Which is best video format for storage of video media files?

Greetings, good folk and happy holidays!
My question involves the conversion of physical video media, DVDs, video files, etc, and storage for use with multiple devices.
Like many of you, I have video in many formats and in multiple places... DVDs, Blu-Ray, AVIs, MP4s, etc. I want to convert them all to a usable format to use in conjunction with my Iphone, Apple TV, IPad, etc. and store in one place in an electronic "library." The problem is that there are countless formats they can be converted to, and not all formats look good on all devices. A video converted to Iphone format will be optimized for the smaller screen and may not look good on the iPad. And iPad converted video might not look good on larger TVs used with Apple TV.
Was wondering if you folks would have opinons as to the best codecs, format and specs to convert video to that would look good on any device from iPhone to an iPad to a TV with Apple TV.
I'm not expecting Blu-Ray quality sharpness with a universal format when used with Apple TV, but something reasonable without artifacts would look fine.
I'm using IM Too Video Converter Ultimate which has presets for many difference devices, but not sure which options will work best.
Anyone else dealing with this?
Thank you for your time.

MPEG-4
Make sure you don't infringe on any copyrights.

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[svn:fx-trunk] 12025: Switching out the old video component for the new video component that uses OSMF .

Revision: 12025
Revision: 12025
Author:   [email protected]
Date:     2009-11-19 17:48:04 -0800 (Thu, 19 Nov 2009)
Log Message:
Switching out the old video component for the new video component that uses OSMF. Also fixing RSL issue with OSMF because a change in flex-config.xml accidentally got overwritten. Also fixing a bug caught during the last code review where you would set the volume on the VideoPlayer, but the volumeBar wouldn't be made aware of that change.
Switching out the video component results in many API changes. The changes are highlighted below:
Class name changes:
- spark.primitives.VideoElement is being renamed to spark.components.VideoDisplay
- spark.components.mediaClasses.StreamingVideoSource is renamed to park.components.mediaClasses.DynamicStreamingVideoSource
- spark.components.mediaClasses.StreamItem is renamed to park.components.mediaClasses.DynamicStreamingVideoItem
VideoDisplay/VideoPlayer event changes:
The new video component's events are:
- bytesLoadedChange : org.osmf.events.LoadEvent
- currentTimeChange : org.osmf.events.TimeEvent
- durationChange : org.osmf.events.TimeEvent
- mediaPlayerStateChange : org.osmf.events.MediaPlayerStateChangeEvent
The old video component's events were:
- close : spark.events.VideoEvent (removed)
- complete : spark.events.VideoEvent (replaced with mediaPlayerStateChange)
- metaDataReceived : spark.events.VideoEvent (replaced with mediaPlayerStateChange)
- playheadUpdate : spark.events.VideoEvent (replaced with currentTimeChange)
- progress : flash.events.ProgressEvent (replaced with bytesLoadedChange)
- ready : spark.events.VideoEvent (replaced with mediaPlayerStateChange)
VideoDisplay/VideoPlayer property changes:
Renames:
- maintainAspectRatio:Boolean has been renamed to scaleMode:String and rather than true/false, it now access 4 values: none, zoom, letterbox, and stretch. See the enum class org.osmf.display.ScaleMode.
- playheadTime:Number has been renamed to currentTime:Number
- playWhenHidden has been renamed to pauseWhenHidden, and it's "tense" has been reversed. So playWhenHidden = true correlates to pauseWhenHidden = false. Also, before we would only pause when the video component was explcitly set to visible=false, but now we detect if the video components or any of it's ancestors have been hidden.
- totalTime:Number has been renamed to duration:Number
New properties:
- bytesLoaded:Number This is a new property not available on the old video component
- bytesTotal:Number This is a new property not available on the old video component
- loop: Boolean this was a property added a while ago on the old video component but not in the original video player spec
