Best format for video

I have downloaded videos from my camcorder and have them on the hard drive for editing. I want to make a DVD with them but I also want to have an electronic version of the movie as well to keep on my hard drive, but in a format that is 1) popular (not likely to go out-of-style with changing technology), 2) universal (plays on Mac and PC), and 3) no loss of quality.
First question: Is there such a format?
Second question: If so, what is it? Do I have to download something to convert to it?
Third question: What is a good link that describes the different formats for someone who has limited understanding of such things?
I also have ripped some previously edited home movies from a DVD using MacTheRipper and currently have them as .vob files. They need to be converted into something that can be viewed. What is the best program to do the same things mentioned above (1, 2, and 3) for a hard drive copy and where can I get it?
Thanks!!! Have a great weekend!

I'd love to know this too, as I'm working on a very video-heavy presentation and have been using .dv files--love the clarity but I'm nearing a 1GB file with only about 4 min. of video in it so far. Clearly I have to slim it down, so any recommendations on video format would be very welcome!

Similar Messages

  • Best format for video, etc.

    I have downloaded videos from my camcorder and have them on the hard drive for editing. I want to make a DVD with them but I also want to have an electronic version of the movie as well to keep on my hard drive, but in a format that is 1) popular (not likely to go out-of-style with changing technology), 2) universal (plays on Mac and PC), and 3) no loss of quality.
    First question: Is there such a format?
    Second question: If so, what is it? Do I have to download something to convert to it?
    Third question: What is a good link that describes the different formats for someone who has limited understanding of such things?
    I also have ripped some previously edited home movies from a DVD using MacTheRipper and currently have them as .vob files. They need to be converted into something that can be viewed. What is the best program to do the same things mentioned above (1, 2, and 3) for a hard drive copy and where can I get it?
    Thanks!!! Have a great weekend!

    currently have them as .vob files. They need to be converted into something that can be viewed.
    You need to convert the VOB files back to DV which iMovie is designed to handle. For that you need mpegStreamclip:
    http://www.apple.com/downloads/macosx/video/mpegstreamclip.html
    which is free, but you must also have the Apple mpeg2 plugin :
    http://www.apple.com/quicktime/mpeg2/
    which is a mere $20.
    Another possibility is to use DVDxDV:
    http://www.dvdxdv.com/NewFolderLookSite/Products/DVDxDV.overview.htm
    which costs $25.
    Obviously the foregoing only applies to DVDs you have made yourself, or other home-made DVDs that have been given to you. It will NOT work on copy-protected commercial DVDs, which in any case would be illegal.

  • Best Format For Front Row

    Hi what is the best format for videos in front row? Most videos I have are avis so I had been saving them as .mov files instead until recently when I discovered I could export them to Mpeg4 and in the process make them widescreen - I also noticed that when I saved these videos as .mov they took up about 5 gb but as mp4 they took up 500mb. So anyone have any opinions on what is the best way to do it?
    Cheers

    AVI and MOV are both simply "containers". The video and audio files inside them can be many formats with less or more compression. The MPEG-4 compression can be very good, of course, depending on the quality of the original file. The MOV files you saved must be using a different type of video compression that may be better quality but takes up more hard drive space. The "best" type of compression is probably a personal choice. What type of software are you using to save the files? QuickTime Pro?
    -Doug

  • Best Format for Archiving Video Files

    I am importing old VHS and 8mm family videos for my cousin, to both burn them to DVD, and to archive the movies in case he wants to edit them later.
    I am planning on purchasing for him, a "write once," external HDD, probably firewire, (though I am open to suggestions), to put both the backup Video TS folders on, as well as the Quicktime movies themselves.
    My guess is, the best format for the QT movies would be their original DV-NTSC, but at around 13GB an hour, this can add up pretty fast.
    The h264 .mov codec looks great, takes forever to render, and it seems the file size difference to DV-NTSC is nominal at best.
    Obviously the future is some kind of HD, so these movies will never look great years from now, but I want them to be preserved for him at the best quality possible, at the smallest file size, if it will not compromise the quality too much.
    I know I can render them significantly smaller as h264 .mp4 files, or as DIVX, (which also takes a long time), but I imagine they are of significantly reduced quality that would be visible in future video editing he might do.
    If DV-NTSC is the only way to go, so be it. But if not, then any suggestions for what other format I could use to save these QT files, without visible loss of quality is greatly appreciated.

