Most "universal" type of video file?

[Hacker Scot]

On May 13, 2008, at 7:41 PM, Karl Kuehn wrote:

> Flash
> + playable in any computer with a browser
> - lousy format (visual quality, and developer)

Why do you say "lousy visual quality" re: Flash? It uses h.264 just  
like QuickTime. Quality/size ratio is virtually identical to QuickTime  
(don't judge Flash video's quality on YouTube - they compress the crap  
out of everything, but that's not Flash's fault).

> - usually needs a wrapper to play (just html, but you now have 2  
> files rather than 1)


Flash video is in .flv format, and you can't embed .flv in HTML  
directly - it needs a Flash player wrapper such as the free JW FLV  
wrapper (unless you want to embed the .flv in a .swf). So really you  
need .flv plus a wrapper player plus HTML.   And note that you can't  
just double-click a .flv file and have it come up in a player - it  
really needs that HTML+player wrapper.

So Flash video deployment is a bit more involved than other formats,  
but Flash video is probably your best bet for already-installed  
support on the widest variety of computers/operating systems (why do  
you think it's used by YouTube, vimeo, Flickr video and all the rest?)  
Despite the extra hassle, if you're displaying video on the web  
there's little question Flash video is definitely the way to go these  
days - it's eclipsed the other formats  because of extremely wide  
penetration of the Flash player (around 98% of users).

If you're not displaying them on the web, it's another story - go with  
one of the other recommendations.

./s


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