Camera .MOV to .mp4 or .AVI _ Your Considerations?

I do not edit longer videos often.

Recorded with tripod 28 minutes of 1080p x 720 60fps with a camera output file of .MOV

Camera output video file size 1.2 GB

Used a video analysis application that offered only these 3  video file saving options:

1) Matroska (not used)

2) .mp4 (used)  - this file took 20-30 minutes to convert and save. ?  (Computer speed OK.) It was considerably larger than the original video file.

3) .AVI (used)

When you look at the 3 choices for saving the video file and consider the .MOV original file from the camera, what saving option would you choose and why?

How do you consider Youtube for your decision?

In other words, basically I just pick a familiar file option for saving and have few other considerations.  What do you think about when selecting the video file type?

Chas Tennis

I always render to.mov and upload that. YouTube has no problems with .mov.As for Mp4, AVCHD, and Quicktime, they are just containers. It's the codec inside which is important. In any of these h264 is the same.

Chas Tennis wrote:

I do not edit longer videos often.

Recorded with tripod 28 minutes of 1080p x 720 60fps with a camera output file of .MOV

Camera output video file size 1.2 GB

Used a video analysis application that offered only these 3 video file saving options:

1) Matroska (not used)

2) .mp4 (used) - this file took 20-30 minutes to convert and save. ? (Computer speed OK.) It was considerably larger than the original video file.

3) .AVI (used)

When you look at the 3 choices for saving the video file and consider the .MOV original file from the camera, what saving option would you choose and why?

How do you consider Youtube for your decision?

In other words, basically I just pick a familiar file option for saving and have few other considerations. What do you think about when selecting the video file type?

Chas Tennis

There are two main parts to a video file: the containter and the codec.  The container is less important that the codec in terms of video quality, but does have an impact of file size.

.mov, .mp4 and .avi are all containers.  A container can impose some limitations on what type of data is in it, for example, the format of the audio and number of channels.  It's important to understand what the containers do for you.  The .mov container is associated with Apple Quicktime.  The mp4 container is an international, cross-platform standard, and the .avi container is a Microsoft development.

Within any container is video, which is usually compressed with a codec like H.264 (the most popular), common inside the mp4 container, but there are others.  The avi/Microsoft container favors the DIVX codec.  During video encoding and compression the codec is set for several parameters.  Common ones are average bitrate, maximum bitrate, fixed vs variable bitrate, etc.  Codecs may have other limitations, like what types and numbers of audio tracks it handles.  Audio is also run through its own codec, like AAC, which also has compression parameters.  You may never see any of this if your camera doesn't provide options, but some do.

You can also make files with uncompressed video and audio in common containers, which results in no quality hit at all.  Confused yet?

Generally, mp4 is more universal than avi or mov, and avi can end up with bigger files for a given quality.  But the real key to quality is the degree of compression, which directly changes the end bitrate.  Higher is better, lower gets you smaller files.

If the conversion between containers results in a file size change, that's your clue that something else is also going on.  There's been a change in bitrate or codec or audio, or all three.  Good software will expose at least the key parameters for you to adjust before exporting your file.  Limited, or dumbed down software may pick it all for you and hide the tweaks.  In that case you might want to export to the largest file size, then convert with another application that lets you carefully choose your codec and settings.

I learned recently that youtube only supports H265 with Main10 for 10 bit video (a must for HDR).

sludge21017 wrote:

I learned recently that youtube only supports H265 with Main10 for 10 bit video (a must for HDR).

I couldn’t verify the above.

See this link:

https://support.google.com/youtube/answer/7126552?hl=en#zippy=%2Cupload-requirements

I just did a test.

File out of camera- 8 minute of tennis match video from Aiptek Action camcorder.

.MOV 1080p x 720 60 fps 346 MB

__________________________________________________

Viewed video on Kinovea video analysis application and made no changes that should required much additional storage.

1) Save as .AVI on Kinovea.

Saving took 7 minutes. (Windows 10, faster laptop)

Video file size: .AVI - 7.31 GB (for a 346 MB input video! ?)

2) Save as .mpt4

Saving took 7 minutes.

Video file size: .MP4 7.31 GB

It is clear that for my purpose of recording a tennis doubles match, ~ 1.5 hours - and then distributing video files to the other 3 players using their small SD cards is not workable, because of the .MOV to .AVI or .MP4 conversion on Kinovea.

