What are most popular container/codec combinations?

[Artas1984]

I've been making custom PC gaming videos for 5 years and still feel like an idiot. The problem is that i still have not figured out what are the golden standard audio/video codec combinations for containers.

For each container i would like to ask what are the 2 most effective audio/video codec combinations:

1) AVI
2) MKV
3) MPG
4) MP4
3) WMV

Like, for AVI i always did DIVX with LAME audio, for MP4 i used to include H.264 and AAC audio.

But i still feel stupid, give me at least 2 combinations for each container, will you?

[thezanny]

mp4:- x264/AAC
mkv :- x264/AC3 or x264/AAC
mkv:- x264/DTS

These are some of my favourites

[Baldrick]

And by x264 you mean h.264 video created with the x264 encoder.


I usually create
avi with divx/xvid video and mp3 audio
mp4 with h264 video and aac audio
mkv with h264 video and ac3/dts audio
mpg with mpeg2 video and ac3 audio
mpg with mpeg1 video and mpa audio
wmv with wmv3 video and wma audio

[jagabo]

For each container i would like to ask what are the 2 most effective audio/video codec combinations:

Most effective at what?

[edDV]

You can divide codec/container combinations by distribution models.

DVD authoring - MPeg2 video with AC3 audio in VOB container
DVDR playback - divx/xvid video with mp3 audio in avi container

Blu-Ray authoring - Mpeg2/H.264/VC1 video with AC3/DTS/PCM audio in m2ts container
AVCHD disc authoring - Mpeg2/H.264/VC1 video with AC3 audio in MTS container

YouTube - h.264 video with AAC audio in a mp4 container

Post production asset exchange - Uncompressed/MPeg2/h.264 video with PCM audio in MXF* container

TV broadcast - MPeg2/h.264 video with AC3 audio as separate elementary streams or in MTS container.


* This is the SMPTE goal but currently MXF has different implementations (e.g. Sony vs Panasonic)