Video Formats

The most widely usable video format is the AVI file, as this is supported by both Microsof Windows and MacOS, through the use of Microsoft's Video for Windows and Apple's Quicktime software respectively. The are a number of shareware and commercial programs which allow the creation of AVI format videos, either by creating them from a series of standard picture files or by recording the input from either a TV card or a digital video camera. These AVI files can then be greately compressed to an MPEG file, or the new MPEG2 format. Depending on the audience for your site, you may decide to use an AVI file so that more people can see it, although it would have to have a small frame and be short so that people do not have to wait too long for it to download, or you could decide to use an MPEG file. This would enable the video to be larger and longer without making the file much bigger. However, this would limit the users of your site to those with MPEG boards.