    Thanks for all the advice. And I mean everyone.
    Here is my latest dilemma.
    Though 15 years old, the original Vhs's play beautifully. Aside from some (expected) glitches in the beginning or end of some of the shots, the video has not degraded appreciably. This is great news, as my cousin wanted to make back ups before degradation begins.
    First, I captured the Vhs movies and corrected some bad color, mostly due to poor white balancing, and on the computer, they looked great in comparison. I burned DVD's and they looked terrible in comparison with the originals. Now I know I am going to lose some resolution when going to DVD, but it seemed harsh, so I ran some tests.
    I burned a DVD of the original capture, with no color correction, just the raw footage and the DVD did not look much better, so it wasn't the color correction.
    Not satisfied, I made a copy from the FCP timeline straight to Vhs, (I should note, through the ADVC-110.) This looked significantly degraded as well.
    Finally, I made a straight dub from Vhs to DVCam, figuring that had to look good, and that also looked significantly degraded, compared to the, (now looking pristine), Vhs original.
    As the original Vhs looks so good, what good would a TBC do? Or a proc amp?
    Is there some secret to capturing and exporting Vhs that I am missing? Or, will it always look significantly degraded, even straight to DVCam?
    +David Murray wrote: There is an industrial way to get good VhS copies but it is extremely expensive+
    I don't know what this is, but I am sure it is clearly out of our league, but David M., if you are still following this thread, I'm curious, would this ultra expensive method actually result in a dub that looks like the original? I am actually really shocked at how bad the straight DVCam dub looks. It really does not look much better than the color corrected, computer exported version.
    The Vhs tapes of my cousins daughter are as precious to him as anything he has.
    As they date back 15 years, he is concerned about the longevity of the tapes.
    As there are over forty hours of them, he wants them to be in an editable format, so later he or his daughter can make a highlight reel, or whatever. So thus the QT movie archive/backup on HD.
    Whether as Finalcutter said, that this drive, even if unused, and put in a cool dry safe, might not function years down the line, makes it iffy, but what other choice is there for editable versions, unless I break the QT movies up into 20 minute chunks and archive them to over a hundred DVD's instead. Perhaps that is the safest solution, though certainly time consuming.
    As failure of the HDD somewhere in the future is likely, though not certain, I am still not sure that the HDD holding all his QT movies for future editing is the wrong way to go.
    As it is a digital version, and not an analog copy, I get that a DVCam backup of the originals is the best option. I will suggest to him that we do this as well, even though he does not have DVCam himself. But again, is there something I am missing here? Why does the Vhs to DVCam copy look so degraded? Is there anything I can do to keep the original quality, or will it die with his original Vhs as it slowly degrades over time?

  • Best format for converting video

    What is the best format for converting videos for your iPod? I am using handbrake but there are alot of settings. What is the best one? mp4,avi,ogm? and what about codecs? aac audio, mp3 audio,h.264 video mpeg 4 video, .mp4 video? Need help?

    See this Wikipedia article for some encoders:
    * http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theora#Encoding

  • Best format for DVD studio pro??

    I will be exporting from FCP4.5 and am wondering what is the best format to get the best possible quality from FCP to DVDSP? Also, should I go through compressor and what settings should I use?
    I also want to make my own video transistions, what is the best format for those as well?
    Thank You

    The movie is 90 minutes.
    You didn't mention your video format. You can export your movie as QuickTime Movie (not QT Conversion), same settings and self contained (my favorite flavor). The use that movie in Compressor and use the Best Quality DVD: 90 min presets encoding your video to MPEG2 and your audio to Dolby 2 (AC3).
    That's the best standard workflow. With standard I mean that sometimes some kind of footage can need different treatment.
    Hope that helps !
      Alberto

  • Best format for Premiere elements 12?

