It doesn’t matter whether you’re playing, editing, creating, or sharing the videos, you’ll surely deal with the video format. In fact, a video file is much more than just the file extension on its shortcuts, like .mp4, .avi, .mov, and many others. You’ll also have to operate with its visual, audio, subtitles, metadata, and coding schemes.
In this article, we’ll explain the basic terms related to video format and also introduce the most common video formats used for file conversion in 2022.
Understanding of Basic Video Format Terms
Before we start diving into the popular formatting for video conversion for the upcoming years, it’s essential to learn 3 major terms related to this topic: codecs, video file container, video file extension. If you have some experience in working with video files, you’ve probably heard about those earlier, so let’s briefly review the characteristics of each:
- Codecs. Their goal is to compress and decompress multimedia data in the video files in a lossy/lossless way. The popular codecs examples include the H.26X series, MPEG series, AV1, VP8, VP9, and many others.
- Video File Container. The package where the video file is stored after its compression. Common examples of video file converters include MP4, AVI, MOV, FLV, WMV, etc.
- Video File Extension. Basically, that’s the ending of any video file name and is always displayed in the form of “.example”, and reveals which video container is used to store the file data. For instance, the extensions we’ll talk about today include .mp4, .mkv, .mov and others.
Sometimes, even if the file extension matches its format, it doesn’t open. This can be a signal of playback errors or compatibility problems, which are easily resolved with the assistance of the functional video converters, such as Movavi converter, Leawo Video Converter, WinX Converter for videos, Fonepaw Video Converter, and lots of others.
Best File Formats for Video Extension in 2022
When it comes to transferring DVD to MP4, or any other video format needed for the productive interaction with video files, you’ll surely want to pick up the most universal one, that requires minimum conversion processes to get any job done. Below you’ll find the most popular video file formats that will work for various purposes: from video creating and editing, to its posting and archiving for further reviews.
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MP4 (MPEG-4 Part 14) Format
The golden video format is used for working with videos in nearly any aspect. MP4 features one of the most optimal aspects of quality and size, which makes it a perfect option for uploading to websites and sharing on social media. Additionally, it has a wide range of supported video codecs which makes it a decent option for video conversion.
Main Advantages of MP4:
- Compatible with different media players on Windows, macOS, and Linux operating systems
- Features a top-notch quality at the comparatively small file size, as well as the high compression ratio
- Separate storage sections for video and audio file parts of a video, that can be easily extracted
Possible Drawbacks of MP4:
- Lossy compression impacts the video quality to some extent
- Audio can drift out of sync with the video in some cases
- Playback may require a lot of computing resources due to a lot of elements located within a single file
MOV (QuickTime File Format)
Designed by Apple, this format holds an array of media like video effects, audio, and texts, yet is sure to please macOS, Windows, and Linux users. MOV features a high compression rate but, unfortunately, cannot be recognized by web servers nowadays.
Main Advantages of MOV:
- Best for 1080p, 4K, 8k videos
- Stores different types of video data separately (audio, visual, subtitles, etc)
- Effective for the video editing process without its previous conversion
Possible Drawbacks of MOV:
- Mostly refers to the large-size file formats
- Can be opened with the QuickTime plugin and MOV-friendly players
- Its compression may cause the data loss
MKV (Matroska) Format
A free, open-source format was developed 20 years ago and so far has been known for its sheer complications: it can store multi-track audio files, encoded images, and various types of subtitles, including SubRip, WebVTT, ASS, SSA, and more within a single file, which makes it perfect for TV shows and movies.
Main Advantages of MKV:
- Provides more flexible support for any combination of video codecs
- Can recover and play corrupted files
- Supports menus, chapters, and tags in the file
Possible Drawbacks of MKV:
- Isn’t compatible with most video editors (but you can always consider converting if needed)
- More complicated compared to AVI format (impacts the file size)
- Requires downloading the correct codec pack to access the video
WMV (Windows Media Video) Format
Originally designed to replace AVI, this format overlooks the relevant data such as tags, text, and metadata, and is focused on video and audio completely. Another extension used for WMV videos is .asf, which stands for Advanced System Format – a video container that is encoded with WMV codecs.
Main Advantages of WMV:
- Can compress the large video files into much smaller sizes
- Ideally fits for video streaming, sharing, storage, and archiving
- Perfectly works with Windows OS devices
Possible Drawbacks of WMV:
- Requires installing WMV player for macOS and Linux users
- Is not able to adjust aspect ratio manually
- Is not a standard web format due to the lack of cross-platform compatibility
AVCHD Format
Designed for recording high-definition videos, and so far it has become a go-to standard among professional videographers. This format has lots of features, including menu support, subtitles, and slide shows, and can be easily stored and played on nearly any storage device. Usually, AVCHD employs .mts and .m2ts file extensions.
Main Advantages of FLV:
- High-quality video file support
- Native support among Blu-Ray players
- Is perfectly used for camcorders
Possible Drawbacks of FLV:
- Not supported by Apple devices
- Limited compatibility with top-notch hardware
- The file size is usually larger compared to the other formatting options
Wrapping Up
When it comes to any interaction with video content, knowing the most common video formats is of the essence. It allows you to deal with different file formatting for social media, home movie archives, websites, smart TVs, and even PowerPoint presentations.
We hope this guide helped you to understand the difference between using various popular video formats and you can now define which formats to choose for your effective workflow. Nevertheless, whatever video format you’ll end up using, you will always have a chance to change it in a quick yet efficient way without any quality loss with the powerful video conversion software!
