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Wednesday, July 18, 2007
Video Formats
What is the best video format? Some people prefer Mpegs, others like the Windows Media format (WMV), and then there is Real Player and Quicktime? I have used all of them. The only one that seems behind the others is the Mpeg format. People love it because it can play on almost any player, so you don't need any special software. But since virtually everyone has Windows now with the Media Player included, that format is gaining dominance. And it is a pretty good alogorithm. I have found the quality to be very good at both low resolutions and high resolutions. Quicktime is also an excellent format, but you will have to download the player. But overall it is a great format, especially at the higher resolutions. Check out some of the video trailers on Itunes and you'll see how good they look. Real Player is not bad either, with possibly the best algorithm for low resolution movies - it does tend to look the best of all the formats at 300k or below. Since all the players are free, you might as well have them all.