    What is the best format for making movies on PRE 12? My clips are now .mov files, whether on iPhone 5 or Nikon 7000 SLR. Should I still convert them to .AVI files?

    fish614
    Are you working with Nikon D7000 as well as the iPhone video?
    What are your settings for these devices when you record?
    How do you want to view the export of your Premiere Elements Timeline after you edit this video on the Premiere Elements Timeline?
    ATR

  • The best format for output

    Hi All,
    working in animation project to be broadcasted on a TV channel as HD1080 50i,
    1- all the animation layers was rendered from TOONBOOM as .SWF to keep it in vector for compositing issue.
    Dose SWF lose any quality? we always use TGA sequence with alpha in our past SD projects but now we found SWF is a smaller file size and allows zooming Because it keeps all vector lines.
    2- compositing each scene in after effects cs6 and then render them.
    What is the best format for output to deal with premiere cs6 as a real time playback ( my editing pc includes gtx680 4gb., many HGST 3tb with raid controller,64g ram, aja kona 3g) so do I go with TGA sequence (I think it will destroy the raid Because of the large number of small-sized files in read and write ) or MOV uncompressed (I'm afraid of the space size and don’t know it will play in real time ) or what is the best compressed format Maintaining video image quality as its now will be my only master source?
    Many thanks,
    sherif

    Thanks Rick for your reply,
    Regarding the SWF i moved to flash pro forums and they are supporting me now,
    My system is a pc, win.64, I7-3930K, 64G RAM, EVGA GTX680 4G, Many HGST 3TB with raid controler,
    Some advised me to go with Quicktime Prores HQ or DNXHD or DPX ,
    In this year project my client's requirement for delivery is :
    DNxHD 120 Codec, wrapped with QuickTime rapper, which means a file with MOV extension and the codec used is DNxHD 120 ( 1080@50i HD)
    So do i work with dnxhd 120 from the beginning to the delivery? (and it will be my only master source) or another format encode it at the end to dnxhd 120? ( i will distribut this project to many channels after the first run exclusivity period end with different requirements).
    Thanks,
    Sherif

  • Which of these would be the best iMac for video editing?

    Hello, pretty simple question, which of these 2 iMac configurations would be best suited for video editing? I want to use Final Cut Pro X and Adobe After Effects (not cutting edge effects just simple stuff).
    Option 1 - 21.5 inch
    3.1GHz Quad-core Intel Core i7, Turbo Boost up to 3.9GHz
    16GB 1600MHz DDR3 SDRAM - 2X8GB
    1TB Fusion Drive
    NVIDIA GeForce GT 750M 1GB GDDR5
    Option 2 - 27 inch
    3.4GHz Quad-core Intel Core i5, Turbo Boost up to 3.8GHz
    8GB 1600MHz DDR3 SDRAM - 2X4GB
    1TB Serial ATA Drive @ 7200 rpm
    NVIDIA GeForce GTX 775M 2GB GDDR5
    For some reason Apple don't offer more than 1GB of dedicated video ram in anything but the maxed out 27inch. Personally, I’m not fussed about the bigger screen and  I would say that having the faster processor, double the ram and a fusion drive would be more beneficial than the extra gig in the video card  but I’m not 100% sure, what do you guys think?
    Thanks.

    If you do a significant amount of video editing the larger display is nice but not absolutely necessary. I’d also recommend an SSD or Fusion drive rather than the stock mechanical drive which really is dog slow. If you choose an SSD 8GB will be plenty though 16GB is better if you go with the smaller model.

