Audio
Audio formats are generally classified into two groups: lossy and lossless. Lossy is compressed and sometimes removes unnecessary information which may lower the quality while lossless does not and is mainly only used when there is a chance that the file may be converted more.
Some Audio formats include:
Some Audio formats include:
Lossless:
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Lossy:
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Video
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Images
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Why are there so many confusing formats?
The right format needs to be chosen for certain situations. For example, if I wanted to use an image in flash, I would choose a PNG format because it can be transparent. If a format which is not compatible with transparency is used, the effect would be lost when I imported the image. Some formats are good for one thing but worse off for another. For example, if quality was your priority, you might choose an MPEG file. However, the trade off is a large file. If instead if you were looking for a small file size, a different format would be recommended.