Posted by cwdjrxyz on 04/08/07 07:48

On Apr 8, 1:21 am, James Hutton <james.hut...@dsl.NOSPAM.pipex.com>
wrote:
> I'm building a day by day history page, and I've managed to get hold of
> several audio and video clips from the time. (I've already sought
> permission from the copyright holders to host them.) Some of these are a
> simple <embed> of youtube videos, however there are also several
> multi-mB .mp3 files and video files currently in .mpg and .wmv formats.
>
> I wonder what the "best" format is, and whether media should be
> streamed, downloaded into a standalone player, or should I be all
> dictatorial and not give the user any choice ;-) !
>
> I realise there will be no right or wrong answer, but I'd like to please
> "most of the people, most of the time."
>
> James

If you include only one format for video, then use the modern flv/swf
method. The reason is that more computers will play flash than any
other format. You can now use anything from very low to very high
resolution depending on the quality of the source video and the
intended audience. Moreover, you do not need a full set of swf
software, which is rather expensive. I use a program that costs about
US$50. to convert from most usual video formats to the flv(flash
video) and swf(small swf container file for the flv ). The flv/swf
method is now being widely used by major video sites including Google,
YouTube, MySpace, and major news sites because of the mentioned
advantage. It also is possible to use this method for a audio only
file. Of course nearly everyone also can play mp3 audio. If you go
this route, you can gain much better quality at low bit rate if you
use the relatively new professional mp3 encoder. It does not require
any special software to play back and works on all mp3 players of
which I am aware.

There are plenty of other video formats you can use. See examples of
15 formats at my page at http://www.cwdjr.info/video_extreme/VideoZoo.php
.. These videos are designed for very high quality in most cases and
require a good broadband connection to stream without undue buffering
time, but of course most of them can be encoded at much lower bit rate
with loss of resolution.

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