  • Formats for video

    i was wondering what are the formats for video because i cant find it on this web site

    H.264 video: up to 768 Kbps, 320 x 240, 30 frames per sec., Baseline Profile up to Level 1.3 with AAC-LC up to 160 Kbps, 48 Khz, stereo audio in .m4v, .mp4 and .mov file formats
    MPEG-4 video: up to 2.5 mbps, 480 x 480, 30 frames per sec., Simple Profile with AAC-LC up to 160 Kbps, 48 Khz, stereo audio in .m4v, .mp4 and .mov file formats

  • Best format for ps3 and apple tv

    What is the best format for viewing movies on a hdtv (1080p) via ps3 and apple tv?
    Not sure what my best option would be in the sharing/export options, also should I make it 16:9 even though all the footage was 4:3?
    Message was edited by: rwltrz4

    Thanks.
    I've posted up on their forum too (the folks over there are not as responsive as you guys, helpful, but not in the same volume )
    I kinda hear what you're saying, but the encoding time (fps and time taken) is pretty slow on my PPC G5 iMac at the moment, and if the Turbo.264 is doing most of the processing then from what you say it'll stay the same on a new Intel Mac. I really hope not, or it'll be me throwing in the whole notion of recording TV on my Mac and heading off down the shop for a PlayTV for the PS3.
    Either that or hope for a decent upgrade to the Mini at Macworld, sling the Apple TV on to ebay (film rental selection here in the UK is still pretty weak) and replace with a Mini, plug the tuner in that and watch native EyeTV recordings without the need for lengthy encoding. I reckon Front Row, and an iPhone Remote will do almost as good a job for my music as the Apple TV does.
    One day we will look back and laugh at the notion of an hour long TV show being 'encoded' for playback at all, let alone waiting more than 2 minutes for the process to happen!

  • Best format for upload to a website

    i would like to know what is the best format for upload to a website, what i got now is an exported quicktime self contained movie from fcp 25 minutes in length.
    the footage itself is shot on mini dv and edited on an uncompressed 8 bit sequence, when exported to quicktime it is 28 gb in size so it is kind of a heavy one.
    is it possible to upload it in one piece ( apple recommends exporting to mpeg4 yet i got a bad quality out of this using mpeg streamclip.
    what would be the best compreessor for this
    than you very much

    i got a bad quality out of this using mpeg streamclip.
    Check the links that Cristina posted, then let us know if your quality improved, using Compressor...it should.
    One question for you regarding quality...are you referring to overall quality of the full frame image, or are you displeased with text/graphics.
    If this is the case, then I'd wonder if you edited in a DV sequence, then dropped the edited content into an 8bit timeline for exporting at better quality.
    This can cause degradation of the image (particularly text/graphics), since you're taking a 720x480 frame and ever-so-slightly vertically scaling the frame up to 720x486.
    Let us know what you did...and your results w/Compressor.
    K

  • What are the best settings for video  compression if my end result is for use as  progressive .flv

    What are the best settings for video compression if my end result is for use as  progressive .flv.?
    Thanks,
    KIM

    Use the Final Cut Studio forum
    http://discussions.apple.com/forum.jspa?forumID=939

  • What is the best Monitor for Video editing & Graphic Design?

    Hi every one,
    I would like to find out what is the best monitor for video editing and graphic design that you recomend, I am trying to buy one but not sure which one is good and not expansive.
    Thanks very much

    I don't want 2 monitors, so a single 27inch model just what I need... plenty of room for PPro, or I can have a Word document and a Text file open and side by side
    John,
    That is personal taste and there is no discussing taste. However, from my perspective, and that is personal, I prefer 3840 x 1080 resolution with dual monitors over 1920 x 1080 with a single monitor, but that is because I very often have Firefox, Filezilla, Dreamweaver and some other applications open at the same time, switching between the Adobe forums, Gmail accounts, Notebook results from the PPBM5 data submissions, PPBM5 form submissions, MySQL access, phpadmin pages to update the database, the PPBM5 results pages and various DW .php pages for the maintenance of our database and switching back and forth between various versions of PR. I occasionally really run out of real estate with all these applications and could not consider a single monitor with only 1920 x 1080 resolution, even if it were a 105" screen. In the future I would even like to have a four monitor setup (with MPE hardware support) in a two by two configuration, so that I can freely move my application screens around.
    If that happens, notice I say if and not when, my preference for a monitor would be something like 4 Samsung F2380 monitors. Small bezel, great display and panel, affordable.

  • Who is the best app for video effects ?, some one like adobe after effects ? Thank u for ur help.

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