About Media Files

As you begin to use Easy Media Creator to import photos, audio, and video, you will be confronted with some file type choices. This section will help you understand the different media file types so it will be easier for you to know which type to use and when to use it.

Audio Files

Audio files are any type of file that stores sound. When you import music from a CD or record a voice from a microphone or music from a record player, the sound is stored in an audio file. The following are the three main types of audio file you should know about.

MP3

MP3 files are audio files that are compressed. Compressing the files makes them much smaller so they are easier to transfer and you can fit more of them on a disk. However, compressing the audio results in a slight quality loss.

The most common use of MP3 file is for portable MP3 players, allowing people to have literally hundreds of songs at their fingertips at any time. Easy Media Creator allows you to capture MP3 files and add them to DVDs and MP3 CDs.

WAV

WAV files are audio files that are not compressed. They take up considerably more space. However, WAV files retain the full audio quality of an audio CD. If you are working with high quality audio or are using an application that does not accept MP3 files as audio, you need to use WAV files.

WMA

WMA files are smaller than WAV files. They are typically used as streaming audio for the Internet and are a good way to transfer audio through email because most Windows applications can access them.

Image/Photo Files

One of the best features in Easy Media Creator Suite is the ability to import, edit, and use images for a variety of projects. Image files can be photos that you import or graphic files that you create and save using applications on the computer. The following are the five main types of image files you should know about.

JPG

JPG (Joint Photographic Experts Group) files are compressed image files. The compression makes them much smaller and easier to use than uncompressed image files with only a slight loss of quality. For images that will only be displayed on the computer screen, JPG is definitely the way to go. JPG is also the standard format for most digital cameras, so the photos you copy from your camera to the computer are in JPG format already. JPG is usually a high enough quality to print photos to photo paper on a home printer.

TIFF

TIFF (Tagged Image File Format) is a high-quality image file format. TIFF files are used by professional photo studios that need the highest quality to have the ability to create large photo prints.

BMP

BMP (bitmap) is the standard graphic format for Microsoft Windows. This format is used to display windows and applications. The files are full quality and very large, similar to TIFF files.

GIF

GIF (Graphics Interchange Format) files are typically used as graphic files for web pages. They are compressed, so they take up less space. GIF files include two channels which allow them to be animated and have transparent backgrounds. Most GIF files are not typically good enough quality for printing photos to photo paper on a home printer.

PNG

The PNG (Portable Network Graphic) file format was designed to replace GIF as the web graphic format. It is also compressed and supports transparency.

Tip

Just as when you copy a paper on a Xerox machine or duplicate a VHS tape, you lose quality every time you convert a file to a compressed format such as MPEG-2 for a video file or JPG for a photo file. As you edit these files, keep them in the highest quality format possible and try not to convert them more than necessary.

Video Files

Easy Media Creator Suite includes several utilities that allow you to capture, edit, and output video files. A video file is a file that usually contains both video and audio streams.

You can save your home movies as video files on the computer and then use those video files, as well as audio files and photo files, to create home video productions. The following are the main types of video files you need to know about.

MPEG-2

MPEG-2 is the compressed video format used on DVDs. It is not the highest quality, but it's obviously good enough for the current entertainment systems. You use this format to create DVDs.

Tip

If the Easy Media Creator application uses only MPG or MPEG, it is referring to the MPEG-2 format.

MPEG-4

MPEG-4 is compressed even more than MPEG-2, which makes it smaller than MPEG-2 but reduces the quality. Although MPEG-4 is not compatible with the DVD format required by DVD players, it is perfect for sharing on computers or across the Internet.

DivX

DivX is based on the MPEG-4 file format. It is also compressed and is designed for use on the Internet. This format is becoming very popular on web pages for streaming video.

DV

DV is the high-quality video format used by most digital camcorders. It is full quality, but takes up much more space than the MPEG formats.

AVI

AVI is the computer equivalent of the DV format. AVI files take up much more disk space per minute of video than MPEG-2, but they are much higher quality. Most video-editing applications, including VideoWave, work natively in the AVI file format.

Tip

If you are capturing video that you want to edit and use to create a video production, capture the video in AVI format. The video-editing applications will be faster because they do not have to convert from MPG to AVI.