Which Is Best Mpeg Or Avi And Why

**digmen1** · 01-11-2004, 01:08 AM

Which is the best format Mpeg or Avi and why ?

It seems to me that most movies are either in Mpeg or Avi.

It seems to me that there are more Mpegs than avi's.

It also seems to me that an Avi movie is usually smaller in size, therefore quicker to download and less to store etc.

If this is so, why are more movies available in Mpeg ?

Thanks

Digby
NZ

**3RA1N1AC** · 01-11-2004, 09:51 AM

mpeg and avi are not two opposing formats. most people are a bit confused about that, until they begin learning how to create and convert video files.

mpeg is a group of codecs/formats:
mpeg-1 (used in VCD)
mpeg-2 (used in SVCD and DVD)
mpeg-4 (originally intended as a streaming internet video format-- DivX, XviD, WMV, and Quicktime Mpeg-4 are types of mpeg-4)
and then there are mpeg audio codecs to go along with those

AVI is not a codec/format, it is a container. an AVI container can be used to combine a pretty wide variety of video & audio formats, but most people use it for mpeg-4 video with either MP3, WAV or AC3 (dolby digital, copied directly from DVDs) audio.

other container types include: OGM (XviD video + OGG audio), ASF (WMV + WMA), and MOV (a pretty wide variety of codecs and formats).

files ending in the extension MPG/MPEG are usually mpeg-1 or mpeg-2 videos combined with MP2 audio. so the question you're actually asking is: "which is the best mpeg video format? mpeg-1, mpeg-2, or mpeg-4?"

i think most people would say that while mpeg-4 was originally designed to deliver low quality streaming video through websites (as opposed to mpeg-1 and mpeg-2, which were designed for commercial video discs), when you use mpeg-4 at high bit rates to create something like a 700mb file of a feature-length film... it gives you relatively better quality than mpeg-1 and mpeg-2 files of a similar size. mpeg-1 & 2 (VCD/SVCD) files are still popular on filesharing networks simply because most people do not yet own home video equipment capable of playing mpeg-4 (aside from their PCs), so it's a matter of convenience rather than quality.

**digmen1** · 01-11-2004, 12:42 PM

Gee thanks Brainiac, you certainly live up to your name !

I appreciate your effort, even though I don't fully understand it.

But some of it makes sense. I have yet to create an Mp3 or Mpeg so its all new to me.

Thanks once again

Digby
NZ

**3RA1N1AC** · 01-11-2004, 02:43 PM

okay, i'll try to put it plainly:

files labelled as "mpeg" are mostly VCD or SVCD type videos. mpeg-1 (most commonly found in the form of VCDs) is the oldest and pretty much the worst. SVCD uses mpeg-2, it's essentially a lower-grade version of DVD, and it usually looks quite a bit better than mpeg-1. VCD is a video disc format that was popular in asia for many years, but it never caught on in the western world (except with PC users who started creating their own home-made VCDs). SVCD was developed by the gov't of china, but it never caught on in any retail market despite its improvement over VCD (western PC users eventually took up SVCD as a format for home-made discs, like they did with VCD). if you own a DVD player, it might very well be able play these files if you burn them properly onto a CD.

AVI files can actually contain any of a wide variety of formats, since it's just a method of packaging the video & audio. most AVIs use mpeg-4 which was designed for websites to broadcast low-quality videos over the internet, but by some stroke of luck mpeg-4 turned out to actually be superior to the earlier mpeg formats when it's used to make a feature-length movie file that can fit onto a CD.

DVD player companies have started to realize that there is demand for players to support mpeg-4 AVI files, and there are prolly a few dozen models available which include mpeg-4 playback. but until many more companies support the format, filesharing people will continue to circulate new mpeg-1 & mpeg-2 files because that's what most DVD players are compatible with.

hopefully that's a bit more clear.