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Thread: What's the difference between mp4 and avi?

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    Junior Member pandandesign's Avatar
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    Default What's the difference between mp4 and avi?

    Ok, guys, I'm going to convert my DVD to either the mp4 format or the avi format. I don't really know much of the difference because I assume that mp4 takes less memory space and avi is a larger file. I want to know what's the difference between mp4 and avi format? Which format should I convert the DVD to?



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    Member kaygill's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by pandandesign View Post
    Ok, guys, I'm going to convert my DVD to either the mp4 format or the avi format. I don't really know much of the difference because I assume that mp4 takes less memory space and avi is a larger file. I want to know what's the difference between mp4 and avi format? Which format should I convert the DVD to?
    A video I have in avi format is 700MB
    When I converted it to MP4 is was 584MB
    Converted to WMV it is 519MB
    And in VOB format it is 2.11GB
    The last being a lot larger.
    I have been trying to get a format that will play in my DVD player.
    VOB starts but will not play. The rest are just hopeless.
    I think my player is now a few years old and doesn't like "burnt" dvd.s I think the more modern ones are OK.
    Maybe someone can comment on this as well

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    mp4 is a form of avi, just different codecs
    x264 is the new go but its actually mp4 just new codec not xvid
    for the pc? mp4 with xvid or x264 will do
    dvd players can be tricky, ive given up & just use media players now
    even new dvd players dont like x264 so if its a net job now it will need converting
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    MP4 is the file extension for the MPEG-4 container format. More commonly known as MPEG-4 AVC (Advanced Video Coding) - H.264, it can contain all kinds of multi-media content - like audio, video, 2D and 3D graphics, and animated avatars, besides user interactivity features. The MPEG-4 characterizes the storage of audio, scenes (described by the scene language BIFS), and other multi-media content using the ISO Base Media File Format.

    AVI, or Audio Video Interleave, is a multimedia container format. Developed by Microsoft in 1992, it is the most common format for audio and video data on a computer. AVI is actually a type of RIFF (Resource Interchange File Format), which divides a file’s data into chunks, or blocks, each chunk being identified by a FourCC tag.

    Summary:
    1. MP4 is developed by MPEG, and AVI is developed by Microsoft.
    2. MP4 is created with x164 /x264 encoder, and AVI is created from RAW with AVC2AVI.
    3. At the same file size, MP4 files have a better video quality than AVI files.
    4. AVI can be played in most Windows-based applications like Windows Media Player, while MP4 is mostly used with many personal media players like iPod and PSP.
    Last edited by jwoegerbauer; 06-02-14 at 08:40 PM.

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    what format you convert to depends of what you are going to play it on!
    some dvd players will play .avi, most won't play mp4 unless they are really new
    if you want to watch it on your tablet, phone, most of them will play .mp4 but not avi

    most dedicated media players will play both formats

    so depends what is your device

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    Have now used windows 7 burning feature to create a DVD to play in any player and works great. It was a AVI file and the results ended up in VOB format and played perfectly. All those other special burning programs I have to create DVD's are not needed as W7's own one does the job.

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    did you burn them onto MINUS or PLUS

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    Quote Originally Posted by coalminer View Post
    did you burn them onto MINUS or PLUS
    DVD-R. never tried the + ones so stick with the -

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    dvd -r have a better compatibility rate then +r in the old days
    divxtodvd is a good converting program, around 20 min to convert a avi\mpg to vob (dvd)
    then you burn it to a dvd
    alas, a $80 media player avoids all this old drama
    it will play all your avi\vob\divx\mpg\vcl from a usb or portable hard drive
    why bother buying dvd disk or dvd players?
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    Quote Originally Posted by Philquad View Post
    dvd -r have a better compatibility rate then +r in the old days
    Unless your burner/software handled bitsetting correctly, which made DVD +R's more compatible with a lot of hardware, by setting the booktype to DVD-ROM.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Philquad View Post
    dvd -r have a better compatibility rate then +r in the old days
    If it must be a DVD disk then DVD-R is the clear format of choice. Of course this depends on the player used. Consult its user-manual.

    Player compatibility results: DVD-R=96.74% DVD+R=87.32%
    Last edited by jwoegerbauer; 17-02-14 at 03:29 AM.

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    Quote Originally Posted by pandandesign View Post
    Ok, guys, I'm going to convert my DVD to either the mp4 format or the avi format. I don't really know much of the difference because I assume that mp4 takes less memory space and avi is a larger file. I want to know what's the difference between mp4 and avi format? Which format should I convert the DVD to?
    I could claim there is no difference based on the sole information that it has the avi or mp4 extension.

    Avi and mp4 say nothing about the audio/video encoding, these days. Avi can be almost anything.

    Mp4 and avi are containers for a variety of codecs and h264 for example can be both avi or mp4 (or flv or mkv...).

    So it is incorrect to claim that avi containers are larger files than mp4
    There are so many container types and even more codecs, it is pointless to go further into this.
    If you want best quality (high definition) and lots of features with small file size use the DivX Plus HD codec (H.264) that uses the mkv container.
    If you want play-ability on many devices like DVD players then the standard DivX codec or Xvid (H.263) in the avi container.

    Edit: converting DVD to other formats is not always that straight forward. You must be looking at the bit rate (quality), frame rate and size and aspect ratio to get things right.
    I have used the often recommended Xilisoft Video Converter and it has sometimes stuffed things up quality wise.
    There are heaps of converters but also a lot of trial and error until you get the right settings.

    AviDemux is IMO a good cross platform freeware for re-encoding DVDs and a lot of things. Easy to use but heaps of filters I see nowhere else. Should transfer correctly without messing around with aspect ratio, etc. I only had problems with Canon video cameras.
    Use MPEG-4 AVC for H.264 (high definition) or MPEG-4 ASP for H.263 (DVD player compatibility) both in avi.
    I have noticed in the Windows version that you have to type in the .avi manually when you save the converted file.
    Last edited by Uncle Fester; 27-02-14 at 09:05 PM.
    Update: A deletion of features that work well and ain't broke but are deemed outdated in order to add things that are up to date and broken.
    Compatibility: A word soon to be deleted from our dictionaries as it is outdated.
    Humans: Entities that are not only outdated but broken... AI-self-learning-update-error...terminate...terminate...

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