W3Schools

home HOME

Media Basic
Media HOME
Media Intro
Sound Formats
Video Formats
Playing Sounds
Playing Videos
Windows Formats

Object Element
Object Intro
Object QuickTime
Object RealVideo

References
Tag Reference
Media Player Ref
MIME Reference

Selected Reading
Web Statistics
Web Glossary
Web Hosting
Web Quality

W3Schools Forum

Helping W3Schools

Multimedia Video Formats

Previous Next

Video can be stored in many different formats.


The AVI Format

The AVI (Audio Video Interleave) format was developed by Microsoft.

The AVI format is supported by all computers running Windows, and by all the most popular web browsers. It is a very common format on the Internet, but not always possible to play on non-Windows computers.

Videos stored in the AVI format have the extension .avi.


The Windows Media Format

The Windows Media format is developed by Microsoft.

Windows Media is a common format on the Internet, but Windows Media movies cannot be played on non-Windows computer without an extra (free) component installed. Some later Windows Media movies cannot play at all on non-Windows computers because no player is available.

Videos stored in the Windows Media format have the extension .wmv.


The MPEG Format

The MPEG (Moving Pictures Expert Group) format is the most popular format on the Internet. It is cross-platform, and  supported by all the most popular web browsers.

Videos stored in the MPEG format have the extension .mpg or .mpeg.


The QuickTime Format

The QuickTime format is developed by Apple.

QuickTime is a common format on the Internet, but QuickTime movies cannot be played on a Windows computer without an extra (free) component installed.

Videos stored in the QuickTime format have the extension .mov.


The RealVideo Format

The RealVideo format was developed for the Internet by Real Media.

The format allows streaming of video (on-line video, Internet TV) with low bandwidths. Because of the low bandwidth priority, quality is often reduced.

Videos stored in the RealVideo format have the extension .rm or .ram.


The Shockwave (Flash) Format

The Shockwave format was developed by Macromedia.

The Shockwave format requires an extra component to play. This component comes preinstalled with the latest versions of Netscape and Internet Explorer.

Videos stored in the Shockwave format have the extension .swf.


Previous Next


Altova® XMLSpy® - The world's best-selling XML editor!

Whether you're new to XML or already an advanced user, the user-friendly views and powerful entry helpers, wizards, and debuggers in XMLSpy are designed to meet your XML and Web services development needs from start to finish.

  • XML editor
  • Graphical XML Schema / DTD editors
  • XSLT 1.0/2.0 editor, debugger, profiler
  • XQuery editor, debugger, profiler
  • Support for Office Open XML (OOXML)
  • Graphical WSDL editor & SOAP debugger
  • Java, C#, C++ code generation
  • And much more!

Download a free 30-day trial today!

Click to see a demo!

Learn what’s new in v2008




Jump to: Top of Page or HOME or Printer Friendly Printer friendly page

W3Schools provides material for training only. We do not warrant the correctness of its contents. The risk from using it lies entirely with the user. While using this site, you agree to have read and accepted our terms of use and privacy policy.

Copyright 1999-2008 by Refsnes Data. All Rights Reserved.

Validate Validate W3C-WAI level A conformance icon W3Schools was converted to XHTML in December 1999