Preferred movie formats

[wrldwzrd89]

What's your preference for format when downloading movies on the internet? You can list yours ranked, in preferred order, like I did, or you can simply list your favorite (please share why you like this format the best).

1. MPEG (It's a standard, and should be playable with just about any media player)
2. QuickTime MOV (Hey, it comes with my Mac - why not?)
3. Windows Media Video (WMV Player handles all but V3 files perfectly)
4. AVI (Often, I need to use VLC for these)
5. Real Media (If I find any of these, which I haven't recently, I'll need to also get Real's player to view them)
6. Others (Who knows what format these are in, let alone if anything I have will play them)

 

[liketom]

AVI (DivX) is the best when i'm ripping my dvd's for my media player

Mov is my 2nd fav as all my movie trailers/music vids/imovie stuff is in it

you can forget about RM ? like who and why is my answer to that one lol

others i sometime use is VOB well just too easy

 

[Mitthrawnuruodo]

I don't download movies from the internet.

I prefer to get my movies legally and when I want a DVD I buy, rent or loan it at my local public library.

 

[iMeowbot]

I don't download movies from the internet.

Not even things like news, music videos and movie trailers?

Anyways:

• All streaming sucks. QuickTime streams (when they're really streams) tend to suck the most, suffering the most from buffering problems. An exception is Quicktime "progressive" streams, which aren't really streams at all. Yes, that means for streaming I give higher marks to Real and then Windows Media.
• For downloaded clips, QuickTime tends to suck the least, other MPEG variations are about in the same league. AVI wrappers are annoying just because stuff needs to be downloaded to support them, but in most cases quality is fine. Real is so-so, WMV is usually disastrous.

 

[Mitthrawnuruodo]

Not even things like news, music videos and movie trailers?

I watch small cuts every now and then, yes, but I wouldn't call that movies...

 

[iMeowbot]

I watch small cuts every now and then, yes, but I wouldn't call that movies...

okay... it's just that the illegal stuff seems to all be distributed as disc images, so it would simply be the standard MPEG stuff DVDs and VCDs use...

 

[Mitthrawnuruodo]

okay... it's just that the illegal stuff seems to all be distributed as disc images, so it would simply be the standard MPEG stuff DVDs and VCDs use...

Oh... so divx encoding is just for home videos...?

 

[iMeowbot]

Oh... so divx encoding is just for home videos...?

My only real exposure to DiVX has been with a company that used it to distribute training content. Is DRM illegal now?

 

[Nermal]

I don't really have a preference for downloads. For streaming, I've had the most luck with Real's format (although now that I have broadband the others aren't so bad). I've ended up with a lot of WMVs, and I watch them using Flip4Mac. I don't have Windows Media Player installed.

 

[Mitthrawnuruodo]

My only real exposure to DiVX has been with a company that used it to distribute training content. Is DRM illegal now?

It should be perfectly clear that I was talking about the video codec DivX, used to rip the DVDs that torrent sites and privately owned ftp-servers around the net are swarming over with, and not DIVX, the much lesser known DRM fiasco for rented DVDs that actually died back in 2001...

 

[iMeowbot]

It should be perfectly clear that I was talking about the video codec DivX, used to rip the DVDs that torrent sites and privately owned ftp-servers around the net are swarming over with, and not DIVX, the much lesser known DRM fiasco for rented DVDs that actually died back in 2001...

Ah, okay. I don't spend time trawling pirate sites for stolen movies, and wasn't aware of what formats people were using with bittorrent. All I've been aware of in that area is Usenet servers disappearing because they have been overwhelmed with traffic from CD and DVD images.

 

[Mac_Freak]

How about .mov encoded using H.264
This is really awsome codec. Nothing comes close.

 

[cleanup]

What's your preference for format when downloading movies on the internet? You can list yours ranked, in preferred order, like I did, or you can simply list your favorite (please share why you like this format the best).
3. Windows Media Video (WMV Player handles all but V3 files perfectly)

Hmm, my WMP plays WMV3 fine. It's the only player I've found that will.