AVI file vs MP4 file Looking for feedback

[safedrivesolutions]

When it comes to buying a dash camera in North America. Does it matter to you if the dash camera uses MP4 or AVI?

With AVI
-Works easily through Windows Media Player
-On A Mac you need to use a VLC media player

With MP4
-Plays on all devices in North America easily.

Curious if anyone has a prefernce or basically AVI or MP4 either way it is no big deal??

 

[Panzer Platform]

Definitely MP4 all the way.

 

[Panzer Platform]

Here's the difficulty I had with AVI;

GX1000 Test & Review PP

I would like to thank FineVu, and the lovely dovely Lexi Kim for sending me the brand new just released FineVu flagship GX1000. @DashCamMan I would like to request a new “thread section” for the GX1000. The purpose of this first post is to give a quick first impression of the camera after...

dashcamtalk.com

 

[Agie]

MP4 all the way, AVI is ancient.

 

[Nigel]

When it comes to buying a dash camera in North America. Does it matter to you if the dash camera uses MP4 or AVI?

AVI is a video container literally from last century, MP4 is a video container of this century.

Both of them normally contain H264 format video; MP4 sometimes contains H265 format video, the future is AV1 format video which normally goes in neither of these containers. So, since they contain the same video, and it is the video that matters, not the container it is in, nobody should see any difference other than that AVI is a Microsoft proprietary format that is not found as standard on non-Microsoft devices, and thus needs extra software installed on non Microsoft devices before it can be viewed.

We really shouldn't still be seeing AVI around, it was replaced by MP4 many years ago, but don't confuse it with AV1 which is a superior video codec that we should start to see about the place soon.

 

[kamkar]

If i saw AVI i would immediately suspect antiquated hardware.

Personally i would prefer the latest compression technologies like AV1, CUZ my PC can handle that even in hardware, and so can my phone though i am not entirely sure it have hardware support for AV1 as it is after all a old Snapdragon 865 or whatever they was called before they changed to GEN ? for the top of the line.
Also not matter much as i of course do very little with my phone in regard to dashcams or the rest of my life, CUZ phones are bad for you Mmmmkay

 

[Panzer Platform]

A dash cam that uses AVI will require the user to own a Windows PC, or Mac computer, and download proprietary software.
Of course this is not a big deal because most people own those two machines.
However, it will be a disaster for someone who does not.
Because it means they will not be able to view / play the recorded footage from their dash cam except on their tiny phone screen.
I ran into this issue testing the FineVu GX1000.

This also means if video footage is ever needed as evidence by Police, Law Enforcement Agency, Court of Law, Insurance Company, etc. they will also need to download the proprietary software to view / play video footage.
This further complicates the issue of sharing evidence, and chain of custody protocols.

 

[Agie]

If i saw AVI i would immediately suspect antiquated hardware.

Personally i would prefer the latest compression technologies like AV1, CUZ my PC can handle that even in hardware, and so can my phone though i am not entirely sure it have hardware support for AV1 as it is after all a old Snapdragon 865 or whatever they was called before they changed to GEN ? for the top of the line.
Also not matter much as i of course do very little with my phone in regard to dashcams or the rest of my life, CUZ phones are bad for you Mmmmkay

Yeah AV1 added in that Snapdragon line, have that in my Xiaomi tablet but no need for AV1 codec , but if it's there it's there haha. I'm sure AV1 will eventually make it to everything anyways

 

[kamkar]

It is quite funny, generally i am not big on change, but if i can be the initiator i am up for just about anything.
So try and force me to something and you get nothing, but cheat me so my interest are peaked and i am like " come on lets go "
But it do take some cheating / manipulation CUZ the BS filter are strong with this one.

 

[Agie]

It is quite funny, generally i am not big on change, but if i can be the initiator i am up for just about anything.
So try and force me to something and you get nothing, but cheat me so my interest are peaked and i am like " come on lets go "
But it do take some cheating / manipulation CUZ the BS filter are strong with this one.

BS filter is strong on which one?

 

[kamkar]

me one, though you would not think so as i can also dish it out myself.

 

[Agie]

me one, though you would not think so as i can also dish it out myself.

Ok.......

 

[kamkar]

Fortunately or should i say sadly i do have the politician filter too, which i also call " The this do not apply to me filter " it is the filter i some times deploy for making BS, but also in regard to some actual laws in this country i simply can not respect and so choose to break at my own peril.

 

[safedrivesolutions]

Interesting thoughts and feedback.

 

[Dashmellow]

As for the North America bit, there does seem to be a tendency to use antiquated stuff in that part of the world, but you still shouldn't be recommending AVI, it is a bit like still using the Fahrenheit scale for recording temperatures, it is not broken, but most of the world has a bit of difficulty with it and it doesn't work with global software.

Always with the nation bashing, eh Nigel? - only this time you throw shade on a whole continent.

"Tendency to use antiquated stuff"? Really? And to think, this smear is coming from a guy who likes to film and photograph all the old antiquated 19th century style coal powered steam locomotives still in use in the UK and even use them as his forum avatar.

As for the Fahrenheit scale, anything outside your parochial frame of reference is always anathema and abhorrent to you. Here in the U.S.A we do use Celsius in scientific and medical circles but we prefer Fahrenheit for ambient temperature measurements because the scale covers a much wider range of temperatures that more closely matches our typical weather conditions, especially below freezing and it does so in much finer increments. People can actually feel the difference in .5 degree of Fahrenheit. Comfortable room temperature of 72º Fahrenheit is more accurate than 20º or 21º Celsius.

 

[Agie]

Always with the nation bashing, eh Nigel? - only this time you throw shade on a whole continent.

"Tendency to use antiquated stuff"? Really? And to think, this smear is coming from a guy who likes to film and photograph all the old antiquated 19th century style coal powered steam locomotives still in use in the UK and even use them as his forum avatar.

As for the Fahrenheit scale, anything outside your parochial frame of reference is always anathema and abhorrent to you. Here in the U.S.A we do use Celsius in scientific and medical circles but we prefer Fahrenheit for ambient temperature measurements because the scale covers a much wider range of temperatures that more closely matches our typical weather conditions, especially below freezing and it does so in much finer increments. People can actually feel the difference in .5 degree of Fahrenheit. Comfortable room temperature of 72º Fahrenheit is more accurate than 20º or 21º Celsius.

View attachment 69642

Agreed, it's like one of those steam locomotives has derailed by going off-topic. I for one don't question what scale or measurements or what size of the road they drive on or how they do things, wherever I go traveling in the world. People have different ways of doing things, who am I to question that?

I just remembered I cannot recall the last time I used or saw AVI video. Was some dashcam a few years back that I came across that had it, and the audio had some other ancient format as well. Just made the whole experience painful trying to find codecs to download to get it working. And when it was working, the audio quality was pretty bad too. Thank god those days of technology are behind us..

 

[Dashmellow]

Yeah, I was gonna" say, I haven't seen a camera for sale in ages that uses the AVI format. I guess you can find older generic Chinese cams on some internet vendor's web sites but that's about it as far as I am aware. No modern dash cam from a name brand manufacturer uses it.

 

[safedrivesolutions]

Yeah, I was gonna" say, I haven't seen a camera for sale in ages that uses the AVI format. I guess you can find older generic Chinese cams on some internet vendor's web sites but that's about it as far as I am aware. No modern dash cam from a name brand manufacturer uses it.

Fine Vu comes to mind

 

[Dashmellow]

Fine Vu comes to mind

Wasn't aware of that.

AVI is a very simple container that can't carry the kinds of information contained in MP4 and other more modern formats. AVI is really considered to be quite out of date at this point.