There are so many different varieties of video formats available for streaming- MOV, MP4, MKV, FLV, AVI and so on. Which one should you choose for live streaming? Which video format is the most popular? This blog will give you all the information you need about container formats and help you decide to choose the best one for live streaming.
What’s a Video Format?
Video format is a type of a file format, or in other words, a container for storing compressed audio and video data, which sometimes includes subtitles as well.
Generally speaking, the most used video container formats include MP4, AVI, FLV, WMV, MOV, and MPEG. While MP4 is best suited for streaming to online video platforms, HTML5 works best when you have to embed a video on your own website.
Are Video Formats Important?
Let’s get this straight- the choice of a container format is equally significant as the compression standards present inside the video format. This is because a compression standard when paired with an incompatible video container can add the surplus expense to your video streaming workflow.
Live Streaming Protocols
The most important parameter for understanding the most suitable video format for live streaming is to know the workflow of the several live streaming protocols.
RTMP
Although years after Adobe deprecated Flash, RTMP is still widely used today and it has been advanced to handle content-based video codecs such as AVC or H.264. As suggested by its name, RTMP boasts of real-time delivery as a specialized protocol.
HLS
HLS has since become the most widely-used streaming protocol. Initially, HLS was only supported by iOS. However, HLS has now become a proprietary format and almost every device supports it. HLS depends on fragmenting MP4 video files into small segments. These fragmented MP4 video files often use AAC audio codecs and AVC or H.264 video codecs.
So, Which Video Format to Choose?
Most playback devices and platforms support MP4, making it the universal video format. Additionally, MP4 can retain high video quality while maintaining relatively small file sizes.
And, while the MP4 format will handle HEVC (also known as H.265), the current primary use for MP4 files is AVC video and AAC audio tracks.
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