How Many Formats To Convert To

[sawtooth]

Using Creator 11 I have copied and converted all of my home movies from camcorder tape to various formats, primarily as Video TS (Video TS.BUP, VTS 01 0.BUP, etc.), MPEG-4, etc. Most of the movies are only in one format. These are on my PC hard drive and attached external drive, and backed up to a second external drive. I have burned a few DVDs, but my main intent is to enjoy these movies which I stream to my home theater system and HDTV in another room.

 

I happen to have several streaming media players, such as the WD TV Live, which has many supported video formats, but suffers from some performance issues:

 

AVI (Xvid, AVC, MPEG1/2/4)

? MPG/MPEG

? VOB/ISO

? MKV (h.264, x.264, AVC, MPEG1/2/4)

? TS/TP/M2T (MPEG1/2/4, AVC, VC-1)

? MP4/MOV (MPEG4, h.264)

? M2TS

? WMV9 (VC-1)

 

I also have a ROKU 2, which performs well, but supports limited video file formats:

 

H.264/AVC (.MKV, .MP4, .MOV)

 

My questions: should I have all of my movies in two different file formats to increase my viewing options with different media players, especially if I just have one player in the future? For the two players listed, it appears that MP4 would be the best bet.

 

thank you.

[Brendon]

Forgive me for asking, Sawtooth, but what relevance has your question to Creator 2011?

Or are you just advertising your player?

 

To answer your question, leave the files you have already converted in the format they're in right now. Converting and re-rendering video can be a lossy process, and you are likely to lose fidelity if you keep re-converting them.

For new conversions, (if you find any more home video tapes,) select a format which suits whatever player you have or are going to get. It's your personal choice.