The DVD standard implies recording images with the aspect ratio adopted in television broadcasting, i.e. 3:4, or, in another way, 1.33.

There are several video standards around the world:

PAL- video standard used in Europe and Russia (i.e. ours): video size 720x576, 25 fps (25 frames per second).

NTSC- 720x480, 29.97 fps.

There is also a standard SECAM, which concerns television broadcasting.

VHS- analog video is a recording format on your video tapes.

DV (Digital Video) is a video format jointly developed by the world's leading video production companies for digital recording. This format has a low video compression ratio (5:1) and provides high quality video recording. MiniDV cameras shoot video in this format.

D.V. the format is characterized by a large video stream and, accordingly, has a large output video file. An hour-long recording on a MiniDV cassette will have a volume of approximately 12 GB, or 1 minute - 200 MB.

The resulting video must be compressed for later viewing on a computer, projector, DVD player, or on the Internet. Those. From the resulting high-quality video we can obtain any format we need of appropriate quality.

Attention! Not to be confused with DVD (Digital Video Disc) - this is a disk with digital information, what we call a DVD in life.

Compression standards:

MPEG- one of the main compression standards. The abbreviation MPEG (Moving Pictures Expert Group) is the name of the international committee involved in the development of this compression standard. Its varieties:

MPEG-1- compression format for compact discs (CD-ROM). The video quality is the same as that of a regular VCR, resolution 352x240; a disc with a film in this format is usually designated VCD (VideoCD).

MPEG-2- format for DVDs, digital television. DVD, HDD, and Flash cameras shoot video in this format.

MPEG-3- not currently used. Do not confuse it with MP3 (MPEG Audio Layer 3) - audio compression technology!

MPEG-4 is a format obtained using the well-known codecs DivX, XviD, H.264, etc. It is often simply called MP4. It reduces the video stream even more than MPEG-2, but the picture is still of decent quality, so this format is supported by most modern DVD players. Of particular note is the high quality of video compressed with the latest generation H.264 codec.

HD (High Definition)- high-resolution format, a new format of special image clarity. It has two varieties: HD1 with a resolution of 1280x720 and HD2 - 1440x1080.

Video formats:

AVI (Audio-Video Interleaved) is an extension for a huge number of video files, but is not a format or codec. This is a container developed by Microsoft that can store 4 types of streams - video, audio, text and midi. This container can contain video of any format from mpeg1 to mpeg-4, sounds of different formats, and any combination of codecs is possible. To determine the contents of this container, you need to use one of the many programs from the powerful Adobe Premiere to the simple VideoToolBox.

WMV (Windows Media Video)- this is a format from Microsoft, and it is in this format that you will receive a video made using Movie Maker.

MOV- Apple Macintosh QuickTime format, can also contain graphics, animation, and 3D in addition to video. Most often, QuickTime Player is needed to play this format.

MKV- (Matryoshka or Matroska) is also a container that can contain video, audio, subtitles, menus, etc. It is open source, not very widespread yet, but very promising.

3gp- videos for third generation mobile phones are small in size and low quality.

Let's look at the video formats that are used on the Internet:

FLV(Flash Video) is a video format for posting and transmitting on the Internet, used by such platforms for posting video clips as YouTube, RuTube, Tube.BY, Google Video, Movie and many others.

SWF(Shockwave Flash) is an extension of animation created in the Adobe Flash program, as well as video in Flash format, played by browsers using Flash Player. Flash movies are also widely distributed on the Internet.

This means that the FLV extension is a flash video, and the SWF extension is a flash movie.

RM, RA, RAM- extensions of the RealVideo format from RealNetworks, which is used for television broadcasting on the Internet. It has a small file size and low quality, but allows you to watch, for example, a TV news release on the website of a certain television company.

Let's look at the main extensions that relate to DVDs:

VOB (Versioned Object Base) is a container extension that can contain multiple video (MPEG-2 format) and audio streams, as well as movie menus and subtitles. These are the main files on a movie DVD.

IFO- files on a DVD disc containing information about the film, menu, order of launching VOB files, necessary, for example, for a DVD player, i.e. service files. Created during the conversion or authoring process, i.e. burning a DVD.

m2v, m2p- video extensions in MPEG-2 format. I won’t go into depth, I’ll just say that such a video is needed for authoring, i.e. creating VOB files and burning DVDs. I'll talk about authoring elsewhere.

DVD video.

Physically, the DVD format is similar to a CD, with the difference that a laser beam with a shorter wavelength is used to work with DVD discs. Due to this, a high recording density is achieved. Also, there are DVDs with an additional data storage layer, which doubles the amount of data stored on one side. A single-layer DVD disc can record up to 4.7 GB per side, and a double-layer DVD can record up to 8.5 GB.

There are several types of DVD media. DVD Forum initially defined three types: DVD-R, DVD-RW, and DVD-RAM. DVD-RAM is a physically rewritable format, but it is not compatible with the standard DVD Video format.

We are often asked questions about the differences between the formats video clips, what they are, etc. To answer these and other questions, we present to your attention this article.

