A brief introduction to several video formats, including ASF, MTS/M2TS, MOD/TOD, MKV, MPEG, DivX, etc.
Nowadays, more and more video formats have emerged; however, people
sometimes feel confused with them, in purpose of letting people have
brief understanding of these formats, this article will choose some to
do simple explanations.
ASF
ASF is an acronym for Advanced Streaming format, and from the
literal meaning (Advanced Streaming Format) that we should know its
usage. To put it bluntly, ASF is a compression video format for online
watching, which is developed by Microsoft to compete with Real player.
Because of its use of MPEG4 compression algorithm, its compression
ratio and image quality is very good.
ASF is a real-time online viewing video streaming format, so its
image quality is inferior to VCD. But it is better than RAM which is
the same video streaming format. However, if you do not consider
spreading on-line, and choose the best quality to compress files, then,
the generated video files would be better than VCD (MPEG1). But it will
lose the original intension of developing ASF. In that case, you might
as well directly use N AVI or DIVX. However, the "offspring?? of
Microsoft has its unique advantages. The most obvious thing is that
various kinds of software are supporting it.
nAVI
nAVI is short for newAVI, it is a video format developed by an
underground organization called ShadowRealm. It is from the changes of
Microsoft ASF compression algorithm, not AVI in imagine. Video format
is nothing more than the pursuit of compression ratio and image
quality, so in pursuit of this goal, nAVI improved the shortcomings in
ASF, and has a higher frame rate. Of course, this sacrifices the video
streaming features of ASF as a price.
In summary, nAVI is the modified ASF format which has been removed
the features of video streaming. More simply speaking, it is the
non-network version of ASF.
AVI
Comprehensive database of movies features a movie blog and also film synopses and reviews for each.
AVI stands for Audio Video Interleave, and it seems to be no need
for me to explain. This old video format, which was released in the age
of WIN3.1 by Microsoft, has been in application for a number of years.
Its advantages are good compatibility and image quality, as well as
convenient transfer. But it has a well-known shortcoming: the large
size. Because of this drawback, we can see the changes from the birth
of MPEG1 to the development of MPEG-4.
MPEG
MPEG is short for Motion Picture Experts Group, which includes
MPEG-1, MPEG-2 and MPEG-4 (note that there is no MPEG-3, MP3 that we
are familiar with is MPEG Layeur 3).
MPEG-1 is widely used in the production of VCD and some online
downloading applications of video clips. It can be said that 99% of the
VCDs are compressed in MPEG1. Using MPEG-1 compression algorithm, a
120-minute film can be compressed to the size of about 1.2 GB.
1080P video converter is one kind of HD video converter.
MPEG-2 is used in DVD compression, and also has applications in the
aspect of HDTV, and some videos that demand high editing and
processing. With MPEG-2 compression algorithm, a 120-minute film can be
compressed to 4 to 8 GB in size (of course, its image quality is much
better than MPEG-1.)
MPEG-4 is a new compression algorithm, the ASF format in this
algorithm can compress a 120-minute film to video streaming in about
300M for online watching. Other DIVX formats can be compressed to about
600M, but the image quality is much better than ASF.
DIVX
DIVX video encoding technology can be said to pose a threat to DVD
(some people say it is DVD killer), it comes from Microsoft mpeg4v3
modifications, and use MPEG4 compression algorithm. Meanwhile, it can
be also said developing in the purpose of breaking some protocols of
ASF. Compress a DVD just need two pieces of CD ROMs. This means that
you do not need to buy DVD ROMs any more, but you can get more or less
the same video quality as it, what you need is just CD ROMs. In
addition, its requirements of the machine are not high, CPU is more
than 300MHZ, with a 64M memory card, and an 8M graphic card, and then
it can be played smoothly.
QuickTime
QuickTime (MOV) is a video format created by Apple. In a very long
period of time, it only exists on MAC. Later developed to support the
WINDOWS platform, but to be fair, it is an excellent video encoding
format no matter for local playing or online spreading.
REAL VIDEO
REAL VIDEO (RA, RAM) format is firstly defined to do video streaming
applications, and it can be said to be the originators of video
streaming technology. It can achieve uninterrupted video playback by
56K MODEM dial-up. Of course, its image quality is incomparable to
MPEG-2 and DIVX. After all, continuous online transmission of videos
requires a lot of bandwidth. In this case, ASF is its powerful
competitor.
MKV
MKV is one of the file types of a container format called Matroska,
which is similar to other containers like ASF, AVI, MP4, and 3GP in
conception. Matroska is an open standard free
container format, which can hold an unlimited number of subtitle
tracks, pictures, audios, or videos within a single file. It contains
three file types: MKV for video files (including audios and subtitles);
MKS for subtitles (only subtitles); MKA for audio files only. To store
HD video files is the most common use of MKV files.
MTS/M2TS
With Andy's Web Tools, you. can be in complete control of your site.
Before talk about MTS/M2TS, AVCHD have to be mentioned at first.
AVCHD is a tapeless HD format developed by Sony and Panasonic in May,
2006. AVCHD video is compressed in MPEG-4 AVC/H.264 format, and it
supports 720p, 1080i, 1080p, etc. At the same time, AVCHD audio is
stored in compressed form Dolby AC-3. Well, what is the relationship
between AVCHD and MTS/M2TS? If you are attentive enough, you will find
AVCHD is with file extension .mts on camcorder and with .m2ts after
importing to computer. Briefly speaking, MTS and M2TS are the formats
that used by AVCHD camcorders to record footages. In addition, Blu-ray
disc also reserve video files in format of M2TS.
MOD and TOD
Both MOD and TOD are the informal tapeless video formats produced by
certain digital camcorders. And both of them have never been given to
any meaning explanations or official names by their creators JVC or
Panasonic. The differences between them lie in: MOD are used by JVC,
Panasonic, and Canon in some models of camcorders, such as JVC
GZ-MG130, GZ-MS100U, GZ-MG255, Panasonic SDR-SW20, SDR-SW21, SDR-S26,
Canon FS100, FS200, FS21 and so on, while TOD is only used by JVC
camcorders, like JVC GZ-HD7, GZ-HD5, GZ-HD6, GZ-HD30, and GZ-HD40;
Moreover, MOD is only used for standard definition video files, while
TOD is exclusively used for high definition video files.
Factually, all the above video formats can be played on your
portable devices, or imported to editors to do further editing, etc. as
long as you convert them to their workable formats with the proper
converters. The recommendations:
If you are windows user, this would be adaptive to you:
Video Converter
HD Video Converter
TOD Converter
MOD Converter
MTS/M2TS Converter
MKV Converter
Posted at 08:50PM Nov 14, 2009
by chipidsa in General |
