Your Guide to Popular Video Container Formats and Codecs

1. What are codecs and containers?
2. Is MP4 a container or codec?
3. How do I choose a video codec?
4. What is the best video codec?
5. What is the smallest video format with high quality?
6. Is MPEG-4 a codec?
7. Is MPEG-4 the same as MP4?
8. What codec should I use for MP4?
9. Which MP4 format is best?
10. What's the highest quality video format?
11. Which codec is best for YouTube?
12. What are the different video codecs?

What are codecs and containers?

Simply put, a codec is a method for encoding and decoding data and more specifically, a protocol for compressing data, especially video. ... In comparison, a container is what holds the grouping of compressed video as defined by the codec. A container is also referred to as a format.

Is MP4 a container or codec?

MP4 is a container, not a video format. MP4 generally contains a variant of MPEG for the video, such as h. 264 or generic MPEG-4. Sometimes they may contain an MPEG-2 or MPEG-1 stream, though that is pretty uncommon.

How do I choose a video codec?

Generally speaking, you should aim for the highest-quality codec that your camera (or your budget) can capture. When I say “highest quality”, I mean that you want to capture as much information as possible. So you want less-lossy codecs: less compression, higher bit-depth, and less chroma subsampling.

What is the best video codec?

What is the best video codec for quality? The best video codec for quality is likely H. 265/HVEC, as it is well-equipped to handle even 4k HD videos with high compression rates. A decent alternative for Google's devices and platforms (YouTube, Android, Chrome) would be the VP9 codec.

What is the smallest video format with high quality?

You may have heard of the h. 264 codec (you may not have, but hang in there). This codec produces an MP4, which typically delivers the best quality, with smallest file size. Because of this, MP4 is very popular for web-based delivery including YouTube, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

Is MPEG-4 a codec?

MPEG is a codec. There are several versions of it, called MPEG-1, MPEG-2, MPEG-4, ... When you play an MPEG video from a DVD, for instance, the MPEG stream is actually composed of several streams (called Elementary Streams, ES): there is one stream for video, one for audio, another for subtitles, and so on.

Is MPEG-4 the same as MP4?

As has been explained MPEG-4 is a video codec recognised by MPEG (Motion Picture Experts Group) as a standard of audio and video data compression. ... It's called MP4 mainly because MPEG-4 Part 14 has . mp4 as its file name extension. From the above MPEG4 vs MP4 explanation you could see that MPEG4 is not the same as MP4.

What codec should I use for MP4?

MP4. MP4 is the recommended format for uploading video to the web, and services such as Vimeo and YouTube have it listed as their preferred format. The MP4 container utilizes MPEG-4 encoding, or H. 264, as well as AAC or AC3 for audio.

Which MP4 format is best?

1. Best video format for social media

What's the highest quality video format?

MP4. Most digital devices and platforms support MP4, rendering it the most universal video format around. The MP4 can also store video files, audio files, text, and still images. Additionally, they can retain high video quality while maintaining relatively small file sizes.

Which codec is best for YouTube?

According to YouTube, the recommended video format is the . MP4 file type. To display your videos at the highest quality possible, YouTube also recommends using the h. 264 video codec and a standard aspect ratio of 16:9.

What are the different video codecs?

Video codecs used today include H. 264, HEVC, VP9, and AV1. Common formats includes MKV, AVCHD, MP4, and WebM. There are pros and cons to each video codec and file format.