Opinion please: Does anyone still care for WMV files?
 

i am wondering - should i replace the WMV content in our shop with MP4 or should i add it additionally?

Adding it would need another 1.5 TB in storage...

IMO you should at least have wmv so customers can convert to all the various resolutions etc. that they may need. I wouldn't replace it.

Review sites bitch if our member areas don't have them yet customers never download them.

MP4 / H.264 <<

So it is written, so it shall be done. I agree with this. I hate how review sites bitch about stuff that is not even what the members care about.

I rarely see mp4 videos match wmv quality and I have always preferred wmv.

wmv sucks. I prefer h.264

h.264 rocks. we get better resolution with smaller files.

Members of paysites aren't all tech junkies. WMV is best.

Offer a large Mpeg or AVI as an option that customers can DL and convert to what ever they require.

Wmv is a package holding mp4 inside. Comparing the two is like comparing GFY to this message board.

More info:

Videos have three levels. First, a container file which can hold several videos, audio streams, pics, links, etc. That's what wmv is - a box that you put videos and pictures in.

Within the package, you have a video stream and an audio stream. Mp4 is a type of video stream which can be put into a wmv box, a mov box, or other types of boxes. It's normally put in a box which also contains mp3 audio.

In order to create a video stream such as a mp4 stream, you need an encoder. To decide it, you need a decoder. Since it's good gor the encoder and decoder and decoder to match, they come as a coder/decoder, or codec for short.

To review -
An wmv file is a container or box with an mp4 or other video inside. The wmv container can also hold jpegs, mp3s, and other things because it's just a box. Flv and mov are two other types of boxes to put video and stuff in.

Mp4 is the actual video, which may be put in a wmv box.

codecs create mp4 and other videos.
A good codec can make a quality video.
Flash, Apple, and Microsoft all encourage you to put mp4 in their respective container formats, though of course Microsoft first tried switching the left to the right and turning things upside down to create compatibilty problems and therefore vendor lock in.

The container formats (wmv, flv, mov) have no effect on the quality of the video you put in them.

Note - a mp4 video that's not in a box, but is just quickly wrapped in a thin sheet of paper, is often called a .mp4 file.

mp4 is a container just like wmv, flv, mov, 3gp etc. etc. etc. It just so happens that it was defined as part of mpeg-4 but it's still just a container that can contain video/audio streams of different formats.

We offer both WMV and MP4 in our shop and WMV gets selected way more.

we need some new format, something creepy like .xxxvid :)

me thinks you are confusing avi and wmv

wmv existed way before h264

and when i say mp4, i mean encoded with h264 - opposed to windows media codec

and they are definitely not the same, h264 has a better quality at the same bitrate (or the same quality at a lower bitrate)

Upgrade storage and offer them both. Another 2tb drive is worth it

I never liked .wmv. I always considered it the format of choice for windows movie maker n00bs :)

mkv ftw :)

done that last night, switched my 2tb storage to 4tb and have another 2tb internal - so now 6tb in total. :)

big thanks to Techiemedia for helping us grow :thumbsup

+1 for mp4. More devices supports it

Shows how much you know retard, they're both containers.

agreed! :thumbsup

Content store video is a different question then members section content.

done :thumbsup

in some cases yes, sometimes no. Ideally you don't have to encode anything or only smaller versions.
when you buy non-exclusive content, the quality of the files should be still good enough to watermark and re-encode them. imho

I mispoke. Asf is a container, as is flv, but wmv is a family of video formats.

I should also have used the correct term mpeg-4 rather than mp4 to distinguish the video format from the (very thin) ".mp4" file format.

Surfers don't know the difference or care... All they do care about is if it will play on their computer.

`most of our users use our streaming options but recently we noticed that at least 15% used the WMV formats. I think there are still some people out there using them.