Video Editing 0: A Guide to Video Formats and File Types

Video Editing 101: A Guide to Video Formats and File Types Posted on: September 21, 2014 /

Categories: Video Editing Tutorials

Video Editing 101: A Guide to Video Formats and File Types The number of video formats can be quite confusing, but there are really only a few things you need to know. A video format means more than its file extension, which is not the same as video codecs. They are containers, or file formats, which can use multiple codecs to compress video into a space that is easier for hard drives to handle. File types include the codecs that found inside the containers, so it helps to think of containers as files and codecs as their contents.

Common Video Formats AVI is a common file type format, originally developed by Microsoft, for editing and viewing computer videos and movies. Video or audio content may be compressed using one of many codecs, and stored in AVI files. Codecs must be supported by whatever device you or others may be playing the videos on.

MPG (MPEG) is a file format designed by Moving Picture Experts Group, and many DVD and Blu-ray players and computers use it. Many programs will open MPEG files, including Windows Media Player and Apple QuickTime.

MP4, or MPEG-4, is used for video or movie clips using MPEG-4 compression, and it is quite commonly used in videos shared online. This format uses separate types of compression for its video and audio tracks. While the video content will be compressed using MPEG-4 encoding, the audio will use AAC compression. Many hardware devices and video programs, including Microsoft's Zune media player, use MP4 files.

MOV file types are containers for Apple QuickTime format, and is suitable for VideoBlocks.com downloads. They can store tracks of data, including text, audio and effects, and video, after editing is complete.

M2TS is an MPEG-2 stream for Blu-ray, based on standard MPEG-2. Blu-rays use transport streams, rather than the program streams in DVDs, to store audio, video and other data.

DivX file types are considered movie files developed by DivX. These are high-compression, high-quality video codecs that are used for the distribution of digital video. The process compresses video to a mere fraction of its original size, with only minimal loss of quality. DivX files support video resolutions of up to 1080p.

DivX formatting is recognized by a number of software video playback programs and some consumer electronics and DVD players. The programs that can open DivX files include Microsoft Windows, RealNetworks RealPlayer Cloud, Roxie Creator, CyberLink PowerDVD and Apple QuickTime Player.

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