Case Study: Uses and Formats

Media Players

• Windows Media Player
• Itunes
• VLC
• Realtime
• Quicktime
• Flash Player

Films Trailers are now available via Apple iTunes, the new ‘Wolf Of Wall Street’ is available in full HD on the Apple itunes website and also downscaled for the iPhone/mobile market. The full HD version is displayed in 1920x1080 (16:9) in a lossless .mp4 format, compared to the iPhone version, a 720x576 (16:9) conversion again in lossless .mp4. In order to view the mobile and desktop site version of the trailer, users will need to have a Quicktime player installed on their device.

The film Captain Phillips was released on both DVD and Blu Ray and are availble in most retail stores and can be bought online and rented. You can buy DVD formats or for higher quality there is Blu Ray DVD. DVD's are displayed in 720x576 (4:3) pixels in the frame rate of 25fps and in a lossless MPEG format. Which is the same frame rate that is played for the iPhone  DVD's can play on most media players and can also be played in Blu Ray Players and Consoles. 

Games are one of the most profitable business around making more money then the film and music industry put together, one of the most popular is the new Xbox One. The Xbox One Game Fifa 14 is one of the most successful games on all gaming formats. It's plays on the old xbox 360 console which plays in 1920x1080. But the Xbox One can be displayed in the latest 4k Resolution 3840x2160 (2160p) Xbox One Games can be formatted onto Blu Ray discs which can be played up to 1080HD (16:9) in a lossless MPEG.

Mobile Devices like the new iPhone 5s are excellent for digital video, with companies like Amazon Instant Video and Netflix allowing people to stream films through mobile devices like the iPhone 5s on the go, lots of people are now doing so. The iPhone 5s is displayed in 720x576 (16:9) in a lossless .mp4 format. but as technology keeps moving they're are getting higher resolutions in mobiles. In some cases phones will need certain software like quicktime to play videos but when streaming from youtube or Netflix for example this isn't needed and as the phone as everything it needs formatted into it. 

CD's are a dying craze with mp3 download taking over and illegal downloading but stores like Amazon still sell and HMV still have a large section dedicated to CD's for selling music like the latest NOW album or Ed Sheeran album which all run at a 24-byte frames at lossless .MP£ (Digital Audio).