4
1
I want to store some videos for long term. But I'm not sure what is the most compatible video format. I don't want to wake up one day in the future when computers use some totally different architecture and realize that a particular codex needed for the video is no longer available for the platform that I'm using.
7wp
Posted 2010-03-11T02:56:41.183
Reputation: 1 410
2
The most wide-spread digital video codec is found in DVDs (MPEG-2). Because it has become so ubiquitous, I would expect the codecs to be available for a very long time. Even as newer formats become available, people will want to be able to access DVD's archival material for the foreseeable future.
Robert Cartaino
Posted 2010-03-11T02:56:41.183
Reputation: 6 444
1
Theora with Vorbis are theoretically good, due to their Open nature. However, they have yet to see really widespread acceptance (especially Theora). There are not that many implementations, and not that much material encoded with them, so for now, at least, I have to agree with Robert that MPEG-2 is probably the way to go.
KellyClowers
Posted 2010-03-11T02:56:41.183
Reputation: 176
How far in the future are you wanting the answers to predict for? Need to work out how big a crystal ball to get. – random – 2010-03-11T03:07:46.963
You don't have to be a smart a*** :-). Well, a popular open source solution would probably be good. I did some research and Ogg/Theora seems to be a good one. I want to see what the superuser community thinks. – 7wp – 2010-03-11T03:21:39.337
1it's a good question, or at least a fair one, but far better suited to a discussion forum than for this site. perhaps rephrase it to ask what formats are used in current best practices for video archiving. – quack quixote – 2010-03-11T04:43:52.707