- mediaPlayerState: this is a new property that details the state of the video component. See org.osmf.media.MediaPlayerState for all the possible values.
- seekToFirstFrame:Boolean (pending PARB approval) - This is a new property available on VideoDisplay/VideoPlayer. When autoPlay = false, if seekToFirstFrame is set to true, then we will connect to the server to start downloading the video, figure out the size of the video and resize appropriately, and show the first frame of the video. If seekToFirstFrame is false, then no connection to the server is made, there's no implicit size for this video, and the first frame will not be show automatically. By default the value of this property is true. In the old video component, when autoPlay = false, we always has the same behavior as seekToFirstFrame = true. Now it is controllable through this property. Eventually, (not for Flex 4.0), we will most-likely have support for a thumbnail source or a splash screen so the video's preview will show up without making an unneeded connection to the server. The property name may change depending on PARB.
Other changes:
- autoRewind: The default of autoRewind is now true instead of false
- enabled: before we paused the video when the video component was explicitly set to enabled = false. Now we pause the video when the video component or any of it's ancestors have been disabled.
VideoPlayer-only changes:
- videoObject:flash.media.Video property is now a new property on VideoPlayer. It was previously only on VideoDisplay.
- The skin states for the old VideoPlayer were: connectionError, disabled, disconnected, loading, playing, stopped, connectionErrorAndFullScreen, disabledAndFullScreen, disconnectedAndFullScreen, loadingAndFullScreen, playingAndFullScreen, stoppedAndFullScreen. The new skin states are: uninitialized, loading, ready, playing, paused, buffering, playbackError, disabled, uninitializedAndFullScreen, loadingAndFullScreen, readyAndFullScreen, playingAndFullScreen, pausedAndFullScreen, bufferingAndFullScreen, playbackErrorAndFullScreen, disabledAndFullScreen
DynamicStreamingVideoItem property changes:
- bitRate:Number renamed to bitrate:Number
DynamicStreamingVideoSource property changes:
- initialIndex has been added to DynamicSteramingVideoSource
- live:Boolean has changed to streamType:String which accepts values: live, recorded, any. See the enum class org.osmf.net.StreamType for more info.
- serverURI:String renamed to host:Object
- streamItems:Array has changed types to streamItems:Vector.
ScrubBar property changes (THESE CHANGES ARE NOT DONE YET, BUT SHOULD BE DONE SOON)
- bufferedStart will be removed
- bufferedEnd will be renamed to loadedRangeEnd. This property name still may change depending on PARB.
- bufferedArea skin part needs to be renamed. Probably will be renamed to loadedArea. PARB still deciding.
QE notes: -
Doc notes: -
Bugs: -
Reviewer: Kevin
Tests run: checkintests
Is noteworthy for integration: Yes
Modified Paths:
    flex/sdk/trunk/frameworks/flex-config.xml
    flex/sdk/trunk/frameworks/projects/spark/defaults.css
    flex/sdk/trunk/frameworks/projects/spark/src/SparkClasses.as
    flex/sdk/trunk/frameworks/projects/wireframe/build.xml
    flex/sdk/trunk/frameworks/projects/wireframe/src/spark/skins/wireframe/VideoPlayerSkin.mx ml
    flex/sdk/trunk/frameworks/spark-manifest.xml
Added Paths:
    flex/sdk/trunk/frameworks/projects/spark/src/spark/components/VideoPlayer.as
    flex/sdk/trunk/frameworks/projects/spark/src/spark/skins/spark/VideoPlayerSkin.mxml
Removed Paths:
    flex/sdk/trunk/frameworks/projects/spark/src/spark/components/VideoPlayer.as
    flex/sdk/trunk/frameworks/projects/spark/src/spark/components/VideoPlayer2.as
    flex/sdk/trunk/frameworks/projects/spark/src/spark/components/mediaClasses/StreamItem.as
    flex/sdk/trunk/frameworks/projects/spark/src/spark/components/mediaClasses/StreamingVideo Source.as
    flex/sdk/trunk/frameworks/projects/spark/src/spark/primitives/VideoElement.as
    flex/sdk/trunk/frameworks/projects/spark/src/spark/primitives/VideoElement.png
    flex/sdk/trunk/frameworks/projects/spark/src/spark/skins/spark/VideoPlayerSkin.mxml
    flex/sdk/trunk/frameworks/projects/spark/src/spark/skins/spark/VideoPlayerSkin2.mxml

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What is the best video format for 50+ year movie storage?

