Avi & mpeg

May i know, between avi & mpeg files which does provide the best quality?

 

It depends.

First of all, .AVI isn't a media file format exactly. It what's known as a "wrapper" file. It combines two types of media files -- the video stream and the audio stream -- into a single file. It also sychronizes the two streams. However, the two components can be encoded with any kind of media codec. The video can be MPEG2, Divx, 3ivx, Xvid, etc. The audio can be mp3, ogg, etc. Most often, .avi files these days are Divx/Xvid and mp3/ogg. You'll also see files with types .ogm and .mkv which are both similar to the .avi file but have a lot more built-in features such as bullt-in support for multiple audio streams and multiple subtitle streams (for multi-language stuff).

Files with the .mpg extention are, most often, MPEG2 files. That's a fairly old standard for media compression, but it combines the video and audio streams together -- no need for an .avi file.

Divx and Xvid are both very popular right now. They're part of a family of codecs that make up the MPEG4 standard. MPEG4 codecs are much more efficient at doing what they do.

So which is better? Well, it's entirely possible for an MPEG2 file to have a better quality than an .avi file. Generally speaking, the larger the media file, the better the quality. As always, the quality of the output is dependand on the quality of the input. Doesn't matter how good a codec you use on that shaky hand cam of Harry Potter... it's gonna look like crap.

My experience, however, is thus:
Best
Divx, Xvid (.avi, .mkv, .ogm, .mp4)
Mpeg2 (mpg, standard svcds and vcds)
Windows movie (.wmv) / Quicktime (.mov)
Windows streaming (.asf)
Real (.rm, .ram)
Worst

I avoid .asf and .rm/.ram files like the plague.

 

Thanks for ur clear explanation.


Regards
deepa