Upon reading some of the reviews for my sites, I seen that one of the negatives was the lack of multiple video formats. How important to people is it to have multiple formats of video? Flash, quicktime, AVI, mp4..... Which ones do you use? Like.... Discuss.

i prefer MP4 but if it is AVI or other I just convert it so not that important to me

I generally prefer flv and wmv. Two very popular formats. I don't really see the need for multiple formats though, considering that there are free players out there that play most formats(VLC for example)....and even free converters (WinFF, for example) that convert whatever into whatever.

-Chris

I never care what the format is as long as the quality isn't bad. Can use the free K-Lite Codec Pack and play any format in any media player on a PC.

I imagine the preferred format options would be Divx or Xvid AVI so they can burn it, and play it on their TV with a DVD Player. Or MP4 for portable devices. But 2 should be plenty. Most devices requiring another format would come with their own converter usually.

wmv ftw

I just prefer videos that are at least 720p HD

The Models are too pretty to be see seen in anything less than 720p

I'm very low-tech. If I click on it and it plays, I'm happy.

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That was one of the things I really liked about Bryci's site. She/James offered a variety of formats/sizes (the went for pics if I recall correctly). I have no idea how much work is involved in offering multiple formats/sizes but I know from personal experience (not just Bryci's site) that I found it to a fantastic resource and appreciated them being offered. Personally, I enjoy .avi/.mp4

I don't care what format as long as it is not processor intensive and the video
has very good quality.
WMV is easy to encode with a minimum of file size.
AVI would be my next choice and is easy to encode.
Both of these formats can handle HD on a smaller computer fairly well.
Also you can't please everyone. The only thing you can do is try and have a
standard that most everyone can use.
I would stay away from h264 or flash for member videos.
If I had my way, I would love to see Nikki in 1080p MPEG2 TS format
maybe for a special member video

WMV all the way...but flv is ok too I guess.

You know what's weird Mumz? We offer diff variations and what not but if I pull up what is actually downloaded versus what is skipped over... WMV gets around 90% of the download. I think people like the option of having other formats available to them, but it doesn't mean they will grab them.

Sort of like the cable tv packages we usually get suckered into. We buy the package with a ton of channels.. then end up watching a a few. BUT... we *COULD* watch the others if we wanted to... heh

When there are multiple options I download WMV first too. Seems like its the first or only option giving on a majority of sites. Its quality will be at least as good as the other formats, if not better. AVIs are too often done with a poor encoder, or encoding settings. Probably just run the WMV through a cheap converter program to get the AVI.


But does anyone else notice on sites that do offer a lot of video formats, that the videos are screwed up a lot more? I've too often found 1 or more of the formats were not encoded or uploaded properly, and will be incomplete compared to the others.

to me it doesn't really matter long as the video plays with good quality

You already do HD and standard which is pretty nice. I think if you start doing multiple formats you should get confused and make each one a different video, that way we could get like a dozen videos every week!!!! (don't forget rm and vcd )

Originally Posted by solidskull

You already do HD and standard which is pretty nice. I think if you start doing multiple formats you should get confused and make each one a different video, that way we could get like a dozen videos every week!!!! (don't forget rm and vcd )

I'm set up to run any format, so whatever is the best quality... that's what my 1.5 terabyte HD is for. AVI can provide video in 1080p (or even higher, I think), but wmv at its highest setting is good enough and seems to present the least amount of problems. However, smaller formats and file sizes are useful for people with limited download bandwidth and HD space.

Golden made a good point, many sites that offer several formats usually end up with more corrupted files, so care has to be taken.

I go for the WMV (Window Media Video). It looks better.

I agree with bellas secret lover.. it doesn't matter what format the video is in as long as the video plays with good quality.

I love the setup that James has for Bryci's website with all the multiple formats. Perfect! Great job! I wished all websites had that kind of setup.

James +1

Multiple formats is always welcome, but most important is the quality

Originally Posted by sillyman

I'm very low-tech. If I click on it and it plays, I'm happy.

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Ditto, as long as I can I'm good.