Video Formats

Video Formats

The MP4 format is the new and upcoming format for internet video. It is supported by YouTube, Flash players and HTML5.

Format	File	Description
AVI	.avi	The AVI (Audio Video Interleave) format was developed by Microsoft. The AVI format is supported by all computers running Windows, and by all the most popular web browsers. It is a very common format on the Internet, but not always possible to play on non-Windows computers.
WMV	.wmv	The Windows Media format is developed by Microsoft. Windows Media is a common format on the Internet, but Windows Media movies cannot be played on non-Windows computer without an extra (free) component installed. Some later Windows Media movies cannot play at all on non-Windows computers because no player is available
MPEG	.mpg .mpeg	The MPEG (Moving Pictures Expert Group) format is the most popular format on the Internet. It is cross-platform, and supported by all the most popular web browsers.
QuickTime	.mov	The QuickTime format is developed by Apple. QuickTime is a common format on the Internet, but QuickTime movies cannot be played on a Windows computer without an extra (free) component installed.
RealVideo	.rm .ram	The RealVideo format was developed for the Internet by Real Media. The format allows streaming of video (on-line video, Internet TV) with low bandwidths. Because of the low bandwidth priority, quality is often reduced.
Flash	.swf .flv	The Flash (Shockwave) format was developed by Macromedia. The Shockwave format requires an extra component to play. But this component comes preinstalled with web browsers like Firefox and Internet Explorer.
Mpeg-4	.mp4	Mpeg-4 (with H.264 video compression) is the new format for the internet. In fact, YouTube recommends using MP4. YouTube accepts multiple formats, and then converts them all to .flv or .mp4 for distribution. More and more online video publishers are moving to MP4 as the internet sharing format for both Flash players and HTML5.