Which format is best to use for high quality online audio and video?

Question

Hi, I'm currently creating a site for a musician. They are wanting to include the best quality video and audio files possible.

After a bit of research I'm thinking:

FLAC is the best option for audio.

FLV or MPEG-4 is best for video.

Can anyone in the know confirm or correct this?

Thanks

Answer 1

FLAC is lossless, so it should provide all of the quality you need. File sizes will be larger than lossy formats (like .MP3).

I'd encode the video using H.264 (MPEG4 part 10) for video. It's the best codec available for high quality video right now.

Answer 2

You can use Adobe Flash with h.264 and AAC. It is the only solution with wide support. Everything else will cause technical problems for many users. There is no official and recognised standard about video or audio on the Internet. Every browser has its own.

Answer 3

As others have mentioned, FLAC is the thing for the absolute best (lossless) audio. However, there's something to be said for also offering high-quality (>300kbps) MP3 or Ogg Vorbis files; they'll be smaller and good enough for many users.

For video, h.264 seems to be the current winner, albeit with a complex legal landscape.