next time when you compress/rip a video…

take these into your consideration.. 🙂

There are three main components in – what we call a “video file” (“.avi”, “.mp4”, “.3gp”, “mpeg”, “.mkv” etc)….

– VIDEO (of course)

– AUDIO

– CONTAINER FORMAT

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MY RECOMMENDATIONS:

Container format (or the extension of the file): MKV

Video compression format: H.264/AVC (using x264 encoder)

Audio compression format: ogg vorbis

software which will provide you all these options: Hand brake

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what is “container format”?

well, generally the extensions of videos files are the “container formats”…

e.g. .avi, .mpeg, .mov, .mkv, .mp4..

these format keep one or more video, audio or subtitle files based on their capabilities, so these are like archived files…

The container format software knows how to extract (read) the video-audio-subtitle from the file and how to play them in synchronization…

Note: so when you rename an .mpeg file to .avi, its container format does not change… it’s still an mpeg file….

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why mkv?

for number of reasons-

– it’s an open standard,

– future proof,

– its design allows to keep all video-audio-subtitle formats available in this universe…

– it requires lesser space than the other formats….

– can keep unlimited number of media files in it….

for more information read on wiki.

(i don’t understand, why people still use .avi?)

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why H.264 (x264) video?

since H.264/AVC is best video compession hands down….(it beats Divx, xvid, real media, wmv, VP6-7)…

there is no comparision, believe me…..

it gives best quality videos on very less file size….

and to compress the video in H.264, there is this cool and fast encoder – x264 and it’s open source too.. 🙂

in case, you want to play the H.264 compressed video on your disk player… just check the specification of your player… since H.264 is not supported by all the disk players yet… (in that case you need to compress your video using xvid encoder)..

on the other hand, if you are going to watch on computer.. it’s all good… 😀

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why ogg vorbis audio?

– it’s open source,

– best quality sound…specially for 128 kbps or less…

– again, less size for the great quality audio….

check the links out for performance comparision –

http://www.hydrogenaudio.org/forums/index.php?showtopic=36465

http://www.extremetech.com/article2/0,2845,1560783,00.asp

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So, next time when you compress a HD video or RIP a DVD using “Hand brake” or some other converter….

go for these options..

– Container: MKV

– Video codec: H.264 (x264)

– Audio codec: ogg vorbis

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COMPARISION OF DIFFERENT CONTAINER FORMATS

Container formats	Subtitles	Video formats supported	Audio formats supported
3GP	3GPP Timed Text	H.263, MPEG-4 Part 2 andH.264/MPEG-4 AVC	AMR-NB, AMR-WB, AMR-WB+, AAC,HE-AAC and HE-AAC v2
AVI	Yes, via third party modifications	Almost anything throughVFW; H.264/AVC is problematic due to the limited B-frame support	Almost anything through ACM; Vorbisis problematic
divx	Yes	MPEG-4 Part 2 video encoded to meet DivX profiles	MP3, PCM, AC-3
FLV	No	Sorenson, VP6, Screen Video, H.264/MPEG-4 AVC	MP3, Nellymoser, ADPCM, Linear PCM,AAC, Speex
mkv	Yes	virtually anything	virtually anything
MP4	ttxt, VobSubs with private objectTypeIndication not usable with the sceneDescription (started by Nero), BIFS	MPEG-4 ASP, H.264/MPEG-4 AVC, H.263, VC-1, Dirac, others	MPEG-1 Layers I, II, III (MP3), MPEG-2/4 (HE)-AAC, AC-3, Vorbis (with privat objectTypeIndication), Apple Lossless, others
mpg, mpeg	No	MPEG-1, MPEG-2	MPEG-1 Layers I, II, III (mp3), other formats only in private streams:LPCM
MPEG-2	Only in private streams – used inVOB files on DVDs	MPEG-1, MPEG-2, MPEG-4 Part 2	MPEG-1 Layers I, II, III (mp3), other formats only in private streams:AC-3,LPCM, DTS
Ogg	Ogg Writ, Ogg Kate	Theora, almost anything through VFW	Vorbis, FLAC, Speex, almost anything through ACM
mov	Yes	Limited to what is available to the QuickTime codec manager	Limited to what is available to Sound Manager or CoreAudio
RMVB	Yes	RealVideo 8, 9, 10	(HE)-AAC, Cook Codec, Vorbis,RealAudio Lossless