Video formats

[derrick76]

What video formats do most website subscribers watch? I know it's always best to offer a variety, but I was just wondering which is best to export to just in case 'space' is an issue. I for instance have read some people complain that .WMV is shyte and they don't like it, but is it something most people use or is MP4 the best and most widely used?

.MP4 (HD)
.MOV
.WMV
.MPG
.AVI (which I guess is just a container)

[Paul Taylor]

In my experience working with web masters MP4 is the main one for one good reason you can render to HD H.264 for the web and having great quality while also having decent size, HD video is do able now as most people have faster connections so a 20-30 HD scene can be a gig or a little over and most are happy with that. MP4 is compatible on a PC and MAC wmv is a windows based platform and is dying out in most cases.

[Peter]

.mp4 is gaining a lot of traction, partly because it's the default format for iPads and iphones, which a lot of people are using for viewing, and needs no conversion to enable that to happen.

[Millzy82]

In my view .mp4 is definitely the way to go. The H.264 codec offers better compression than .wmv or .avi for a set file size and it's pretty much platform agnostic i.e. you can view it on a Windows or Linux based PC, a Mac, an Android or iOS device.

[derrick76]

of just having .MP4 only and doing away with .MOV amd .WMV altogether because of what you all said: the fact that .MP4 is so multipurpose and versatile.

[MyContentGuy]

AFAIK, Adultwork hates MP4 and is very much oriented towards WMV uploads - I may be wrong though.

Also when I had pages on Clips4Sale (before they stopped actually sending the money for what they sold) the WMV clips were the only ones in demand. Perhaps thanks to the iPad things are changing. I certainly hate shooting and editing in high quality formats on the Mac and then being forced to convert to clunky WMV files.

[derrick76]

MP4s were on the go before iPad. I remember seeing a lot of it long before the iPad came out. I too use Mac, but although I have been using Final Cut all this time, I've been using Adobe premiere quite a bit recently.

I may keep the WMVs along with the MP4s and do away with the MOVs but I am not sure.

I don't use AdultWork at all, so I don't know what is the in thing there.

With regards to Clips4Sale, would that be when there is only a choice between MOV and WMV?

[MyContentGuy]

I've seen MOV, AVI and WMV offered on Clips4Sale and I don't think anything other than WMV sold much - but I'm sure with the preponderance of iPads in the States that will be changing. Many PC users however don't even realise it's possible to play MOV and other files on a Windows PC.

[derrick76]

...on my TV via the USB function. WMVs play choppy, although I am sure they probably do well on other TVs.

[derrick76]

That's true about PC users, but quite a few (including I when I used to use PCs many moons ago) have watched MPGs and AVIs on their systems. Not to mention the RMs. I used to watch MOVs on my older PC too. I guess some just can't be bothered to check out other formats.

On another note: when downloading TV shows or movies I don't remember seeing much if any offers in WMVs. It's always AVI, MP4 and MKV that I see.