If you’re creating or managing business videos, it is important that you know how to choose the right format. Typically that format will fulfill specific criteria in terms of its compatibility and support as well as compression.

In a more practical sense however there are several ways to make it easier to choose the right format for your business videos – based on how they will be used:

• To publish on online platforms such as YouTube, Facebook, or Instagram it is best to follow the recommended format and settings of the platform in question. In most cases nowadays that is MP4 with H.264.

• To publish on websites using HTML5 video you can choose between the HTML5 video formats. Generally MP4 with H.264 is the only one that is compatible with all browsers, but WebM can be good as well except for Safari and Internet Explorer.

• To distribute videos among numerous users you should use a format that has no compatibility issues among most users. Right now the most widely-supported format is MP4 with H.264, making it an easy choice.

• To save videos that are going to be edited later using intra-frame and lossless formats are ideal. Some of the more common options include JPEG2000, x264 lossless, and ProRes.

• To burn video DVDs the only real option available is MPEG-2. Some newer DVD players may support a wider range of formats, but the majority only support MPEG-2, and the file needs to follow strict DVD specifications.

• To compress videos it would be best if H.265 (HEVC) is an option though its compatibility tends to be limited. If not the next best option that is safe is probably H.264.

As newer formats surface some of the specific formats mentioned above may not be the best option. For example the new AV1 format could replace MP4 with H.264 as the recommended format for online platforms in the near future, and may become the format used for HTML5 videos as well.

Still as things stand the list should act as a primer to help you convert business videos into the best format based on how you intend for them to be used. Learning how to change video format should be easy enough with a video converter, and for example you can use Movavi Video Converter.

Just remember that you should always store the original and convert copies of it. That way you can safeguard the video quality, which could be affected if you convert the same video over and over again. Considering business videos often need to be converted into multiple formats, it is important that you have the original available should you ever require it in the future.