What are MP4 files and what are they for?
MP4 is short for ‘MPEG-4’. The official file extension for MPEG-4 is .mp4, hence the short name MP4.
MPEG-4 technology has been developed to provide DVD-quality images and audio in an extremely small file size, ideal for playback on portable MP4 players such as iPod Video.
MP4 is here to stay. Apple Corporation itself describes MP4 as “the global multimedia standard, offering professional-quality video and audio streaming across a wide range of bandwidths, from cell phones to broadband and beyond.” They go on to say that “hundreds of researchers from around the world contributed to MPEG-4, which was finalized in 1998 and became an international standard in 2000.”
The BBC confirms that MPEG-4 is used to compress video and is the successor to MPEG-2. They also explain that the version that can convert massive movie files to a more practical size has been leaked onto the Internet thanks to Microsoft. Microsoft developed the software to compress and decompress video, which is called a codec. (A codec is a device or program capable of performing encoding and decoding on a digital data stream or signal. The word codec stands for compression / decompression algorithm).
The codec helps the Windows Media Player program to handle moving images sent over the web. Other web-based media players, such as Real Player, will also play the MP4 file format as long as you have the latest version downloaded. You need to download the latest MP4 codec on your own digital media player to ensure the compatibility of MP4 file playback.
However, an MP4 file does not only refer to video content, an MP4 file can also be an audio file. Many people think that MP4 will be the standard audio and visual file format of the future.
IPod Video is by far the most popular MP4 player on the market. But iPod doesn’t want us to call it MP4 player even though it plays MP4 files. Why? It could be because you can choose another MP4 player instead!
Another recent high-profile MP4 Player release is Microsoft’s Zune Player. Yet surprisingly, ZDnet.com found that at launch, Zune devices only play protected files from the Zune marketplace.
This is where Microsoft and Apple are possibly guilty. Both companies dubiously control certain markets. However, this can be an advantage for the MP4 Player consumer. If you take the time to convert your video files to MP4 (for which free software is available), you can play them on your cheaper MP4 player, which probably has more features than iPod with video. Even if you choose to move to iPod with video in the future, you can still transfer your old MP4 files.
The MP4 file format will be an integral part of the future of web-based videos and portable media player videos. It is an increasingly popular global multimedia standard. It is the file format that best ensures the massive acceptance of your own multimedia files in various types of multimedia players.