Difference between Blu-ray Disc and Regular DVD

Nowadays in the market we can see that there are two different types of DVD formats are presents. One is Regular DVD and other is Blu-ray DVD. The price is also different for both discs. We aren’t aware about what is the difference between the both discs. So here I’m trying to explain you what’s the difference between these two different discs.

Blu-ray Disc

Blu-ray also known as Blu-ray Disc (BD), is the name of a new optical disc format developed by the Blu-ray Disc Association (BDA). The format was developed to enable recording, rewriting and playback of high-definition video (HD), as well as storing large amounts of data. The format offers more than five times the storage capacity of traditional DVDs and can hold up to 25GB on a single-layer disc and 50GB on a dual-layer disc. This extra capacity combined with the use of advanced video and audio codecs will offer consumers an unprecedented HD experience. High-definition video may be stored on Blu-ray Discs with up to 1080p resolution (1920×1080 pixels), at up to 60 (59.94) fields per second. 

Available Variants:

•    Mini Blu-ray Disc
•    Blu-ray Disc recordable
•    BD9 and BD5
•    BDXL
•    IH-BD

Blu-ray is currently supported by world's leading consumer electronics, recording media, personal computer, video game and music companies. The format also has support from the Hollywood studios and other smaller studios as a successor to today's DVD format.

Regular DVD

DVD sometimes called as Digital Video Disc is a digital optical disc storage format, invented and developed by Philips, Sony, Toshiba, and Panasonic in 1995. DVDs can be played in multiple types of players, including DVD players. DVDs offer higher storage capacity than compact discs while having the same dimensions. Older DVD discs had a maximum resolution of 480p, (NTSC, 720×480 pixels) or 576p, (PAL, 720×576 pixels).

Disc Types:

•    DVD-R
•    DVD+R
•    DVD-RW
•    DVD+RW

Look At : Difference between AVI and MKV Format

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Difference Between Xvid and X264 Video Codec

Now a days we found that the videos are available in different video codec formats. So viewer has to decide that which format he want to watch for the video. There are different video codec's are present like Xvid, MPEG2, MPEG4, x264 etc. So lets look what is the difference between Xvid and x264 video codec.

What is Xvid?

First of all Xvid is a one of the all video codec’s. Xvid has been around for a considerably long time, since the time it branched off from DivX. And during this time it has grown considerably in quality and it has arguably surpassed DivX in terms of video quality and compression. Xvid is an alternative codec library that follows the MPEG4 standard. It is often due to the relatively small file size of the resulting video file. Another, codec standard that is rapidly gaining popularity is H.264, largely because of its more advanced features and high quality encoded videos. 

Again XviD, an open source version of DivX, is popular among movie pirates. In general, as long as you install the Xvid decoder, your machine will be able to play all DivX media files. Most use Xvid encoded files to avi extension.

What is x264?

First of all X264 is a one of the all video codec’s. X264 is just one of the few software libraries that you can use to encode videos into H.264. X264 boasts to be the best H.264 encoder in existence, even surpassing those that are being commercially sold. X264 is only necessary when you are encoding the video from any format to H.264. You do not need it during playback as the resulting file can be played as long as you have an H.264 codec installed.

Again x264, which compresses H.264 videos (Also known as MPEG-4 AVC), and is very popular for high definition videos. Xvid is based largely from MPEG4 and the resulting file can be played with almost any of the MPEG4 codecs available if you do not use any of the advanced features of Xvid that breaks compatibility. If you do, then you must have the Xvid codec installed in the devices that you intend to play the videos on.

Xvid can output avi files which are of standard viewing quality (better than vcd and good enough for dvd) playable on all latest dvd players x264 can output mkv/mp4 files which are better than avi and fall under AVC(advanced video coding) mkv - HD player needed/ mp4 - only standard profiles will be supported on players with mp4 support.

Conclusion:

So finally, we have conclude that Xvid is a video codec library for encoding and decoding video files while X264 is a software library for encoding video files into H.264.

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Difference between AVI and MKV Format

AVI and MKV are two popular video formats that are commonly applied in videos. Most people have portable media players such as MP4 player, PSP, MP5, NDS, PDA, iPAD, cellphones and much more. If you read the manual of your player devices, you will find that most of your devices can support AVI formats. But sometimes you may not see MKV in your supported formats list.

Both, AVI and MKV are file formats mainly used for playing videos with audios. However, what most people do not realize that AVI and MKV are not encoding formats, but are container files, i.e. basically wrappers for formatted video files. The main difference between the two comes not from the formats itself, but from the types of codecs used within the files.

What is .avi format?

AVI stands for Audio Video Interleave. It was included as part of the Video for Windows technology. It was developed by Windows in reprisal for the MOV file format, developed by Apple computers. AVI files can contain both audio and video data in a file container that allows synchronous audio-with-video playback. Like the DVD video format, AVI files support multiple streaming audio and video, although these features are seldom used.

Currently, AVI is the most popular and commonly used file format. It is supported by many video players, as well as some mobile devices. AVI usually has a low requirements for hardware, therefore, it can be played back well with older portable media players. If your device is not the latest or the hardware not that developed, you may choose AVI as the output video format.

What is .mkv format?

MKV is the file format for Matroska Multimedia Container, often simple called Matroska. It is an open standard free container format, which means that it is available freely for anyone free of cost. MKV is similar to other file formats, such as AVI, MP4, etc., in the manner that they are all container formats. An MKV file is an open source container format. It is a general-purpose audio and video container and a competing format to the popular AVI and MP4 formats. The most common file extension for the Matroska Multimedia Container is .mkv for video with subtitles and audio, however .MK3D for stereoscopic video, .MKA for audio-only files, and .MKS for subtitles only files are also used.

The name ‘Matroska’ comes from the Russian word “Matryoshka” meaning nesting doll, which is quite famous as a Russian cultural symbol. MKV offers a high definition visual experience, you can watch some high definition movies, usually, if you use a large screen to playback videos, MKV is the best video formats for you. Usually, MKV has a larger size than AVI or other common video formats.

How MKV is superior to AVI?

• Supports H.264/AVC 
• B-Frame support 
• Supports variable audio bitrate 
• Supports chapters, muxed subtitles, metadata/tags and dvd-like menus

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