i used to do EVERYTHING in avi. i stopped because i opened up a store in vidown which takes mp4 and i had also heard around the grapevine that mp4 was the way to go as far as the customer being able to download the video easier. so, is this true? i know with avi the file size is much larger and has to be compressed via editing. which in turn does make the video a TAD less of the quality it would be. mp4 does this too. our equipment though, makes for a rad ass video even if the vid is compromised a little bit. but, what is easier for you to download? i have always been an avi girl and i NEEEEED to get my latest releases into vidown (my older releases up to last summer are in there) but, just a question! is there a difference to you? thanks for reading! thanks in advance for answering!
MP4 is friendly with almost all mobile devices and supports the H.264 video codec frequently used with the MP4 container which is thought to be one of the highest-quality video standards commonly used.
Of course, the High Efficiency Video Coding (HEVC), also known as H.265, is a new video compression standard which seems to be working out better in terms of Quality to File Size.
(In terms of longevity going forward, MP4 utilizing H.264 or H.265 would be the way to go so that in years to come you can look back on your 4k+ Super HD screens and still enjoy the content)
Well, I'm not too familiar with AVI, but I know MP4 files work great on both Mac OS and Windows, so they're more convenient to work on both operating systems. Of course, downloading and using VLC fixes that issue, but I still think more options are better in case people want to use Windows Media Player or Quicktime.
All this cake, there must be a princess somewhere.
Definitely MP4. It's more compatible with more video codecs and more devices, at least in terms of what I have. It works on the Roku Media Player, which is really nice if I want to put some videos on my television.
MP4 is probably the best choice. AVI is a Microsoft format (although I'm not sure if they still own it), whereas MP4 is an ISO standardized format - going with something that isn't owned by a proprietary company is probably a best choice.
You'll find that MP4 is going to work in far more places and is in many cases going to be hardware supported rather than software supported (and thus much lighter on resource utilization meaning the same hardware can handle a higher res video). I think that MP4 is more compressed (resulting in smaller file sizes) taking more work to play it, but again the hardware decoding tends to make up for that.
MP4 is probably more future proof. I have videos that are in avi that won't play anymore on a newer computer, and that is unlikely to be the case with MP4 (although, obviously, no guarantee can be made that it won't be usurped by something else in the future).
I have found that avi tends to be a little more tempermental as well - probably because of the resource utilization issue.
@hooter - did you try VLC? With VERY few exceptions, it seems to play everything.
Ah, I remember the big argument when I tried to explain everyone should be producing their videos in MP4 as a standard and people including Soundguy getting all het up and telling me I'm wrong for whatever reason.
Well, I was right.
MP4. It's the standard now. Computers, phones, tablets, game consoles... it's the standard.
h264 or 5 MP4 and you're golden until someone comes up with something game changing. Even then, it should be reasonably future proof for people that download them.