Video file extension What are they, what are they for and what types are there?

The audiovisual content It is, without a doubt, the most consumed today. Thus, knowing everything about how we can reproduce it is of special interest. This is made up of a signal, codecs and a container. The latter is what we know as file extension video and that’s what we’re going to talk about today.

The format or extension of any video is that set of letters that appears at the end of the file name. It may not seem important to you, however, it tells us about many aspects of the file and, above all, it allows us to be able to play it in different programs and playback devices.

Knowing this, surely now you are interested in knowing what exactly it is, what we use it for and, obviously, what different formats are there todaywhere we reproduce them and what are their characteristics, right?

What is the extension or format of a video file and what is it really for?

An extension is the information of a file that will tell us, first, what kind is it and, later, some other peculiarities of each one of them.

The video extension is the way to indicate the way in which the audiovisual content is encoded to be able to reproduce it digitally. by one player or another.

In other words, the extension, that is, the end of the filename (.MKV, for example) refers to the container used to create that encoding that allows us to make a digital reproduction of the content. This is from between two and five letters and/or digits. In addition, they are usually an abbreviation of some word or group of these.

By default, the operating system hides these letters, so that we only see what the file in question is called, but not what its container is. This is a risk because there are formats that obviously do not correspond to videos and, if we download a file that we believe to be an audiovisual and it turns out to be malware in an executable, we run it, and that’s it! we already have malicious software on our computer.

So, the same is configure your equipment so that extensions, whatever their type, are always visible and you can see the type of files that you have saved

speaking of video playersof course, we refer to the digital software that we all have on our computers, tablets and even smartphonesalthough, we must not also forget the physical type players, the most current being the blu raywhich also works only with the formats it supports.

This means that, Depending on the program you have to play videos, they will have to be encoded in one format or another. or vice versaif you have an audiovisual in a particular extension, you will need a player with which it is compatible.

In general, the players that we can download include a wide enough compatibility to be able to work with the files with the most famous extensions, so it will not be difficult for you to find one capable of playing exactly the file you want (Even the players of the various operating systems are quite generous in this regard). Even so, don’t worry about it because later we are going to tell you which formats are compatible with one and the other playback programs.

In the case of videos, which is what concerns us, you should know that This coding that is carried out is directly related to the image quality that we are going to be able to reproduce. also come into play the sound quality or the inclusion of subtitles and, of course, the relationship between all of the above and the size that the file in question is going to have.

For example, there are extensions that respect the high quality of the content but, in return, do not reduce the weight of the files, so that they can easily occupy several GB. Others, on the other hand, can compress the content, reducing its quality but making the final file light and, thus, easy to move between memory units and easier to download. Of course, there are formats that offer something in between. The important thing is to know them to know which ones are best for you according to your needs.

Know that, in addition to the extension itself, which is intrinsic to the file, that is, it is part of it from the moment you create it, and of the player, you will need to have the codecs installed corresponding, which are software capable of interpreting the encoding performed. When the result is obtained, it is sent, decoded, to the player, that is, the codecs act as intermediary so that the latter understands the information that is encoded.

Codecs can be downloadedwithout any complications, from the internet although, today, the usual thing is that each player includes those that serve to interpret the files with which they are compatible.

Types of extensions and formats of video files and their associated programs to play them

As you can imagine if you have thought a bit about the definition we have just given you, there are many different video formats or extensions. We’ll see, in a comparison tablemost of them, with special emphasis on the best known, showing you what features they include and in what program or player we can run them in each case.

*If you are viewing the website from your smartphone, slide the table to the right to see all the data

Do you know other extensions to play and edit video files? Leave them in the comments and we will add them to the list, they will surely be of great value to other readers!