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Video Formats for non-Windows Users?

Posted by Cliff on from the multi-platform-media dept.

ccdotnet asks: "I look after a small web site for a rising sports star. We have a small number of short videos in .WMV (9) format available for download. These .WMV files are typically 3-5 MB in size (we do a "low res" and a "hi res" version). Each video is typically 1-2 minutes and 320x240. The site gets maybe 100 visitors per day. Our outbound hosting bandwidth is _very_ limited, so although we are keen to cater for non-Windows users (around 7% of our visitors), I've struggled to find a suitable video format which doesn't blow the size of the file right out. Ideally I would like to keep these files at a similar size but at the same time want to maintain a reasonable video quality. Are users of other platforms just out of luck? What non-Windows/Mac video formats can people recommend so that I can deliver this content to people who can't play .WMV for one reason or another?" A few years ago, playing .WMV files might have been problematic for users who didn't use either a Macintosh or a Windows-based operating system. Now, with MPlayer and its derivatives making strides, it's not as much of an issue. Of course, there are still .WMV files that don't play well in Mplayer, but what suggestions would you have for creating Mplayer-safe .WMVs as well as other, more cross-platform friendly formats?

4 of 749 comments (clear)

  1. Quicktime is cross-platform by bigtallmofo · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Quicktime might be the best compromise. It's cross-platform, has reasonable file sizes, reasonable quality, etc.

    --
    I'm a big tall mofo.
    1. Re:Quicktime is cross-platform by Prof.Phreak · · Score: 3, Interesting

      ...But... what if I'm running Linux on a non-x86 computer????? What then?

      Xvid works just fine---none of the binary codes work. I can't even get Acrobat Reader.

      Now, open source on the other hand, works just fine. Just download, recompile, and it's all up and running.

      --

      "If anything can go wrong, it will." - Murphy

  2. For bandwidth management... by PincheGab · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Why don't you try what others have done: Istead of a straight download, provide a BitTorrent seed? There was a recent story about this on ./ IIRC...

  3. Re:Xvid by biryokumaru · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I work with a small web-based company which distributes media files in audio and video formats, and we've decided to go with ogm (xvid video, ogg audio) video files and ogg audio for our audio/video content that doesn't require extremely high quality. If you're presently using WMV, quality is clearly not a concern.

    --
    When you're afraid to download music illegally in your own home, then the terrorists have won!