I would want the other players to view on Kinovea (free, open source) because it has many capabilities. For example, Kinovea has a count down millisecond time scale, "0 milliseconds" can be set to ball impact! Some of these player may eventually become interested in stroke analysis.

First thoughts for options:

1) View on Kinovea - but no video file saving conversions - distribute match original recordings to other players on small SD cards.

2) Get another camera that outputs .AVI. It must be low cost and have a fast shutter that limits motion blur as the AiptekAction was designed to do. (I would expect the fast shutter speed to be very hard to find for low cost.)

(My use of Dropbox has been very minimal, once or twice a year, usually receiving files.)

Chas Tennis

I would want the other players to view on Kinovea (free, open source) because it has many capabilities. For example, Kinovea has a count down millisecond time scale, "0 milliseconds" can be set to ball impact! Some of these player may eventually become interested in stroke analysis.

First thoughts for options:

1) View on Kinovea - but no video file saving conversions - distribute match original recordings to other players on small SD cards.

2) Get another camera that outputs .AVI. It must be low cost and have a fast shutter that limits motion blur as the AiptekAction was designed to do. (I would expect the fast shutter speed to be very hard to find for low cost.)

(My use of Dropbox has been very minimal, once or twice a year, usually receiving files.)

Chas Tennis

VLC will play the original.mov file, as will Quicktime.

low_iso wrote:

I would want the other players to view on Kinovea (free, open source) because it has many capabilities. For example, Kinovea has a count down millisecond time scale, "0 milliseconds" can be set to ball impact! Some of these player may eventually become interested in stroke analysis.

First thoughts for options:

1) View on Kinovea - but no video file saving conversions - distribute match original recordings to other players on small SD cards.

2) Get another camera that outputs .AVI. It must be low cost and have a fast shutter that limits motion blur as the AiptekAction was designed to do. (I would expect the fast shutter speed to be very hard to find for low cost.)

(My use of Dropbox has been very minimal, once or twice a year, usually receiving files.)

Chas Tennis

VLC will play the original.mov file, as will Quicktime.

About 10 years ago there was a security issue for Quicktime for Windows PCs. Apple suddenly stopped supporting it for Windows PCs and I stopped using it. Has that changed?

Kinovea will still view the .MOV video with single frame and allow some of its capabilities to help in viewing. I'd like to get the players to try Kinovea. (free, open source)  Viewing is OK but saving video analysis as an .AVI is not workable.

For years I've been interested in tennis strokes. My Casio Ex FH100 outputs .AVI files. I never even noticed saving .AVI files increased the video file sizes of my short videos of single tennis strokes. Often only 1-3 seconds was recorded. I'm impressed with what Kinovea can do.

Video pauses on selected frame, shows text identifying one sub-motion that's happening. Go full screen. You can use the countdown timer and single frame through all sub-motions and do your own time line for the many motions seen in this serve. To single frame on Youtube, stop video and use the period & comma. The 4 second pauses last too many frames to single frame through, play through them, stop and single frame through all motion. Look for internal shoulder rotation.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IcVv6WdgzPU

Chas Tennis

low_iso wrote:

sludge21017 wrote:

I learned recently that youtube only supports H265 with Main10 for 10 bit video (a must for HDR).

I couldn’t verify the above.

See this link:

https://support.google.com/youtube/answer/7126552?hl=en#zippy=%2Cupload-requirements

Good point.

From that page:  Color depth10 bits or 12 bits

My sticking point was Davinci Resolve editing - there is no 10 bit export option in H264.

I had HDR playing back on my laptop, but the H264 would never convert on Youtube. (Windows Media Player wouldn't playback HDR, but VLC would (or vice-versa - its been a while)).

This approach seems risky for virus spread.

When considering computer security issues, handing numerous SD cards from a number of computers, does not seem like a good idea.

Sorry for the false start.

Chas Tennis

.AVI files are large and that may account for the large increase in video file sizes when I work on a .MOV file and save it as a .AVI file in Kinovea. ?

See discussion of large .AVI video file sizes.

https://www.winxdvd.com/resource/reduce-compress-avi-file-size-on-windows-pc.htm

Chas Tennis