Majority video clips from our catalog in formats: SVCD (.m2v), VCD (.mpg, .mpeg) and AVI. Let's briefly describe what each of them is.
Video format name VCD stands for Video Compact Disc. This format allows you to fit up to 72-79 minutes of full-length video along with stereo sound on a 650 or 700 MB CD. For video storage and recording VCD uses a compression standard MPEG-1. Discs recorded in this format can be played on all desktop DVD players, as well as DVD-ROM or CD-ROM drives. .
Format name SVCD stands for Super Video CD. When encoding, a codec is used MPEG-2, which, by the way, is used to create DVD videos. Compared with VCD, SVCD provides better image quality, but the files of this standard are larger. Super Video CD allows you to record about 35-60 minutes of high-quality video on a standard 650 or 700 MB compact disc with two stereo audio tracks and four types of subtitles. .
Another format you can convert to video clips, - AVI. It determines how the audio and video tracks are stored in the file, but not how they are encoded. Therefore, different codecs can be used for compression. The most popular codecs for compressing files in the format AVI- This M-JPEG And DivX.

Compression algorithms

The need for video compression arose simultaneously with the advent of digital video as such - in uncompressed form, a two-hour film can take up to 100 GB or more. A large number of compression algorithms have been invented, including MPEG-2, which is used today to burn DVDs. Format MPEG-2, originally developed for digital television broadcasting, allows you to remove up to 97% of redundant information and at the same time guarantees an image whose quality is almost identical to uncompressed video.
The emergence of the format DivX preceded MPEG-4, which was specifically designed for transmitting data over the Internet and mobile networks. The main difference MPEG-4 compared to the compression formats existing at that time, there was a greater degree of compression (compressed MPEG-4 video that is in MPEG-2 took up more than four gigabytes, could fit on a regular disc). At the same time, the quality of the resulting image remained high.
MPEG-4 served as an impetus for the development of the codec Windows Media Video V3, which, in turn, became the basis for the creation DivX. The latter had better characteristics and therefore quickly gained popularity. Today it is one of the best video compression formats.

If you have installed on your computer antivirus program Can scan all files on your computer, as well as each file individually. You can scan any file by right-clicking on the file and selecting the appropriate option to scan the file for viruses.

For example, in this figure it is highlighted file my-file.m2v, then you need to right-click on this file and select the option in the file menu "scan with AVG". When you select this option, AVG Antivirus will open and scan the file for viruses.

Sometimes an error may occur as a result incorrect software installation, which may be due to a problem encountered during the installation process. This may interfere with your operating system link your M2V file to the correct software application, influencing the so-called "file extension associations".

Sometimes simple reinstalling CyberLink PowerDVD can solve your problem by properly linking M2V with CyberLink PowerDVD. In other cases, problems with file associations may result from bad software programming developer and you may need to contact the developer for further assistance.

Advice: Try updating CyberLink PowerDVD to the latest version to ensure you have the latest patches and updates.

This may seem too obvious, but often The M2V file itself may be causing the problem. If you received a file via an email attachment or downloaded it from a website and the download process was interrupted (such as a power outage or other reason), the file may become damaged. If possible, try getting a new copy of the M2V file and try opening it again.

Carefully: A damaged file can cause collateral damage to previous or existing malware on your PC, so it is important to keep your computer up-to-date with an up-to-date antivirus.

If your file is M2V related to the hardware on your computer to open the file you may need update device drivers associated with this equipment.

This problem usually associated with media file types, which depend on successfully opening the hardware inside the computer, e.g. sound card or video card. For example, if you are trying to open an audio file but cannot open it, you may need to update sound card drivers.

Advice: If when you try to open an M2V file you receive .SYS file error message, the problem could probably be associated with corrupted or outdated device drivers that need to be updated. This process can be made easier by using driver update software such as DriverDoc.

If the steps do not solve the problem and you are still having problems opening M2V files, this may be due to lack of available system resources. Some versions of M2V files may require a significant amount of resources (e.g. memory/RAM, processing power) to properly open on your computer. This problem is quite common if you are using fairly old computer hardware and at the same time a much newer operating system.

This problem can occur when the computer is having trouble keeping up with a task because the operating system (and other services running in the background) may consume too many resources to open M2V file. Try closing all applications on your PC before opening MPEG-2 Packetized Elementary Stream. Freeing up all available resources on your computer will provide the best conditions for attempting to open the M2V file.

If you completed all the steps described above and your M2V file still won't open, you may need to run equipment update. In most cases, even when using older versions of hardware, the processing power can still be more than sufficient for most user applications (unless you're doing a lot of CPU-intensive work, such as 3D rendering, financial/scientific modeling, or intensive multimedia work) . Thus, it is likely that your computer does not have enough memory(commonly called "RAM" or random access memory) to perform the task of opening a file.

First of all, let's decide on video standards. They must be taken into account when creating a video film or video.

PAL is a video standard for analogue color television, used in Europe and Russia: video size 720x576, 25 fps (25 frames per second).

