6 YouTube Video Formats Explained

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The easy answer to the question, “just how many video formats are there, anyway”, is a glib: “Probably more than either of us realize!” 

However, that’s not exactly helpful to those new to video marketing and video making, so here are 5 YouTube compatible formats – with some clues to the differences between them…

.WMV

“WMV” stands for “Windows Media Format”, and is Microsoft’s standard video file format. It is highly versatile, with its main advantage lying in its video compression abilities, which allows it to function at varying bandwidths. If you use Windows Movie Maker, you can easily output your files as WMV files. (Notice, however, that among all the file types that YouTube accepts, the standard Windows Movie Maker .MSWMM file format is not one of those “on the list”).

.MOV

The MAC version of .WMV. Works best with QuickTime, if you’re going to download and play. You’ll find many .MOV files on YouTube.

MPEG 4 (MP4)

The advantages of the .MP4 file format lies in the way it discards any non-essential information, reducing file size to the minimum.

MP4 format is most often used with PSP’s and iPods.

.3GP

Yes, Virginia – you can upload this popular mobile phone format! But be aware that you can lose quality when transferring .3GP files to YouTube.

.FLV

Adobe Flash format. Flash movies work well on YouTube – but to play .FLV files, you’ll need a Flash Player such as Adobe or Applian installed on your computer. (Run your spyware program after downloading the latest Adobe Flash Player. The last two times I’ve upgraded, I’ve immediately been hit by an Adobe spyware program, according to my anti-virus.)

.MKV

Written in open-format Extensible Binary Meta Language, Matroska is quick to point out it is XML-based, and not a video compression codec. Free to use, it aims to become “the open source alternative to existing containers such as AVI, ASF, MOV, RM, MP4, MPG”.

You will need to be familiar with all these types of video file extensions, in order to make the most of your video marketing – but mercifully, of course, you don’t need to know how to use them all.

Just knowing what they are can make a difference to how you choose your hardware and software.

Bruno