Objective: In what video format should I store my family movies on an external drive? I want these family movies to be viewable by future generations in 50 - 70 years, so what video format / type is recommended?
Background: I have an iMac, OS X 10.7.5. I use IMovie '11, version 9.0.8. My iMac has an internal DVD player and burner and iDVD is installed.
I have dozens of family movies (total 80+ hours) dating back nearly 70 years. All these films have been digitized and I have imported many of them into iMove as events, then I edit them with title pages, transitions, music, etc. When a "project" is completed (Between 1.5 - 2.0 hours or less) I share the project to iDVD where I burn it to a DVD. Within iMovie I save each of these projects (on the internal Mac HD, which consumes very little space) and on an external drive I save for each project:
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- a copy of the iMovie project, whose size is about 60 MB (the original project is in iMovie, in the Mac internal drive)
- the original digitized raw movies imported into iMovie as events and are formatted as .mov (these are large size at 8 GB - 20 GB each)
- the finalized and fully edited iDVD which is formatted as DVD.dvdproj (these are very large size at 20 - 24 GB each)
As you can see with all these disc images, projects, events and DVD projects stored on my external drive I am at nearly 1 TB of storage, on my way to 1.75 before I comple editing all movies.
While I manage pretty well the editing my movies within iMovie, and how to create an iDVD project and then burn a DVD, I have no understanding of the technical aspects of the multitude of different movie formats in the market nor of Quick Time and its format.
I am told that DVDs will only last 10 - 15 years and then begin to deteriorate. And iMovie '11 won't be arond 50 years from now. Nor will the current / recent versions of iDVD. Thus, for posterity:
1. In what format should I store my family movies on an external drive so they can be viewed by family members 50 - 70 years from now? (best chance for viewing, since we don't know what formats they will have then)
2. How do I convert from what I have (disc image, iMovie project, DVD project) to your recommended format?
Thank you,
HDP

There is no such format for movies or even Photographs. Frankly we can't guarantee the persistence of any format past the next 10 years, not to mind 50 - 70.
Codecs are being improved and created all the time, and this process will continue. In 50 years time we may still have .mov and .avi files, but the codecs that create the movies within will have changed.
One thing is reasonably sure: DVD will be as deader than floppy disks are now. Ditto Blue Ray. They're on the way out now, and in 10 years they'll be curiosities.
So, what's the solution:
Best I can suggest is to keep your movies on volatile media like Hard Disks (with back ups on other disks, or course). Progress will be evolutionary - as new formats come along there will be the option to migrate older data to these newer formats, and that's the trick. As always, when it comes to migration, the more data available the better the likely result, so keeping your movies in the least compressed versions possible seems a good approach.
That and a dollar will get you a cup of coffee someplaces, but nowhere fashionable.
Regards
TD

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Hi,
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G-4 and iMac core duo Mac OS X (10.4.9) use emacs and imacs at work location

