NCH Video Output Options - File Format Settings

A file format is used to interleave the different data types of your video project. It combines your video and audio into one file. Below is a short description of the main video formats available in VideoPad, PhotoStage and Prism. Note that not all formats are supported in each program, and supported formats may depend on your operating system.

If you need more audio file formats we recommend you try Prism Video Converter for Windows.

.3gp

A file format used by many mobile phones. It was designed as a multimedia format for transmitting audio and video files between 3G cell phones and over the Internet. The .3gp format is commonly used by mobile phones that support video capture.

.apng

The Animated Portable Network Graphics (APNG) file format is an extension to the Portable Network Graphics (PNG) specification. It allows for animated PNG files that work similarly to animated GIF files, while supporting 24-bit images and 8-bit transparency not available for GIFs. It also retains backward compatibility with non-animated PNG files.

.asf

An audio/video container format developed by Microsoft for streaming multimedia files as part of the Windows Media framework. ASF files do not specify how they should be encoded, only the structure of the audio/video stream. It commonly contains .wmv and .wma file types. This format will work natively on Windows, but Mac users will need Flip4Mac.

.avi

The standard Microsoft Windows video container file format. It stores video data that may be encoded in a variety of codecs. The .avi format typically uses less compression than similar formats such as .MPEG and .MOV.

AVI files can be played by various video players, however it should be noted that the player must support the codec used to encode the video data.

.dv

This format is for recording and playing back digital video. Originally designed for recording onto magnetic tape, DV is now more commonly recorded with tapeless devices and can be stored as files on discs or drives.

.flv

A Flash Video file format used to deliver video over the Internet using Adobe Flash Player. The .flv is an open format that is also supported by non-Adobe programs; FLV files may be exported from QuickTime Pro or other applications that can export to the QuickTime file format.

.gif

This format allows a palette of 256 colors, often resulting in low-resolution images with small file sizes. This is a good format for simple animations with solid areas of color.

.mkv

Matroska is a free and open container format that can store video, audio and subtitles in one file.

.mov

A standard QuickTime video file format from Apple. The .mov format is compatible with both Macintosh and Windows platforms, though the QuickTime player may need to be installed on some Windows systems to view .mov files.

.mp4

A standard audio and video file format for the MPEG-4 multimedia portfolio. It is commonly used for sharing video files on the Internet, including on YouTube. The .mp4 video format uses separate compression for audio and video tracks; video is compressed with MPEG-4 video encoding and audio is compressed using AAC compression (the same type of audio compression used in .AAC files).

The .mp4 format is supported by many video programs and various hardware devices, including the Microsoft Zune portable media player.

.mpg

A common digital video format standardized by the Moving Picture Experts Group (MPEG). It typically incorporates MPEG-1 or MPEG-2 audio and video compression. The .mpg format is often used for creating movies that are distributed on the Internet. For example, YouTube accepts and recommends the .mpg format for videos.

.ogg

A free and open container format that can store video, audio and subtitles in one file, maintained by the Xip.Org Foundation.

.ogv

OGV is related to OGG which is a video bitstream container format. OGV files are often used to play videos using the HTML5 < video > tag. Generally, these videos are referenced as being OGG files in the HTML source even though the underlying file format is OGV.

.rm

A multimedia container format used mostly by RealPlayer for streaming radio or videos over the internet.

.swf

This is a graphics animation file created with Adobe Flash, and was created for the Shockwave Player. It is now the standard file type for Flash content on the web and can be played in web browsers that support a Flash plug-in.

.webM

A container format that can hold audio and video data. It is used for HTML5 video and its development is sponsored by Google.

.wmv

A standard file format for Microsoft Windows Media Player. The .wmv format is based on the Microsoft Advanced Systems Format (ASF) container format and compressed using Windows Media compression. It is basically an .ASF file that is encoded using the Windows Media Video (WMV) codec. It is supported natively by Windows, but requires a component for viewing on non-Windows computers.

See Also

For information about other settings, please follow the links below: