what is the best format for video

[pixelmonkey]

personal preference here....

it's to cover streaming, complete download, audio/ video quality, file size, fps, ect...

and i know there are more formats then listed above, so please list some others, and the programs it takes to run them!

playing with a 8mm digital
chris<pixelmonkey>:monkey:

[Ian]

With what you have listed above, I am sure mpg/mpeg would give you the best picture and sound quality.

[PCheese]

I'd have to say that divX encoded avi's are a Godsend. Bloody good quality, really nice file size - easy to view in Media Player if you don't want to use the divX player cause you just need the codec.

For instance - a 27 minute episode of 'SOMETHING' (I won't say what 'cause it's probably illegal for me to downlaod and view it...) was 33 meg at 320x200 resolution and took 15 minutes to download to my PC.

Try it.

www.divX.com

[pixelmonkey]

thanks PCheese!

I now have something to play with this afternoon!
chris<pixelmonkey>:monkey:

[PCheese]

My pleasure Mr Monkey.

The boy done good.

[scoutt]

yes divx is great, but to give you an idea on what it will do.. take a dvd movie (1 disk ) and it is around 7-8gig right? well if you were to somehow (I don't know what) take that movie off of there and make it into a avi, it would condense it to 700Mb to fit on a regular cd.

so I have been told :D

[Oscar Petti]

actually .wmv and .asf is the same format - you can change ext. and it works the same way.
.ram is a "playlist" for .rm files. That said:

For streaming you can use Real or WM (from 20kbps up);
for download usually mpeg is the format to go.

Divx is great but it's not a standard so you can
experience troubles at times.

QT is somewhere inbetwwen - it "streams" with a longer
"buffering" time and maybe a little better quality.

It really depends on what you want to achieve.

Oscar

[Michel Chartran]

I just wish there would be one type of .AVI :(
I downloaded something and didn't have the right codec and couldn't find the codec and tried to download the latest Media player in the hopes that it would be able to play it but on the download page it said Windows 95 isn't supported in this version, dag nab it I had to be old fashioned and stick with my trusty ol' Win95.
Overall my favorite is MPEG as it has small sizes, good quality and when you're on a bad 56k connection like me, you can actually watch as it downloads, .avi's have to be fully downloaded before viewing.

[Oscar Petti]

W 95 is "limited" to MPlayer 6.4, but it can use all the MS codecs.

Try this link to update the codecs - player 6.4:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/release.asp?ReleaseID=31921

cheers
Oscar

[Option1]

For me it depends on what you want to do.

As far as smooth streaming goes then I've usually found the RealMedia format .rm to work the better than asf/wmv with less interruption while they stream has to rebuffer.

For download I guess I'd go with mpeg.

I dislike avi's intensely. As Michel noted, they don't stream and it seems that everyone out there uses different codecs for them. I'm finding 90+% of the time I end up with sound and no video. I'm using WM Player 7.01 so I'm not sure what the problem is. - Actually if anyone has any advice on solving that I'd be grateful.

Neil

[boxcrash]

Divx is probably the best as for compression and quality(together; they get pretty small and still look good)

But mpeg is the best for compatibility.
You can view mpegs through QT and just about everything else, including SGI's which will not view Divx or any .avi for that matter.

Oh yeah........I dislike .rm(Real Player) very much.

[boxcrash]

Originally posted by Option1
For me it depends on what you want to do.


I dislike avi's intensely. As Michel noted, they don't stream and it seems that everyone out there uses different codecs for them. I'm finding 90+% of the time I end up with sound and no video. I'm using WM Player 7.01 so I'm not sure what the problem is. - Actually if anyone has any advice on solving that I'd be grateful.

Neil

Is that WMP 7.01 on a Mac or PC?

[Option1]

Originally posted by boxcrash


Is that WMP 7.01 on a Mac or PC?

PC, but actually I think I get the same problem with avi's (sound, but no video) using QuickTime as well. So any idea what I'm doing wrong? :)

Neil

[boxcrash]

Yeah I have found that QT will not play any .avi movies, just sound no video. I think there is a way but I don't care enough about QT playing .avi that I have not investigated this.

About the WMP, it mostly does that when you don't have the right codec. But if you do I do not know why it would, maybe re-install it or a later version, if it out.

Also you caould go to http://www.divx.com and download the latest Divx Player.

Or go here for a player that plays just about everything, not really a player but a converter to .mpeg(.avi to mpg converter)

http://www.mnsi.net/%7Ejschlic1/

Hope that helps.

[Option1]

Originally posted by boxcrash
Yeah I have found that QT will not play any .avi movies, just sound no video. I think there is a way but I don't care enough about QT playing .avi that I have not investigated this.

About the WMP, it mostly does that when you don't have the right codec. But if you do I do not know why it would, maybe re-install it or a later version, if it out.

Also you caould go to http://www.divx.com and download the latest Divx Player.

Or go here for a player that plays just about everything, not really a player but a converter to .mpeg(.avi to mpg converter)

http://www.mnsi.net/%7Ejschlic1/

Hope that helps.

Thanks boxcrash, I went to divx.com and got the playa (their spelling not mine :) ) and it plays avi's just fine.

Thanks again for your help.

Neil

[boxcrash]

No problem :D