Wouldn't it be nice....

[Matt34]

If there was just one standard video file format? I hate figuring out what works with what and how to convert if it don't.

...and I probably just wasted $25 getting a converter program to make .avi files compatible for my Apple products.

 

[BoredSysAdmin]

If there was just one standard video file format? I hate figuring out what works with what and how to convert if it don't.

...and I probably just wasted $25 getting a converter program to make .avi files compatible for my Apple products.

next time just ask, if ashed pm is ok too. Free Handbreak can already do just that

 

[Matt34]

next time just ask, if ashed pm is ok too. Free Handbreak can already do just that

Isn't handbrake a Mac only program?

 

[Adam]

Isn't handbrake a Mac only program?

Not any more - their page is here with downloads for Mac, PC, Ubuntu, and Fedora.

 

[3db]

Isn't handbrake a Mac only program?

Nope, not anymore. I used Handbrake on my PC running Vista to convert an iso of Transformers 3 into mp4 so that I could play it on my playbook.

 

[FirstReflection]

Going in a slightly different direction...

A Universal File Format is one of the goals of UltraViolet. Of course, Apple is not on board since they want everyone to use iTunes

 

[Grador]

A universal file format would be nice, but may be impossible. There are tradeoffs with A/V codecs for file size, quality, and processing power of encode/decode.

Also, chances are handbrake probably works better than whatever you bought, so I'd chock this one up as a loss and switch over.

 

[Impelled]

A universal file format would be nice, but may be impossible. There are tradeoffs with A/V codecs for file size, quality, and processing power of encode/decode.

Also, chances are handbrake probably works better than whatever you bought, so I'd chock this one up as a loss and switch over.

This.

As more efficient techniques are found, new features are required and/or processing performance increases, designers need a platform to further develop.
Sometimes its necessary to create a new format due to unsuitability, problems that are hard/inefficient to get round, legal issues, ....

The price of progress.

 

[bkfitz]

that would be nice