What You Need to Know About the five Most Common Movie File Formats
What You Need to Know About the five Most Common Movie File Formats
Beginning from the home movie era up to the most cutting-edge standards of today, movie file formats have undergone some major switches. Different file formats do different things, and the right movie format for a specific file isn’t necessarily the right one for the others. Each file format has its own set of specifics, and today, we’re going to look at five of the most common file formats every user will come across when streaming movies on the Web or playing them from the computer itself.
A normal movie file in a digital format is made up of two parts, a “codec” and a “container”. A “codec” is used to compress and decompress a movie file, as there are times where movie files are too large and may cause difficulty when attempting to download or play the file. Some examples of “codecs” are FFMpeg, DivX, XviD, and x264. A “container” is a collection of files that stores information about the digital file. It simply means there is a combination of both audio and movie data in a single file to permit for simultaneous audio-with-video playback. Some popular types of “containers” are AVI, FLV, WMV, MP4, and MOV.
AVI (Audio Movie Interleave)
Developed by Microsoft and introduced to the public in November one thousand nine hundred ninety two as part of its Movie for Windows technology, the AVI format is one of the oldest movie formats. It is so universally accepted that many people consider it the de facto standard for storing movie and audio information on the computer. Due to it’s ordinary architecture, AVI files are able to run on a number of different systems like Windows, Macintosh, Linux; is also supported by popular web browsers. AVI files stores data that can be encoded in a number of different codec’s, albeit most commonly with M-JPEG or DivX codecs. This means that all AVI files, while they may look similar on the outside, differ substantially from one another on the inwards.
FLV (Flash Movie Format)
FLV files are movies that are encoded by Adobe Flash software, usually with codecs following the Sorenson Spark or VP6 movie compression formats. They can be played via the Adobe Flash Player, web browser plugins or one of several third party programs. Since virtually everyone has the player installed on their browsers, it has become the most common online movie viewing platform used on the Web today. As almost all movie sharing sites such as Youtube stream movies in Flash, practically all browsers support and are compatible with the Flash Movie format and can play the movie with ease. In addition to being an online movie viewing format, the Flash Movie format is also what many video-sharing sites convert movies to, from formats that were uploaded by their users in something other than Flash. This is because movies in the FLV format remain in high quality even after compression to a smaller file size, which means that the movies on the Web geyser quickly and won’t spend a lot of time using up bandwidth. Some notable users of the Flash Movie are Youtube, Yahoo! Movie, VEVO, Hulu and Myspace among many others.
WMV (Windows Media Movie)
Developed by Microsoft, WMV was originally designed for web streaming applications, as a competitor to RealVideo, but it can now cater to more specialized content. WMV files are the tiniest movie files over the Web, as their file size decreases significantly after compression, which results in poor movie quality. However, one advantage of this puny file size is that it is most likely the only movie file format that permits users to upload and share their movies through the e-mail system. Being a Microsoft software, the Windows Media Player is the main application that is used to play WMV files on all Microsoft’s Windows operating systems, but there are also WMV players available for free for the Macintosh operating system.
MOV (Apple QuickTime Movie)
Developed by Apple. Inc, the QuickTime file format is a popular type of movie sharing and viewing format amongst Macintosh users, and is often used on the Web, and for saving movie and movie files. In latest years, Apple came up with a newer version called QuickTime X, presently available on Mac OS X Snow Leopard, Lion and Mountain Lion. MOV files are most commonly opened via the Apple QuickTime Player for the Macintosh Operating System. However, MOV files are not just limited to being played on Apple computers, as there is a free version of the QuickTime Player available for the Windows Operating System among many other players. Considered one of the best looking file formats, MOV files are of high quality and are usually big in file size.
MP4 (Moving Pictures Experienced Group Four)
MP4 is an abbreviated term for MPEG-4 Part 14, a standard developed by the Mobility Pictures Accomplished Group who was responsible for setting industry standards regarding digital audio and movie, and is commonly used for sharing movie files on the Web. Very first introduced in 1998, the MPEG-4 movie format uses separate compression for audio and movie tracks; movie is compressed with MPEG-4 or H.264 movie encoding; and audio is compressed using AAC compression. The MP4 file format is also another good file sharing format for the Web, MP4 file sizes are relatively puny but the quality remains high even after compression. MP4 standard is also becoming more popular than FLV for online movie sharing, as it compatible with both online and mobile browsers and also supported by the fresh HTML5.
At MotionElements , when selling with us, we accept your stock footage in both AVI and MOV file formats, albeit the MOV file format is more very recommended because of its preservation of high quality even after compression.
Join Now and upload your works with us to get passive income or find more high quality footage and animation suited for all kinds of movie production.
