If you have accepted digital video into your life, and most of us have whether consciously or not, you’re probably familiar with some or all of the many video formats available these days. You’ve heard of AVI or MOV, but you don’t really know the difference between them. You know YouTube houses videos that you can watch on a PC or smartphone, but you haven’t considered how that works.
First, you need to know the difference between the many video formats out there. Here are a few of the most popular ones:
AVI: Audio Video Interleave – contain both audio and video data in a file container that allows synchronous audio-with-video playback, AVI is considered the “go-to” video format, and while incredibly versatile, is usually used with codes like DivX and Xvid.
MOV: A common multimedia format compatible with both Macintosh and Windows platforms, however, MOV files can only be played on QuickTime Player. Videos created from a number of digital cameras are automatically stored in MOV format.
FLV: Flash Live Video – Flash videos are viewed on the internet using Adobe Flash Player. These videos are streamed over the web and are most often seen immediately when you click on a webpage, whether it be a company intro or advertisement.
WMV: Windows Media Video – standard video format used by Microsoft Windows and only runs on Windows Media Player or RealPlayer.
MPG (MPEG): Moving Picture Experts Group – probably the most popular format, it really comes in a variety of formats from MPEG-1 to MPEG-4, or more commonly MP4. It produces hi-def video, can be streamed and is the most commonly used format for sharing videos online.
So, now that you know there are so many video formats to choose from, each one offering their own unique benefits and specifications, you might want to know more about converting them into files that best suit your needs. When it comes to video conversion, finding the right program or software can be time consuming and difficult.
Whether you’re looking to get the best picture quality to stream online or you want to watch a video on a different computer or portable device that doesn’t support the current format, there is a great need for video conversion software and websites. Here are a few:
WinX Video Converter Platinum
Allows you to convert nearly all HD videos to AVI, MP4, FLV and WMV to play on many devices including your PC, iPod, iPhone or PSP. It has a fast conversion speed and is easy to use.
Video Converter Ultimate
The all-in-one video tool lets you convert video to AVI, WMV, FLV, MP4, and even makes it possible to convert video to 3D. You can also burn video to DVD, making it incredibly easy to share your videos.
PSP Video Converter
This video converter makes it super easy to convert your video and audio files so they are playable on your PSP. You can also convert to PS3, AVI, and WMV formats.
MOV Converter
Specifically designed for users to convert their MOV files to almost any other format, including AVI, MPG, WMV, FLV and ASF. You can also edit video length, adjust brightness, saturation and contrast, and join several videos to one file.
iPod Video Converter
With so many people using their iPods for viewing videos, it only makes sense that this converter is one of the most convenient out there. You can convert any video format to make it viewable on your iPod, iPod touch, iPod nano or iPod shuffle.
Tags: convert to DVD convert to HDD, digital video, digitizing, film to dvd