Technical terminology for digital video

[Vermilion]

OK, stupidly I referred to a digital video file in a story. I called it an Mpeg file, my editor suggested mpg file - now I'm confused and can;t figure out which it ought to be.

It's referring to a video that a guy recorded on his digital camera, then uploaded to his computer. I need some geeky help - STAT!
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[neonlyte]

OK, stupidly I referred to a digital video file in a story. I called it an Mpeg file, my editor suggested mpg file - now I'm confused and can;t figure out which it ought to be.

It's referring to a video that a guy recorded on his digital camera, then uploaded to his computer. I need some geeky help - STAT!
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I'd use avi or mpeg. Avoid using wvm as it is proprietary to Windows and Microsoft.

 

[Weird Harold]

OK, stupidly I referred to a digital video file in a story. I called it an Mpeg file, my editor suggested mpg file - now I'm confused and can;t figure out which it ought to be.

It's referring to a video that a guy recorded on his digital camera, then uploaded to his computer. I need some geeky help - STAT!
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The file format is "MPEG" (generally spelled as "MPeG" although it is an acronym and should be all caps.) The file type is .mpg because the normal extension for windows based computers is <filename>.mpg.

If you're talking about an actual file name, .mpg -- with the dot -- or "dot-mpg file" would be accurate. If you're talking about generic video files, then "MPeG" would be accurate because even proprietary file extensions like .WMV are variations on the MPEG definition (.WMV==MPEG-4, IIRC)

If it is a character talking about the file, then MPeG, pronounced "M-peg" would be correct for a computer literate character and MPG, pronounced Em Pee Gee, would be correct for a character using common vernacular.

PS: my digital "still" camera creates .AVI files. My daughters digital video camera produces MPeG files. I think most camera phones create .AVI videos.

 

[Liar]

Actually, MPEG is a video encoding technology.

An avi file is a media container that can contain, among other things, MPEG video. But it can contain other types of video too, like Xvid, MJPEG, Real Video and others.

Files with the .mpg extension are video files using one specific type of MPEG compression, MPEG-1.

But either one works perfectly well for your story, I think. If you want to play it safe, .avi is a good choice. It can be anything from a cell phone clip to a full pirated dvd movie.

 

[Vermilion]

I went with MPEG because that's what I had originally and I figured if at least 2 other people backed me up, then it was common enough for a general readership to understand it...

Thanks all for the advice. The story will be published on 6th Oct

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