View Full Version : Mov? Mp4? Avchd?


Glen Vandermolen
August 11th, 2015, 10:31 AM
I recently purchased an HC-X1000. I will be shooting a video of a person at a meeting. I will shoot in 1080. I see I have a choice to shoot in MOV(LPMC), MP4(LPMC), MP4 and AVCHD. I was wondering what the differences are in MOV and MP4? I don't have experience in these formats. I have used AVCHD a lot.
What does anyone recommend for a format? The client will edit the video, I don't know the editing system.

Gary Huff
August 11th, 2015, 01:51 PM
AVCHD is a spec that has specific bitrate and directory structure requirements. MOV and MP4 are wrappers for H.264 content that are looser and this can do things like higher bitrate and can exist as self contained files on your media.

MOV works best on Mac platforms while MP4 is better for Windows.

Chris Harding
August 12th, 2015, 07:28 AM
Hi Glen

On my Panny's the quality of MP4 and AVCHD look very much the same but MP4 seems to run and render a lot quicker on my NLE (Sony Vegas) Check the camera manual and see if the MP4 has a file limit? On my cams I can only record up to 4GB per clip at lower bitrates..something like 22 minutes at 108050P at 28mbps before you need to stop and start again ..AVCHD can shoot longer clips..they still limit at 4GB but the camera creates a new file after the first has reached 4GB ... As Gary says AVCHD has a limited bitrate and I find even at 28mbps I get pixellation due to the format. My cameras (also 4K) can however shoot right up to 100mbps in MP4 so I tend to use that (my 4K mode also can record more than just one 4GB file)

Chris