Best Format for Archiving a Digital Video

- I've created some digital video content that is, primarily, intended for online viewing only (it's a web series). However, it would be wise (in my experience) to archive the videos offline for future use (e.g. Blu-ray video creation). I've got the audio masters rendered to 24-bit FLAC files but I am not sure of what format is best for encoding the videos. Does anyone have any suggestions?

Differing from those analog videos which package the signal into virtual cassettes or records, digital videos such as online streaming videos will be practically untraceable if not saved in time. It is wise that, we archive our digital video to some formats that are supported by varied platforms for various uses. Due to a fact that different video formats are supported by different platforms, we will inevitably face the selection of video formats each time we play our digital video on a platform to ensure that the videos can be played successfully. Then what is the best format for archiving?

How to choose a proper format for archiving your video? In this post, you will get to know the complete guide on how to choose the best format for digital video archiving.

Things You Need to Know to Archive a Digital Video

Before finding the best format for archiving to archive a digital video, some technical stuff you need to know about in advance, which can help you make a better decision on archiving your digital video later as well as changing formats using video converters.

1. Codec and container.

Video container format (MKV, MP4, AVI, MOV and FLV, etc) refers to which the video data is stored, while video codec (H.264, HEVC, and MPEG-1/2, etc.) functions compress the video data.

2. Lossy compression and lossless compression.

Lossy compression is a data compression method that makes compromise on some information to achieve a relatively small file size, such as asf, h.264. Although named in lossy, it doesn't mean much data loss in the compression. Actually, with its proper compression, the loss is so trivial that is indistinguishable to human eyes. Most video and audio are lossy compressed, but they produce very high compression levels.

Lossless compression, on the contrary, doesn't make the loss of any data during its compression process. However, it results in a relatively larger file size.

3. Arrange your new content a home.

After your digital videos are archived, they will need somewhere to be stored and you can easily get access to it. Tidy up your disk and make a room for the newcomers.

Now that you've known some technical tips on archiving a digital video, next we will see what is the best format for archiving.

Pick Up the Best Formats for Archiving a Digital Video

The truth is there is no best archiving video format for all cases. You need to know some commonly used formats which are compatible with different platforms and diversified devices, and then pick up the best archiving video format for your case. Let's have a look at these popular formats below, and learn where can they be adapted for:

MP4

MP4 file is greatly compatible. It adopts different coding algorithms for different objects to improve compression efficiency and allows flexible allocation of code rate between different objects, more bytes for important objects, and fewer bytes for secondary objects to achieve better results at a low code rate. MP4 adopts MPEG-4 compression to store videos that need to be played on mobile devices. Narrow bandwidth is adopted by MPEG-4 to obtain the best image quality with the least data through frame reconstruction technology, compression, and transmission of data. Its main applications: online streaming, video phone, CD, and TV broadcasting.

MKV

MKV file is compatible and supports multi-track, multi subtitles, soft subtitles, paragraphs, etc. It's also equipped with variable frame rate, error detection, and repairability, strong fault tolerance. MKV uses an open-source multimedia packaging format and is easy to play without copyright restrictions. Therefore, it doesn't exist in the officially released videos.

MOV

MOV, aks QuickTime File Format (QTFF), is a proprietary format created by Apple. When QuickTime Player can't open MP4, you can convert it to MOV. It contains a wide array of media like video effects, audio, and texts. MOV comes with a high compression ratio and high definition. It can save alpha channels and also support 25-bit color and 150 video effects. Moreover, it is equipped with more than 200 stereo and sound devices for MIDI. Though it was originally created for QuickTime Player on Mac, it is also accessible to Windows and many other devices.

To sum up, the selection of the best format for archiving a digital video should be based on comprehensive consideration of both quality and file size. With the powerful assistance of some media converter tools, you can convert the digital video file to any format that is best to be archived on your device.