Best Video Format

To find the best video format may be a tough task owing to their multiplicity. There are around 30 known video formats each one having their own specifications and appropriate fields of usage. To sort out which format you need, check out this article!

A video format is a file format that holds digital video data on a computer. A video file typically contains video data in a video coding format (encoded format for converting digital video content) and audio data in audio coding format. Some video files also store synchronization information, subtitles and metadata (video titles).

Due to a huge variety of video formats, neither every player nor every browser bears compatibility with every one of them. A wrong video format can cause errors in output, input, upload and download of files. While it’s not possible to determine the best format of them all, it is achievable to figure out which format suits best in every field of video usage.

Note! Click on a format you’re most interested in to get extended information about it.

Best Video Format Qualities

Best video format for sharing and social media

Nowadays social media is everywhere. We check our Facebook, Instagram and YouTube apps every day to not only scroll through the feed, but to share something with our friends and relatives.

And what could be the best way to catch and share meaningful moments than a video clip? Nothing makes us reminisce on our past moments so clearly, so let’s make sure your videos will get through every social media intact, keeping your memories forever.

Best video format for YouTube is MP4 format (standard, HD and Ultra HD 4K quality). MP4 is the most universal video format as an immense number of players and devices support it. MP4 stores video files, audio files, text and images. It has better quality than FLV and is smaller than AVI format. Both of these specifications are vital when it comes to uploading video on YouTube.

The best video format for Facebook is MP4 or MOV. MOV is one of the most versatile video formats, a lot of players support it without a problem. MP4 is the most popular and universal one and is widely recommended to use if you’re not sure which format suits the cause.

MP4 is also the best video format for Instagram because of its technical specifications. Remember, that Facebook videos can be as long as you want them to, but Instagram videos should have a maximum size of 15 mb.

To stream videos you might want to use WMV (Windows Media Video) format as it was exclusively designed for this task. The size of WMV files is claimed to be the smallest one and this fact makes WMV the best video format to share via email. The downside of this format is low quality. FLV format shares those specifications, but isn’t supported by iOS devices like IPhone or IPad which is bad due to huge spread of these devices among people.

To determine the best video format for PowerPoint, first of all, you need to determine which version of the program you are going to use. For PowerPoint 2013 or later the best video format will be MP4 or WMV (first one for Windows 8 and Windows 10, second one for elder versions). PowerPoint 2010 supports ASF, AVI, MPEG, SWF and WMV. The last one is the best option here. PowerPoint 2007 works good with AVI, ASF, MPEG and WMV.

It you are using PowerPoint on Mac, you can choose between AVI, MPEG-4, MPG, MOV, QT and SWF formats. Earlier versions of Mac (OS X) additionally support MP4.

Best video format for web

First of all, it’s always an option to embed a YouTube or Vimeo video on your site. It is faster and more convenient than going through the trouble of uploading your video to your own servers that can crush taking your video down with you.

Nonetheless if uploading your video on YouTube, here’s a list of video formats that look good for the web.

MP4 supports HTML5 so it is obviously the best choice here. As we have mentioned before, MP4 is highly compatible with a huge variety of devices and players so you can be assured that your video will be available for every visitor of your website.

Best Video Formats Usage

Other good formats are WebM, an open-source format that is developing with the Internet and provides the highest video quality in real time, but might not be compatible with iOS users which is a big downside.

Best format to take videos with and edit them

Unlike graphic or video files, there is no raw format for video files. This begs the question – what format to take and edit videos in?

To record a video the MP4, MOV, AVI or MKV formats are recommended. Those formats are designed to hold a lengthy video in a good or high quality without bugging your storage too much (for a lengthy video, of course) and that is all you really need to process the video in the future.

Video editors support every type of video format mentioned above so it would be easy to put them inside a program without having to convert the original video to a new format, potentially losing data.


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