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ASPECT RATIOS
SD, or standard definition, is generally a 4:3 aspect ratio - like your old TV. HD, or high definition, is generally a 16:9 aspect ratio - sometimes called widescreen. The figure below compares SD and HD dimensions:
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VIDEO FILE FORMATS
We can accept any format should you desire to send us footage you've shot yourself. The preferred formats are DV and HDV which are what you would be shooting if you are using a digital videocamera that records to miniDV tapes. The information presented here will hopefully provide you with a broader understanding of the various file types commonly used so that you are familiar with them when confronted with a format decision.
AVI stands for Audio Video Interleave. Files of this format have the .avi extension. Developed by Microsoft in 1992, it has become so wide-spread that many people consider it the de facto standard for storing video and audio information on a PC. AVI combines audio and video into a single file in a standard container to allow simultaneous playback. One advantage of the simple architecture of this format is that it runs on a number of different systems like Windows, Mac, Linux, Unix and is supported by all most popular web-browsers. This is the container format for the original digital video file format (DV) that miniDV video cameras still record in today. It features excellent video quality as there is very little compression but the file sizes are huge (about 13 gb/hr.). This file format is very good for editing on PC-based systems.
MPEG is not actually a format but short for Moving Picture Experts Group, a working group of industry experts that develop video and audio encoding standards. But in most cases MPEG is taken for the name of the standard formats introduced by that group.
There are several MPEG formats, all standardized.
Flash format is a popular format that often appears on the web or in a standalone flash player. Compared to other video formats, the flash format is small, fast and ideal for web streaming purposes. SWF (Shockwave) files are completed, compiled and published files that cannot be edited. FLV files are Flash video files (created in Adobe Flash) that can be edited and modified.
MOV is a file extension used by the QuickTime-wrapped files. The format was created by Apple Computer to work with multimedia files. Though MOV files are quite often found in the web, to play them on a Windows computer, one must first install a quicktime player or covert to another format. The Quicktime player is available as a free download from Apple. MOV is a container format that can contain video, animation, graphics, 3D and virtual reality (VR) content or text.
WMV is short for Windows Media Video. This video format was developed by Microsoft upon a non-standard version of MPEG-4. The video stream is often combined with an audio stream of Windows Media Audio (.wma). WMV deals with all types of video content. The advantage of the format it that it allows for the compression of large video files while retaining considerably high quality. On-line radio stations use this format to deliver a continuous flow of data.
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GRAPHIC FILE FORMATS
Because there are so many different file types we will limit our guidance here to the type of files that work best for us in producing your video. We usually will want to create a transparent background (or alpha channel) for your logo so the graphic file that we ultimately use will be a .gif or a .png that we create in Photoshop from the file you send us. It is obviously best to send us a file with the highest resolution possible so that your image will be smooth and non-pixelated in your video. To read more on graphic file formats and usages, please visit: |
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