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Video File Types

When you film footage for your video, you need to get that footage over to your computer.  It is wise for you to understand the different file types that are used en route along the way, from filming to what goes on your website.

If you record directly from a camcorder to an external hard drive, typically files are taken in as an uncompressed .avi file.  These files are quite large, about 13.5 gigabytes per hour of recording. 

Filming Seminars
When I film seminars and don’t have to move around anywhere, here’s how I do it.  I attach the camera to a laptop via the Firewire port on the computer.  I open the Vegas capture screen and get a picture of what I’m filming.  I tell the computer where to drop the files.  I then have an external Western Digital Hard Drive, either 500 gigabytes or 1 Terabyte attached to the computer and have my video go into that.  I then have the ability to send up to 35 hours or approximately 4 days worth of videos (figuring 8+ hours a day) into the hard drive.  But don’t forget, you may need to edit that footage and create finished files and DVD’s and so for a 4 day conference, I would go with the 1 terabyte drive. (Get specific instructions on this application at our HardDrive capture page).

Now there are also camcorders with built in hard drives that also usually create .avi files, but these are actually compressed .avi files or mpeg-4 files. You will also find some that give you .mpg-2 files.  Also compressed but great quality.  So you will probably be able to get more time out of a gigabyte.  Most of these cameras also have the ability to change the quality via the compression rate. You simply change a setting on your menu.  Thus the higher the compression, the more time of filming per gigabyte used.  But of course the higher the compression rate, the lower the quality of your video.  Consult your camcorder’s manual for actual recording time under different settings.

A new popular HD format for recording is AVCHD™ format.  Although the file that is created is compressed and not broadcast quality HD, the quality is excellent for coming out of a consumer camcorder.

What type of file should I render my final video to?
There are a few things to consider when rendering your video project.  Are you making a DVD or a web file?

DVD's - When creating a DVD you should always render to an MPEG 2 file or a .mpg.  Make sure it's not an MPEG 1 or you will get a websized file of lower quality

Web files - Do you have a webmaster? Ask them what type of file they want and render it according to their specs.  If you don't have someone who can help you put your video on the web then you need to find out from your web hosting service what type of web video files you can easily upload.

Youtube File Types for Uploading Videos - Youtube and many of the major video uploading sites can host your video for you.  See our article on Youtube embedding for more info on how to do this.  If you use a site like YouTube to host your video, then you need to render your video to a .wmv file (Windows Media Video) at high quality or 3 Mbps, or any of the file types listed below.

YouTube will accept the following file types:

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