If you have not already done so, you may wish to read the following articles first ...
Codecs, formats and optimising concepts
NOTE: This article concerns itself with "consumer" and semi-professional/broadcast/hi-end "project" video production technologies such as AVCHD, DV and formats for DVD, CDROM and web sites.
There are at present 2 categories of video ...
There are many many digital video formats in the consumer and professional worlds. For example, all of the following can record and/or playback some form of digital video ...
But they do NOT all use the same data file formats.
Sony DigiBeta camcorder

The data rate produced by the lens and CCD system of a digital video camera/camcorder can be huge. Therefore it is common for "lower" priced video systems to reduce or compress video data to more manageable file sizes.
Uncompressed video has the potential for the gretest quality but can be very large. There are a number of professional broadcast quality uncompressed digital video formats including Sony DigiBeta but these require specialist hardware and software. Standard Macs and PCs are not powerful enough. DigiBeta, and formats like it, are used to film TV programmes such as news, reality TV, soaps and game shows etc. One edited the files are compressed for broadcast/delivery systems.
To reduce file size in order to help storage, processing, editing and transfering systems, most video formats invole the use of compression software at the point of capture/filming. After editing, the video may be further compressed more "aggressively" when being prepared for publishing. The compression software is called a codec (more here).
Compressed video file and data formats are often identified by the codec they employ. A codec will ...
Processes that involve codecs include ...
The more video is compressed ...
The compression settings you choose when preparing video will depend upon ...
Video codecs may be located in several places ...
Standard definition is basically anything that isn't HD and includes DV, MPeg 1 and MPeg 2.
The most popular semi-pro and amateur SD video production format is DV. Read about the DV format here and by viewing our PDF on DV Signal Flow.
Incidentally, audio CDs do not use codecs because the data size of digital audio files is small enough to fit on a CD without being compressed. MP3 audio however, is highly compressed. Click here for an article on digital audio file formats.
High definition video has "splintered" into many differing file formats, such as AVCHD. Most of these formats use an MP4 "variant" codec such as H.264 which has become standard for Blu-Ray DVD and HD TV broadcast. More on hi-def is here.
Unlike the world of digital audio, where 2 uncompressed file formats (.wav, .aif ) and 1 compressed file format (MP3) dominate, digital video is a minefield.
NOTE: You may wish to read an explanation of the difference between file formats and codecs before you continue reading.
Here are SOME of the digital video data file and codec formats ...
| Data file type | Codec(s) | Filming / Camcorder? | Editing? |
Delivery? |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sony Digital Betacam | Uncompressed | Yes | Professional TV editing systems | No, must be compressed first |
| DV | DV codec | Yes | PC & Mac editing | No, must be converted first |
| MPEG-1 | MPEG-1 | No | No | CD ROM & web |
| MPEG-2 (SD DVD, digital, cable & satellite TV) | MPEG-2 | Yes | No | Satellite & cable TV broadcast, HDV and DVD video discs |
| QuickTime (.mov) | Multiple | Some | Yes | QuickTime Player |
| - | Sorenson | No | No | CDROM, DVDROM, web |
| MPEG-4 | Includes many codec variants including H.264 | Yes | Yes | Everything ... from HD DVD, digital TV to mobile phones, PSP, iPod etc |
| divX | Appears to use an MPEG-4 variant codec | No | No | CDROM, DVDROM, web |
| - | xVid | No | No | CDROM, DVDROM, web |
| - | 3GPP | No | No | Mobile phones |
| Windows Media (.wmv) | Multiple | No | Yes | Windows Media Player |
| Flash (.swf) | MPEG-4 | - | - | Flash player |
| WebM | VP8 and Orgg Vorbis | No | No | Google owned open source format for web. Not yet universally supported by all browser developers |
| Hi-def ... at the time of writing (March 2008) professional and consumer hi-def formats are evolving. There are many formats including the excellent AVCHD (MPeg4/H.264) format. More on hi-def is here. | ||||
Video format and media player software
None at present