Introduction to common video formats

When playing video, you may notice that there are many different video formats. You might be a little confused, what's the difference between these formats? Why do these different formats appear? And what tools can you use to convert video? Today I'm going to introduce you to some common video formats.

MP4

MP4 is a digital multimedia format that is capable of storing both video and audio. On top of that, it can also integrate other data as well, such as still images and subtitles, but also for more advanced content as well such as 3D graphics, menus and user interaction. This makes it a portable container format that brings multiple abilities such as streaming or playback. 

MKV

Matroska (MKV) is a multimedia standard that holds an unlimited number of audio, video and subtitles files within one file format. MKV is different from other multimedia standards such as AVI and MP4 because it is completely open source and its can be customized by the user with the implementation of open-source software.

AVI

AVI means Audio Video Interleave, a popular video container format developed by Microsoft back in 1992. This file format can hold different types of video and audio streams for synchronized playback. It became the most used video file format for its simplicity and compatibility across different platforms. AVI file format is commonly used for containing movies and TV shows in small size with great quality. AVI files also can contain lossless video which are great for editing in VideoStudio Pro.

MOV

MOV file extension is one of the most used video container formats in video editing software. This file format can contain videos, video effects, audio, text, images, subtitles, and other media types in a single file. The compression algorithm of this format was designed by Apple but is compatible with both Mac and Windows platforms. MOV files are also compatible with Sony PSP and DVD players. MOV is approved as the basis of MPEG-4 file format by the “International Organization for Standardization”. For the ability to contain abstract data references MOV is great for editing in top video editing software like VideoStudio Pro. 

WMV

WMV file format was introduced by Microsoft as a series of video codecs. The full abbreviation of WMV is “Windows Media Video”, a compressed video container format built for the Windows Media framework. WMV video files are most suitable for selling video contents online or through HD DVD and Bluray Discs. It’s so, because the additional feature of “Digital rights management” prevents copying the data from this format. It is one of the most recognized video file format in its category supporting cross platforms like Windows and Mac. WMV runs great with VideoStudio Pro.

How to convert one format to another？

If you want to convert between two different formats, I recommend Leawo Video Converter. Leawo Video Converter is a professional video and audio converting program, offering solutions for people to convert video and audio files between 180+ formats. Besides, Leawo Video Converter allows converting normal 2D video to 3D movie. In addition, Leawo Video Converter enables users to edit video for output.