All that confusing alphabet soup seems like Greek.

Who can understand it?

Actually, video file formats are NOT that difficult. Most formats are compatible with multiple players and will work in many situations.

Converting from one format to another is really no more difficult that doing a "save as" with a word document. You pick which format you want and the software does the rest. Any video editing software should be able to convert into multiple formats.

However, to fully understand internet video, it pays to know the most common formats. To answer your questions about digital video file formats, I have produced a free, three-minute video tutorial. The video covers all the most common file formats and gives some pros and cons for each.

If you have questions about digital video file formats, take three minutes and watch this free tutorial. I think it will give you all the information you need but if you want even more detail, I have two much longer videos that explain the subject more fully. You can find them if you click here.

Once you understand how easy video formats really are, you can convert and upload with confidence!

As always, drop me a line a videoProductiontips@gmail.com and let me know what concerns you have about internet video production.

Thanks for being a subscriber.

Lorraine Grula
Internet video gal

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Do not despair!

It's not as hard as it seems. I've put together this 15 minute free video tutorial on digital video file formats. It covers all the basics and will teach you everything you need to know (and then some) to get your videos up and running on the web.

Here is part two of the free video tutorial on digital file formats.

A Multi-part series of articles
By Lorraine Grula - Internet Video Gal

Part 6 - Miscellaneous Digital Video Formats

The list of different digital file formats is long. So far our special series of articles has covered Flash, Google, MPEG, .avi and many others. Today’s article covers additional Windows and Apple video file formats

WMV (Windows Media Video)
A .wmv file indicates one compressed using Microsoft's proprietary lossy compression format for motion video. Windows Media Video is used for both streaming and downloading content via the Internet. Microsoft's Windows Media Player, an application bundled with Windows Vista operating systems, lets you play back and manage a range of audio and video file types, including WMA and WMV.

.MOV: This is the file extension used to identify an Apple Quick Time Movie. Quicktime hasn’t been a Mac-only program for quite some time. Quicktime versions exist on almost all PCs. Some people argue that Quicktime is far superior to similar Windows based applications.

Xvid
Xvid is an open-source lossy video codec based on MPEG-4. It was developed in response to DivX, and received its name from the backwards spelling of DivX. Xvid compresses a great deal of video content into relatively small files, and retains a reasonably good video resolution. It can be used with several different operating systems, and is a popular choice for transferring video over the Internet.

If you see a video file on your computer labeled MSWMM, be aware that this is a windows movie maker project file and not a video or movie file designed for sharing. MSWMM will only play within Movie Maker. When you want to save your movie to share it, that is the time to use Movie maker to convert it into a more universal format, such as .avi or .wmv. This confuses many people. No matter what video editing software you use, a project file is designed for working on within the editing program. You must convert the project file to watch it on any other player.

This is the end of part 6 in our multipart series on video file formats.

A Multi-part series of articles
By Lorraine Grula - Internet Video Gal

Part 5 - Digital Audio

No list of digital file formats would be complete without the glorious MP3, which is actually MPEG-1, Audio Layer 3, but who’s counting?

MP3 is by far the most popular codec for storing and transferring music, made ubiquitous by iPods and other MP3 players.

To compress the file, MP3 removes frequencies judged to be essentially inaudible. For most human ears, MP3 manages to deliver near-CD sound quality in a file that's only about a tenth or twelfth the size of a corresponding uncompressed WAV file.

When creating an MP3 file, you can select varying amounts of compression depending on the desired file size and sound quality.

mp3Pro
An updated version of the original MP3 codec. Small, low-bitrate mp3Pro files contain much more high-frequency detail than standard MP3 files encoded at similar low bitrates.

The high-frequency portion of the audio signal is handled by an advanced and extremely efficient coding process known as Spectral Band Replication (SBR), while the rest of the signal is encoded as a regular MP3.

That means that when you play an mp3Pro file on non-mp3Pro-compatible software, it’ll play, but you'll only hear the non-SBR-encoded portions. This means you'll lose the highs altogether. Bummer.

The solution is to use a fully compatible audio program, such as Windows Media Player and mp3Pro files will deliver great sound quality with extremely low bitrates.

Wave at Me Baby!
.WAV file extension identifies a standard audio format for Windows operating systems that’s used for storing high-quality, uncompressed sound. WAV files are large since they are uncompressed. They provide extremely high quality audio.

.WAV contains CD-quality (44.1 KHz/16-bit) audio signals and require relatively large amounts of memory — roughly 10 MB per minute of music.

WAV is what’s known as a container format, or one which holds different kinds of data within its file. Container formats are gaining in popularity because of their multimedia applications, as well as their cross-platform compatibility. For example, a single container file can hold chapter information, hyperlinks and subtitles, as well as different kinds of codecs that enable various types of players to read the file. This all makes it more convenient for the user.

Windows Media Audio, file extension .WMA
Like .wav, Windows Media Audio is a Microsoft product so is one of today's most pervasive Internet audio formats. Though not as popular as MP3, proponents of the lossy compression format claim it outperforms MP3 in sound quality, particularly with files encoded at lower bitrates such as 64 or 96 Kbps.

This performance advantage makes it handy for applications like portable digital audio players, where total play time is limited by a finite amount of internal memory. Although the technical specs will put WMA ahead of MP3, many human ears could never tell the difference.

The Windows Media Audio format features built-in copy protection abilities, unlike MP3. Windows Vista, the new Microsoft operating system, contains built in support for WMA encoding so you can easily create WMA music files. No doubt Mr. Gates wants WMA to be even more common than it is.

That’s all for this part 5 of our multi-part helpful guide on digital file formats.