Video formats that MyChat can automatically make a preview without installing additional software (thumbnails are generated automatically on the server) are the 22 most common video file formats:
.3gp — 3GPP Multimedia File Format
3GP is a 3rd Generation Partnership Project container format for multimedia on 3G mobile phones. It was designed to save space and bandwidth, and therefore typically used compressed video and audio codecs such as H.263, H.264, AMR, and AAC. Today, the format is considered a legacy of the early mobile video era, but it can still be found in archives and old MMS/phone recordings.
.asf — Advanced Systems Format
ASF stands for Advanced Systems Format. It is a Microsoft container for synchronized audio and video streams, originally designed for streaming and working with Windows Media. ASF can store various types of data, but is most often associated with Windows Media Audio and Windows Media Video. The .wma and .wmv extensions are actually specialized cases of ASF files.
.avi — Audio Video Interleave
AVI stands for Audio Video Interleave. The format was introduced by Microsoft in the early 1990s as part of Video for Windows and is based on the RIFF structure. AVI is simple, widely supported, and can store many different codecs, but by modern standards, it is less suited to complex metadata, subtitles, and streaming than MP4 or Matroska.
.f4v — Flash MP4 Video File
F4V is a next-generation Adobe Flash Video container built on the ISO Base Media File Format, making it similar to MP4. Adobe introduced F4V as a more modern alternative to FLV when storing H.264/AAC content became important for Flash video. Historically, the format is associated with Flash Player 9 Update 3 and later versions of the Flash platform; after support was discontinued, Flash is mainly found in older web archives.
.flv — Flash Video
FLV stands for Flash Video. Developed for video delivery via Adobe Flash Player, it was one of the key web video formats in the 2000s. FLV was best for streaming via the Flash browser plugin, but after the industry abandoned Flash, it was supplanted by MP4, WebM, and HLS/DASH streams.
.m2ts — MPEG-2 Transport Stream for Blu-ray Disc Audio-Video
M2TS is a variant of MPEG-2 Transport Stream used in Blu-ray Disc Audio-Video (BDAV) and AVCHD. It is similar in concept to .ts, but typically uses 192-byte packets with an additional 4-byte service prefix. The format is often found on Blu-ray discs, in AVCHD camcorders, and in the BDMV\STREAM file structures.
.m2v — MPEG-2 Video Elementary Stream
M2V typically stands for MPEG-2 Video Elementary Stream. It's not a full-fledged multimedia container, but a separate MPEG-2 video stream without audio, subtitles, or menus. Such files were often used in DVD authoring: .m2v video was combined with separate audio tracks and ancillary data during DVD-Video assembly.
.m4v — MPEG-4 Video / Apple iTunes Video File
M4V is an Apple video container, very similar to MP4. It was widely used in the iTunes Store and the Apple ecosystem, sometimes with FairPlay DRM protection. Without DRM, many M4V files are technically similar to MP4 and can be played in the same players, but the extension emphasizes the file's origin and purpose as Apple/iTunes video content.
.mjpeg — Motion JPEG
MJPEG stands for Motion JPEG. In this type of video, each frame is compressed separately as a JPEG image, without interframe compression. This simplifies decoding and access to individual frames, which is why MJPEG was often used in surveillance cameras, webcams, older digital cameras, and some video capture devices. The disadvantage of this format is its poor compression efficiency compared to H.264, H.265, or VP9.
.mkv — Matroska Video
MKV — Matroska video container file. Matroska is an open and extensible multimedia container built on EBML; it can store multiple video tracks, audio tracks, subtitles, chapters, and metadata. Due to its flexibility, MKV has become a popular format for HD video, movie archives, and files with multiple audio or subtitle languages.
.mov — QuickTime Movie
MOV — QuickTime Movie file, the native container of the Apple QuickTime File Format. The QuickTime File Format uses an atomic structure and was an important basis for the subsequent ISO Base Media File Format and MP4. MOV is still commonly found in videos from Apple devices, in editing workflows, and in professional video sharing, especially when using the Apple ProRes or Animation codecs.
