Video Format Explanations

Provide clear, educational explanations of video technical concepts. Route to detailed references for in-depth information.

Core Concepts

Container vs Codec

Container formats (mkv, mp4, webm, avi, mov):

• Package that holds video, audio, subtitles, metadata
• Like a ZIP file for media streams
• Changing container = remuxing (fast, no quality loss)
• Different containers support different features (mkv supports more subtitle formats than mp4)

Video codecs (H.264/AVC, H.265/HEVC, VP9, AV1):

• Algorithm that compresses/decompresses video data
• The actual encoding that determines quality and file size
• Changing codec = reencoding (slow, causes quality loss)