What You Need to Know About the five Most Common Movie File Formats
What You Need to Know About the five Most Common Movie File Formats
Beginning from the home movie era up to the most cutting-edge standards of today, movie file formats have undergone some major switches. Different file formats do different things, and the right movie format for a specific file isn’t necessarily the right one for the others. Each file format has its own set of specifics, and today, we’re going to look at five of the most common file formats every user will come across when streaming movies on the Web or playing them from the computer itself.
A normal movie file in a digital format is made up of two parts, a “codec” and a “container”. A “codec” is used to compress and decompress a movie file, as there are times where movie files are too large and may cause difficulty when attempting to download or play the file. Some examples of “codecs” are FFMpeg, DivX, XviD, and x264. A “container” is a collection of files that stores information about the digital file. It simply means there is a combination of both audio and movie data in a single file to permit for simultaneous audio-with-video playback. Some popular types of “containers” are AVI, FLV, WMV, MP4, and MOV.
AVI (Audio Movie Interleave)
Developed by Microsoft and introduced to the public in November one thousand nine hundred ninety two as part of its Movie for Windows technology, the AVI format is one of the oldest movie formats. It is so universally accepted that many people consider it the de facto standard for storing movie and audio information on the computer. Due to it’s plain architecture, AVI files are able to run on a number of different systems like Windows, Macintosh, Linux; is also supported by popular web browsers. AVI files stores data that can be encoded in a number of different codec’s, albeit most commonly with M-JPEG or DivX codecs. This means that all AVI files, while they may look similar on the outside, differ substantially from one another on the inwards.
FLV (Flash Movie Format)
FLV files are movies that are encoded by Adobe Flash software, usually with codecs following the Sorenson Spark or VP6 movie compression formats. They can be played via the Adobe Flash Player, web browser plugins or one of several third party programs. Since virtually everyone has the player installed on their browsers, it has become the most common online movie viewing platform used on the Web today. As almost all movie sharing sites such as Youtube stream movies in Flash, practically all browsers support and are compatible with the Flash Movie format and can play the movie with ease. In addition to being an online movie viewing format, the Flash Movie format is also what many video-sharing sites convert movies to, from formats that were uploaded by their users in something other than Flash. This is because movies in the FLV format remain in high quality even after compression to a smaller file size, which means that the movies on the Web blast quickly and won’t spend a lot of time using up bandwidth. Some notable users of the Flash Movie are Youtube, Yahoo! Movie, VEVO, Hulu and Myspace among many others.
WMV (Windows Media Movie)
Developed by Microsoft, WMV was originally designed for web streaming applications, as a competitor to RealVideo, but it can now cater to more specialized content. WMV files are the tiniest movie files over the Web, as their file size decreases significantly after compression, which results in poor movie quality. However, one advantage of this puny file size is that it is most likely the only movie file format that permits users to upload and share their movies through the e-mail system. Being a Microsoft software, the Windows Media Player is the main application that is used to play WMV files on all Microsoft’s Windows operating systems, but there are also WMV players available for free for the Macintosh operating system.
MOV (Apple QuickTime Movie)
Developed by Apple. Inc, the QuickTime file format is a popular type of movie sharing and viewing format amongst Macintosh users, and is often used on the Web, and for saving movie and movie files. In latest years, Apple came up with a newer version called QuickTime X, presently available on Mac OS X Snow Leopard, Lion and Mountain Lion. MOV files are most commonly opened via the Apple QuickTime Player for the Macintosh Operating System. However, MOV files are not just limited to being played on Apple computers, as there is a free version of the QuickTime Player available for the Windows Operating System among many other players. Considered one of the best looking file formats, MOV files are of high quality and are usually big in file size.
MP4 (Moving Pictures Pro Group Four)
MP4 is an abbreviated term for MPEG-4 Part 14, a standard developed by the Motility Pictures Pro Group who was responsible for setting industry standards regarding digital audio and movie, and is commonly used for sharing movie files on the Web. Very first introduced in 1998, the MPEG-4 movie format uses separate compression for audio and movie tracks; movie is compressed with MPEG-4 or H.264 movie encoding; and audio is compressed using AAC compression. The MP4 file format is also another excellent file sharing format for the Web, MP4 file sizes are relatively petite but the quality remains high even after compression. MP4 standard is also becoming more popular than FLV for online movie sharing, as it compatible with both online and mobile browsers and also supported by the fresh HTML5.
At MotionElements , when selling with us, we accept your stock footage in both AVI and MOV file formats, albeit the MOV file format is more very recommended because of its preservation of high quality even after compression.
Join Now and upload your works with us to get passive income or find more high quality footage and animation suited for all kinds of movie production.