HD File Formats

[Davidk]

Researching and thinking about moving to HD operation (recording, editing, disks) I have been regularly confused by the - apparently - boundless array of file formats (mpg, mp4, mpeg-4, m2t etc) claiming to be HD, or AVCHD, some of which also seem to be used as standard DVD as well. And not all of them are compatible, and some are seemingly the same but devices indicate they are not.

For example, I have a number of HD .mov files recorded on a camera and they show as .mov in windows explorer but the file metadata display says they are mpeg-4, and play fine on a computer. But each of them gets rejected on any other TV or display unit which is rated to play .mov files. However, if I import them to VS and simply re-render with unchanged file settings to mpeg-4, the result is also an mpeg-4 file, marginally smaller, but now it does play on an HD TV monitor.

Does anyone have a handy idiots (uncomplicated, not annotated with exceptions and/or alternatives or manufacturer variations) guide to these HD file formats, what they mean and how they can be used, or a weblink to a place where that is?

Davidk

[RobertOZ]

Hi DavidK,

These give a reasonably good explanation

http://www.videomaker.com/article/15362 ... -explained
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High-definition_video

Robert

[Davidk]

Hi Robert,

The first one was more the sort of thing I wanted, and at first look it seems to be pretty good - in terms of simplicity and coverage. The wikipedia item - handy but still with all those annotations I mentioned previously (I hunted on Wiki before raising this topic) - and sometimes that sort of detail is really essential, but if one is just trying to get a mind around the basics, those 'extras' can be pretty off-putting.

Muchas gracias for the quick response

Davidk