MPEG-2 codecs only. But his “little bro”, the MP4 format, is not so nasty about which codec you should choose for it: the choice is wider and variable.

There are screen formats that transmit picture of a high-clearance and beautiful audio effects in one moment, while others give the very average video quality. And there is a necessity to count with the device specifics on which you are going to watch the video samples. Some of the codecs will give you the best quality, some may be the best ones, some – the easiest ones or, for example, the most commonly used.

The best video format for YouTube, Facebook and other social networks is MP4 with H.264 and AAC codecs. This configuration implies maximum quality with a minimum file size from the video.

Conclusion

For other sites, it is worth considering specifically those formats that are mentioned to be used on certain circumstances: specific site engines or types of content for site the video is (f.e. the circled video, promotional video, ads video, flash video of GIF).

If you cannot determine the specific site engine’s suitable format, it is better to use the one from the following list of the most user-friendly online formats: MP4, FLV, Avi, Webm. In order to watch video content through the web from a mobile phone or another gadget, it is enough to use the video phone formats. That commonly applies MP4 or a special 3GP, designed for the third generation of smartphones.

As you can see, the classification of formats is very simple, and you can easily find the one you need, both in resolution and in codecs or container files.