Hi,
I just purchased a 500mb My Book Pro external drive
for use with my imac duo which runs Windows XP via
bootcamp. This computer is shared by three family
with very different skills and needs. My dilemma. I
want to format the drive so that the imac can be
backed up easily three users. It is formated Fat32
and is supplied with Restrospect Express 7.5 backup
software. It would be nice to backup the modestly
used windows sector, but that's a secondary
consideration. My problem is that one user has a lot
of larger than 4 gb video files which are too large
the Fat 32 format. My notion is to segment the backup
drive so that I leave 300 mb in fat 32 to facilitate
backup with supplied software, and segment a second
200 gb drive using mac os extended so that the user
can manually move her video files for storage/backup
on the backup drive. Is there a simpler solution? For
example, if I formatted the entire 500gb as mac os
extended, could I still run the retrospect backup
software? If not, is there a reasonably priced
alternative software? And finally, with either Fat32
or Mac OS extended, can I move files from the Windows
platform? Would I be better off just biting the
bullet and telling my daughter to make her own
arrangements to compress and backup her video files
or get her own hard drive, thus leaving the backup
drive to the simple factory supplied software
solution?
G-4 and iMac
core duo Mac OS X (10.4.9) use emacs
and imacs at work location
Hello,
You're indeed in a pickle. If you use Bootcamp and want the HD accessible via the Mac and WinXP, then you don't want to format it as Mac HFS because WInXP wouldn't be able to access it. If you go FAT32 then both WInXP and Mac OS can access it, but you face the dilemma of the 4GB threshold.
If you format as NTFS, then you eliminate the 4GB threshold but then Mac OS cannot access it.
I have a similar dilemma, which is why i use Parallels more than Bootcamp. I have 2 external FW HD's (160GB/250GB), both formatted to Mac HFS. The 160GB i have partitioned as 50GB and 100GB. I have a bootable backup of Mac OS residing on the 100GB partition (yay to SuperDuper!) and some other stuff on the remaining 50GB. The 250GB is exclusive for movies (cough..cough..bittorrent) and for streaming via Orb 2.0 to my Treo. I have WinXP running in Parallels, and Vista Ultimate via Bootcamp. In Parallels, i can access my external HD's via Parallel's Shared Folders but in Vista (Bootcamp) since the HD's are in a non-Windows recognised formatting, they're not accessible (which is a bummer, as i'm loving Win media center).
What you can do is partition the HD the way you're thinking and format (one part Mac HFS and the other NTFS), but my best recommendation is that with the falling prices of HD's nowadays, why not just get a seperate HD do what you want with it. I spied a WD MyBook 500GB USB HD at CompUSA for $129.99 (no mail-in rebate nonsense) and similar good prices at Bestbuy and Newegg.com.
iMac 17" 2GHZ C2Duo 2GB RAM 160GB HD Mac OS X (10.4.9)

Best Video Formats for iDVD?

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Welcome Moskevyu to the  iMovie boards..
iDVD is part of iLife (no all-purpose-encoder), therefor it 'expects' iM files, which are usually in 'dv-stream' or 'Apple Intermediate Codec' (as .dv or within a .mov)
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Hello,
I recently embeded an mpeg video, flv, mp4, and swf video file to my web page. I then asked several pc users to go to my page and see if they could view the animation clips. They were were able to view all clips, but the mpeg and flv clips automatically downloaded to their computer. I don't want that to happen. The mp4 did not download, and it worked as well.
How do I stop this from happening? I ask becuase it seems flv is used by mac and pc users alike, and I think I may use said format.
What is the most widely used video format by both mac and pc users?
... should I just stick with mp4 since it worked without down loading?
rekh
code i used...
<iframe width="410"
height="357"
src="http://www.mysite.tv/myfolder/myfile.mp4"
frameborder="0"
allowfullscreen=""></iframe>

Colin has pointed you in the correct direction.
I'll bet you're using just plain text "links" to your files. That method by-passes the browser plug-in and can cause issues (especially on Windows).
You need solid html code that gives the browser plug-in all of the needed instructions.
Another thing that may have happened is that your fast start files have lost their fast start abilities. This happens with any fast start file that is then edited and uses a regular "save". Save As will restore the fast start feature (even in files that do not normally have it).
AVI is dead. Do not use it.
Many WMP formats (codecs) are not yet ported to the Mac OS so that delivery container should also be ruled out.
H.264 Video codec (default in most Tiger app exports) also requires the viewing machine (Mac or PC) have QuickTime version 7 installed.
Since not all machines can install QT version 7 (requires 10.3.9 or Win 2000 or XP) maybe you should rule it out, too.
So.
What are we left with?
Maybe QuickTime format using MPEG-4 Video codec and AAC audio?
They would only require QuickTime version 6 be installed. Since version 6 has been around for over 5 years it may be your best option.
But you're still going to get complaints from PC viewers.

Best video format for sharing with windows users

I've tried many ways to share videos with different clients, they mostly have windows computers (and windows media player I guess). I tried .mov (H.264) and mp4 (also H.264) from final cut pro X, but also from Compressor. I also did some test exporting Apple ProRes and then converting them with Mpeg streamclip, or even with Adobe Media encoder. Same problem, windows does not see these videos. I finally had to use a mov to wmv converter, but the final quality is really bad. Or upload the videos to vimeo, and then share the link (but I haven´t got a plus account, so I guess what I´m doing is not allowed, and i have only 500 mb per week). I believe that windows media player can be updated to open these phootage, but I cannot explain that to my clients.
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Which paramaters should I take care of while exporting them?
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Pablo

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