.mp4 — MPEG-4 Part 14 / MP4 File Format
MP4 is an MPEG-4 Part 14 container, one of the most common modern formats for video, audio, subtitles, and metadata. It is based on the ISO Base Media File Format and is historically related to the QuickTime File Format. MP4 is best for local storage and online delivery, and is therefore supported by almost all modern browsers, mobile devices, and media players.
.mpeg — MPEG Program Stream / MPEG Video
MPEG is typically used for MPEG-1 or MPEG-2 files, more commonly as a Program Stream or video stream. This format emerged as part of the Moving Picture Experts Group standards and was long the base format for VCD, DVD, and digital broadcasting. In real-world archives, the extensions .mpeg and .mpg are often used interchangeably.
.mpg — MPEG Program Stream / MPEG Video
MPG is a short extension for MPEG video, historically popular due to the old DOS/Windows limitations on three-letter file extensions. Typically, such files contain MPEG-1 or MPEG-2 Program Stream. The format is commonly found in old video collections, DVDs, and files derived from early video editing programs.
.mts — MPEG-2 Transport Stream for AVCHD
MTS is a variant of MPEG-2 Transport Stream, most often associated with AVCHD cameras. These files are typically recorded directly to a memory card by camcorders and contain H.264/AVC video with AC-3 or LPCM audio. MTS is similar in structure to M2TS and often differs primarily in the context of use: .mts — source camera clips, .m2ts — a stream in a Blu-ray/BDAV structure or after import.
.ogv — Ogg Video
OGV — a video file in the Ogg container, typically with the Theora video codec and Vorbis audio codec. The format is associated with the Xiph.Org Foundation and the open ecosystem of free multimedia formats. In the 2000s and early 2010s, OGV was important for patent-free web video, but over time it has significantly lost ground to WebM and MP4 in popularity.
.rm — RealMedia
RM stands for RealMedia. It is a proprietary container from RealNetworks, created for streaming audio and video during the RealPlayer era. The format was often used for internet broadcasts and clips in the late 1990s and early 2000s; Today, it is considered obsolete, but can be found in older archives and media collections.
.ts — MPEG-2 Transport Stream
TS — MPEG-2 Transport Stream. This format is designed for transmitting audio and video in environments where errors or data loss are possible, such as digital television, broadcast, satellite, and cable streams. Unlike Program Stream, Transport Stream divides data into small packets and is best for continuous transmission, but may be less convenient for precise editing as a regular file.
.vob — DVD Video Object
VOB stands for DVD Video Object. It is the basic DVD-Video container, typically located in the VIDEO_TS folder and based on MPEG-2 Program Stream with additional limitations of the DVD standard. VOB can contain video, multiple audio tracks, subtitles, menus, and navigation data; on DVDs, such files are often split into chunks of approximately 1 GB.
.webm — WebM
WebM is an open container format for web video, developed by Google and based on a subset of Matroska. WebM typically contains VP8, VP9, or AV1 video and Vorbis or Opus audio. The format was created as an open alternative to HTML5 video and is well supported by modern browsers.
.wmv — Windows Media Video
WMV stands for Windows Media Video. In practice, a .wmv file is typically an ASF container with video data encoded with Windows Media Video or VC-1 codecs. The format was widespread in the Windows ecosystem, especially in the 2000s, and was often used for streaming video, corporate videos, and files created with Windows Movie Maker.
.wtv — Windows Recorded TV Show
WTV stands for Windows Recorded TV Show. This is a Microsoft container for TV shows recorded in Windows Media Center; it was the successor to the earlier DVR-MS. WTV was used in Windows Vista with Media Center TV Pack 2008 and in Windows 7 Media Center, and could store live TV, program metadata, and DRM data. Today, the format is found mainly in older Media Center recordings.
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