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most universally acceptable video file formats? (lemmy.dbzer0.com)

submitted 6 days ago by laserjet@lemmy.dbzer0.com to c/piracy@lemmy.dbzer0.com

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For holiday gift I was thinking of making USB/microSDs full of TV/movies. The intended recipients are not tech savvy types. They would be using windows computers, normal TVs etc.

What kind of file formats/encodings would be good to package the files in? What is safe and universally usable? And which ones are to be avoided? I'd like to guarentee they'll play without any fooling around with drivers or software.

And I want them to be as small as possible so that I can fit more stuff.

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[-] wheezy@lemmy.ml 13 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago)

mkv and mp4 are the container not the codec. It's a bit more complicated than just the file extension. You likely have more luck with mkv because of just more consistency as mkv is used more often when the file is meant to be played locally and not streamed.

So, you're right. But just looking at the container isn't going to ensure compatibility. The codec is significantly more impactful on whether playback is supported. That's the part that's literally taking the compressed video data and decoding it into viewable pixels/frames you see on your screen.

I've never downloaded an mkv that wasn't just standard h264 or h265. So it's still a good bet. But h265 is less universal and much more CPU intensive for playback (because it has significantly better compression).