NTSC is an analogue color television standard developed in the USA, resolution 720x480, 29.97 fps.

There is also the SECAM standard, developed in France.

At the time of writing this article (2010), this was very relevant, but now analog television is being actively replaced by digital television and will soon be completely replaced.

VHS- analog video is a format recorded on video cassettes that were watched (or still watched) on VCRs.

DV (Digital Video) is a video format developed jointly by the world's leading video production companies for digital records. This format has a low video compression ratio (5:1) and provides high quality video recording. MiniDV cameras shoot video in this format.

The DV format is characterized by a large video stream and, accordingly, has a large output video file. An hour-long recording on a MiniDV cassette will have a volume of approximately 12-13 GB, or 1 minute - 200 MB.

The resulting video must be compressed for later viewing on a computer, projector, DVD player, or on the Internet. Those. From the resulting high-quality video we can obtain any format we need of appropriate quality.

Attention! Not to be confused with DVD (Digital Video Disc) - this is disk with digital information, what we call a DVD in life.

AVCHD - high definition video format, stands for: Advanced Video Coding- advanced video encoding, HD- High Definition - high definition. This is the most modern format used in HD cameras.

Compression standards

MPEG is one of the main compression standards. The abbreviation MPEG (Moving Pictures Expert Group) is the name of the international committee involved in the development of this compression standard. Its varieties:

MPEG-1 is a compression format for compact discs (CD-ROM). The video quality is the same as that of a regular VCR, resolution 352x240; a disc with a film in this format is usually designated VCD (VideoCD). Now rarely used.

MPEG-2 - format for DVDs, digital television. DVD, HDD, and Flash cameras shoot video in this format.

MPEG-3 - not currently used. Let's not confuse it with MP3(MPEG Audio Layer 3) - audio compression technology!

MPEG-4 is a format obtained using the well-known codecs DivX, XviD, H.264, etc. It is often simply called MP4. Reduces the video stream even more than MPEG-2, but the picture is of decent quality, so this format is supported by most modern DVD players. Of particular note is the high quality of video compressed with the latest generation codec H.264.

HD (High Definition) - high resolution format, a new format of special image clarity. Currently, two varieties are used: with a resolution of 1280x720 and 1920x1080, both designed for a frame with an aspect ratio of 16:9 and a square pixel.

There is also a so-called anamorphic version of HD video with a resolution of 1440x1080 and an aspect ratio of 16:9, which is explained by the rectangular pixel (aspect ratio 1.33).

Recently, most consumer cameras record in HD format, based on the MPEG-2 codec. The video quality is high, but to watch HD video, you need to have the appropriate viewing equipment (such as an LCD or large screen plasma TV), otherwise you will not be able to appreciate the video quality ( viewing and editing HD video).

Video file extensions

AVI (Audio-Video Interleaved) is an extension to a huge number of video files, but is not a format or codec. This container, developed by Microsoft, which can store 4 types of streams - video, audio, text and midi.

This container can contain video of any format from mpeg1 to mpeg-4, sounds of different formats, and any combination of codecs is possible.

To determine the contents of this container, you need to use one of the many programs from the powerful Adobe Premiere to the simple VideoToolBox ( what is hidden in the AVI file).

WMV (Windows Media Video) is a format from Microsoft, in which you will receive a video made using the simple video editor Movie Maker, which is included in the Windows system.

MOV is a format from Apple Macintosh - QuickTime, which in addition to video can also contain graphics, animation, and 3D. Most often, QuickTime Player is needed to play this format.

MKV - (Matryoshka or Matroska) is also a container that can contain video, audio, subtitles, menus, etc. It is open source, and has become more and more common lately.

3gp - videos for third generation mobile phones, are small in size and low quality.

Video formats for the Internet:

FLV (Flash Video) is a video format for posting and transmitting on the Internet. Used by such platforms for posting video clips as YouTube, RuTube, Tube.BY, Google Video, Movie and many others.

SWF (Shockwave Flash) is an extension of animation created in Adobe Flash, as well as video in flash format. Played by browsers using Flash Player. Flash movies are also widely distributed on the Internet.

RM, RA, RAM - extensions of the RealVideo format from RealNetworks, which is used for television broadcasting on the Internet. It has a small file size and low quality, but allows you to watch, for example, a TV news release on the website of a certain television company.

DVD extensions

VOB (Versioned Object Base) is a container extension that can contain multiple video (MPEG-2 format) and audio streams, as well as movie menus and subtitles. These are the main files on a movie DVD.

IFO - files on a DVD disc containing information about the film, menu, order of launching VOB files, necessary, for example, for a DVD player, i.e. service files. Created during the conversion or authoring process, i.e. burning a DVD.

m2v, m2p - video extensions in MPEG-2 format. I won’t go into depth, I’ll just say that such a video is needed for authoring, i.e. creating VOB files and burning DVDs. I'll talk about authoring elsewhere.

In this article, I have listed, of course, not all existing formats, but only those that are often encountered.

When creating a video or video, you must clearly understand what video format you have and what you need in the output.