Video questions

[timemoney0]

What are the differences between various video file formats (i.e. MP4 vs. avi )? Why can't I burn then together? And if I'm forced to convert, which one should I convert to? ( Presently not able to burn mp4 files )

[lonewolf]

Edited for my acronym confusion:

mpeg-2 (.mpg) is the best format to reach the most people and is the de facto standard for sharing video today.

mp4 is the latest version of the mpeg format, but not as many people can view it. It has much better compression. It will most likely be the standard in a few years. The Media Player for Windows XP cannot play these files and there are tens of millions of people still using XP.

avi is a lesser used encoder and i don't recommend using it.

[timemoney0]

What is the prefered way to convert , say, mp4 to a lesser format? I recently downloaded a full season of a show and half the clips (mp4) my player will stream them but my burner won't recognize them. (windows 7)

[LHSL]

mp3 is the best format to reach the most people and is the de facto standard for sharing video today.

Mp3 is not a video format.

[lonewolf]

mp3 is the best format to reach the most people and is the de facto standard for sharing video today.

Mp3 is not a video format.

Duh! Thank you. My bad! So many acronyms, so few brain cells left.

[lonewolf]

What is the prefered way to convert , say, mp4 to a lesser format? I recently downloaded a full season of a show and half the clips (mp4) my player will stream them but my burner won't recognize them. (windows 7)

I really like this suite of audio/video freeware...it has just about everything you need for file handling and they are always improving it:

http://www.dvdvideosoft.com/free-dvd-video-software.htm

You should be able to burn MP4s to a DVD with it rather than converting them.

[LHSL]

What are the differences between various video file formats (i.e. MP4 vs. avi )? Why can't I burn then together? And if I'm forced to convert, which one should I convert to? ( Presently not able to burn mp4 files )

The first thing to realize is that most of the time, when people are talking video formats, they are often talking about video containers. MPEG-4 is a specification that defines a boatload of things, including video compression standards, audio compression standards, and media container standards. Files ending in .mp4 are MPEG-4 standard containers. They will typically contain MPEG-4 part 2 or part 10 (H.264) video along with some form of audio stream.

AVI is also a video container. AVI can contain MPEG, RealVideo, MPEG-2, MPEG-4, or uncompressed raw video along with some sort of audio stream.

As far as which to convert to, it depends on your audience. If you are going for wide acceptance, MPEG is pretty standard, as is MPEG-2 and MPEG-4, but no matter which one you use, the person playing the file must have the codec installed to decompress and play the video.

AVI files are better supported on Windows machines, but again, the computer that is playing the AVI file must have the proper codecs installed.