There is a lot that goes on behind the scenes when any media runs on a device. Video, for example, is a big bunch of data that executes continuously until the end. However, these files need to be in bite-sized portions to play smoothly. And that’s where file formats come in. Think of them as containers that hold compressed media data for easier consumption.
Here are the top three video file formats in the world right now.
Audio Video Interleave (AVI)
Developed by Microsoft, AVI is one of the oldest video formats. You can think of it as the default standard for videos as it’s universally accepted. It works in Mac, Windows and Linux systems and is also supported by major browsers.
Flash Video Format (FLV)
FLV is the most popular file format for online videos. It uses Adobe Flash software encoding, which is included in all mainstream browsers. In fact, almost all streaming sites use this file format, including Youtube. That’s because FLV files keep the picture quality, even after compression. That means videos can load fast, without using too much bandwidth.
The bottom line?
FLV has become the standard video file format for the internet. It’s so accepted that you will always need to convert to FLV every time you post videos online.
Windows Media Video (WMV)
The idea behind WMV was to build a web streaming format as a response to RealVideo. But it didn’t work out as planned.
Generally, WMV creates some of the tiniest video files on the internet. But this excessive compression results in poor resolution. However, it compensates this shortcoming that with ultra-fast loading times.
The Conclusion
There are thousands of file formats for on and offline application, but these are the de facto standard. That means you will always be converting other formats to these three.