.MOV vs .Mp4 file format when making home iMovies?

[edavt04]

Hey there!

I learned on techtalkamerica.com that it's best to save your videos in a format of best resolution.
I created a 3.5 minute home movie, and the difference in size is HUGE!!

-.MOV (Best quality, ProRes) is 8 GB
-.Mp4 (High quality) is 533MB

Does this make a huge difference in quality?
I am just planning on making home movies

Thanks!
Edita

 

[ColdCase]

When viewing on a 60 inch screen, yes. On a iPhone, not so much.

The general rule of thumb, is that down the road you may want to do something else with that source material and you want to be working with the best resolution files. So you want to keep your source videos in as high resolution as you can. Your edited and shared depends on how its being distributed and to what audience.

So consider when you export/share; the viewing device, how you are going to get the file to the device (web streaming HD can be a challenge), and if the viewer cares about quality. Some of my family could care less about quality, some appreciate it.

 

[hwojtek]

MOV vs MP4 is not a format difference but a container difference. You can save a very efficient .mov and a very big .mp4. What you are asking is "which compression to use" and not "which format = container". Some compressions only work within certain formats (containers), but let's put it aside.

ProRes is a professional grade editing and broadcast-type compression, so absolutely of no use for you. If you want all the devices, regardless if they are Macs, Windows PCs, Android phones, iPads etc to play the file - save it as mp4, iMovie will default to h264 compression that is pretty much ubiquitous. Make sure you select HD (1920x1080) picture size.

 

[USAntigoon]

Hey there!

I learned on techtalkamerica.com that it's best to save your videos in a format of best resolution.
I created a 3.5 minute home movie, and the difference in size is HUGE!!

-.MOV (Best quality, ProRes) is 8 GB
-.Mp4 (High quality) is 533MB

Does this make a huge difference in quality?
I am just planning on making home movies

Thanks!
Edita

I have not noticed a big difference in viewing Quality between .mov and .Mp4 .. Of course the .mov has much more detailed video info, you don't need for viewing ...once you have 100 plus home movies you will he very happy with the .mp4 storage size...