Video Formats for the Internet

Many websites now use video within their domain whether it be for fun or for marketing purposes. However, to view all of the video that you could watch on the net, you will need various players and codecs (compression-decompression) installed on your PC or Mac. This article is a brief explanation of the most common formats and suggestions as to which to use in certain situations.

Windows Media Format (video files end in .wmv)

This is a video format developed by the Microsoft corporation. Until 3 or so years ago, this was pretty much the defacto standard in use on the net. On a non windows based computer you will need either Windows Media player for your platform if it exists or a plugin (which is generally free) to be able to view the videos.

Quicktime (video files end in .mov)

This is Apple’s version of video format. It’s not as common to find as Windows Media but similarly you will need either the correct player or a free plugin for your current video player.

Real Video (videos end in .ram or .rm)

Developed by Real Media this format is not as common as the previous two formats and has, to an extent, always had to battle to keep up. It is commonly used for audio streaming for the likes of internet radio stations and handles low bandwidths well.

Flash Video (video files end in .flv)

Flash video by Adobe is the latest standard for VOD (Video on Demand) delivery over the internet. Although perhaps not as good a Windows Media for quality under compression, it has more “viewers” than the other standards due to the fact that flash player is installed in nearly every browser. The use by www.youtube.com and google has pushed its dominance in the market.

Although Flash video has greatest penetration, it is used primarily for on demand video. Sites such as youtube compress the video further than most sites need to but as a cheap solution to video it works very well. However, historically, due to cost implications it is not used for live streaming. This domain currently still belongs to Microsoft Windows Media. The Windows Media server is free, or at least part of the Windows server operating system when you purchase it and the majority of “live” broadcasts are still in this format. This will no doubt change in the near future as things progress and it will be interesting to see the implications of these formats on mobile devices.

Steve Furminger
Head of Digital