A brief introduction to several video formats,including ASF,MTS/M2TS,MOD/TOD,MKV,etc.
Nowadays, more and more video formats have emerged; however, people sometimes
feel confused with them, in purpose of letting people have brief understanding
of these formats, this article will choose some to do simple explanations.
ASF
ASF is an acronym for Advanced Streaming format,
and from the literal meaning (Advanced Streaming Format) that we should know its
usage. To put it bluntly, ASF is a compression video format for online watching,
which is developed by Microsoft to compete with Real player. Because of its use
of MPEG4 compression algorithm, its compression ratio and image quality is very
good. Blu-ray DVD
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ASF is a real-time online viewing video streaming format, so its image
quality is inferior to VCD. But it is better than RAM which is the same video
streaming format. However, if you do not consider spreading on-line, and choose
the best quality to compress files, then, the generated video files would be
better than VCD (MPEG1). But it will lose the original intension of developing
ASF. In that case, you might as well directly use N AVI or DIVX. However, the
“offspring” of Microsoft has its unique advantages. The most obvious thing is
that various kinds of software are supporting it.
nAVI
nAVI is short for newAVI, it is a video format developed by an underground
organization called ShadowRealm. It is from the changes of Microsoft ASF
compression algorithm, not AVI in imagine. Video format is nothing more than the
pursuit of compression ratio and image quality, so in pursuit of this goal, nAVI
improved the shortcomings in ASF, and has a higher frame rate. Of course, this
sacrifices the video streaming features of ASF as a price. Mod Converter also
called JVC Mod Converter owns the function to convert JVC Mod files to MPG,
MPEG, MPEG2, VOB.
In summary, nAVI is the modified ASF format which has been
removed the features of video streaming. More simply speaking, it is the
non-network version of ASF.
AVI
AVI stands for Audio
Video Interleave, and it seems to be no need for me to explain. This old video
format, which was released in the age of WIN3.1 by Microsoft, has been in
application for a number of years. Its advantages are good compatibility and
image quality, as well as convenient transfer. But it has a well-known
shortcoming: the large size. Because of this drawback, we can see the changes
from the birth of MPEG1 to the development of MPEG-4.
MPEG
MPEG is short for Motion Picture Experts Group, which includes MPEG-1,
MPEG-2 and MPEG-4 (note that there is no MPEG-3, MP3 that we are familiar with
is MPEG Layeur 3).
MPEG-1 is widely used in the production of VCD and some
online downloading applications of video clips. It can be said that 99% of the
VCDs are compressed in MPEG1. Using MPEG-1 compression algorithm, a 120-minute
film can be compressed to the size of about 1.2 GB.
MPEG-2 is used in DVD
compression, and also has applications in the aspect of HDTV, and some videos
that demand high editing and processing. With MPEG-2 compression algorithm, a
120-minute film can be compressed to 4 to 8 GB in size (of course, its image
quality is much better than MPEG-1.)
MPEG-4 is a new compression algorithm,
the ASF format in this algorithm can compress a 120-minute film to video
streaming in about 300M for online watching. Other DIVX formats can be
compressed to about 600M, but the image quality is much better than ASF.
DIVX
DIVX video encoding technology can be said to pose
a threat to DVD (some people say it is DVD killer), it comes from Microsoft
mpeg4v3 modifications, and use MPEG4 compression algorithm. Meanwhile, it can be
also said developing in the purpose of breaking some protocols of ASF. Compress
a DVD just need two pieces of CD ROMs. This means that you do not need to buy
DVD ROMs any more, but you can get more or less the same video quality as it,
what you need is just CD ROMs. In addition, its requirements of the machine are
not high, CPU is more than 300MHZ, with a 64M memory card, and an 8M graphic
card, and then it can be played smoothly.
QuickTime
QuickTime (MOV) is a video format created by Apple. In a very long period of
time, it only exists on MAC. Later developed to support the WINDOWS platform,
but to be fair, it is an excellent video encoding format no matter for local
playing or online spreading.
REAL VIDEOMTS Converter is especially
designed for all High-Definition video lovers to convert MTS files to all kinds
of video and audio files.
REAL VIDEO (RA, RAM) format is firstly defined to
do video streaming applications, and it can be said to be the originators of
video streaming technology. It can achieve uninterrupted video playback by 56K
MODEM dial-up. Of course, its image quality is incomparable to MPEG-2 and DIVX.
After all, continuous online transmission of videos requires a lot of bandwidth.
In this case, ASF is its powerful competitor.
MKV
MKV
is one of the file types of a container format called Matroska, which is similar
to other containers like ASF, AVI, MP4, and 3GP in conception. Matroska is an open
standard free container format, which can hold an unlimited number of
subtitle tracks, pictures, audios, or videos within a single file. It contains
three file types: MKV for video files (including audios and subtitles); MKS for
subtitles (only subtitles); MKA for audio files only. To store HD video files is
the most common use of MKV files.
MTS/M2TS
Before talk
about MTS/M2TS, AVCHD have to be mentioned at first. AVCHD is a tapeless HD
format developed by Sony and Panasonic in May, 2006. AVCHD video is compressed
in MPEG-4 AVC/H.264 format, and it supports 720p, 1080i, 1080p, etc. At the same
time, AVCHD audio is stored in compressed form Dolby AC-3. Well, what is the
relationship between AVCHD and MTS/M2TS? If you are attentive enough, you will
find AVCHD is with file extension .mts on camcorder and with .m2ts after
importing to computer. Briefly speaking, MTS and M2TS are the formats that used
by AVCHD camcorders to record footages. In addition, Blu-ray disc also reserve
video files in format of M2TS.
MOD and TOD
Both MOD and
TOD are the informal tapeless video formats produced by certain digital
camcorders. And both of them have never been given to any meaning explanations
or official names by their creators JVC or Panasonic. The differences between
them lie in: MOD are used by JVC, Panasonic, and Canon in some models of
camcorders, such as JVC GZ-MG130, GZ-MS100U, GZ-MG255, Panasonic SDR-SW20,
SDR-SW21, SDR-S26, Canon FS100, FS200, FS21 and so on, while TOD is only used by
JVC camcorders, like JVC GZ-HD7, GZ-HD5, GZ-HD6, GZ-HD30, and GZ-HD40; Moreover,
MOD is only used for standard definition video files, while TOD is exclusively
used for high definition video files.
Factually, all the above video formats
can be played on your portable devices, or imported to editors to do further
editing, etc. as long as you convert them to their workable formats with the
proper converters. The recommendations:
If you are windows user, this would
be adaptive to you:
Video Converter
HD Video
Converter
TOD Converter
MOD Converter
MTS/M2TS
Converter
MKV Converter
