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What do the various video formats mean?

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RiffTrax is dedicated to providing our fans with the best possible video quality, largest device playback support, and manageable file sizes. We have looked into modern standards and device support, surveyed our beloved fan base, and worked with video encoding specialists to come up with a new set of file formats for our Digital Video content.

With every Digital Video purchase, we offer a base of four different MP4 files for standard definition, and three additional HD MP4 options for our Digital HD titles.
  • Legacy devices: For old devices like the iPod Classic or for people on 28.8 kbs modems.
  • Low: Good quality for people who prefer lower file sizes over higher quality. 
  • Medium: Good quality and file size balance. Recommended for tablet viewing and most modern mobile devices.
  • High (TV): Great quality. Recommended for people wanting to stream to their TV using a media server or set-top boxes like PlayStation, WDTV and Boxee. Can also be used on most modern mobile devices and tablets. 
  • HD Low (720p): Good quality for HD tablet users. Smallest file size of the HD options. 
  • HD Medium (720p): Better quality for tablets, modern mobile devices and TV viewing. 
  • HD High (1080p): Best quality, HUGE file size (~10GB). Perfect for storing on a hard drive, streaming to your TV using a media server or set-top box. This option is the largest file size and best for people with very fast and reliable internet connections.
  • Download to Burn/Burnable DVD Image (feature length B-movies only): For feature-length B-movies, we also offer an .iso file that can be downloaded and burned to a DVD-R. NOTE: Some of our .iso files require a dual-layer burner, which most modern DVD burners are.
We have tested these formats on a wide variety of devices, from iPod Classic to Plex Media Server, WDTV, Roku, AppleTV and more. We will also be adding some metadata to the MP4 files which we hope will help people using media servers like Plex that can read such data.

Previous formats, including DivX and MPEG-2 formats, have been discontinued. If you had been using these formats in the past, we recommend you switch to the Medium or High Quality MP4 formats.

If you run into issues please see other articles in this Knowledge Base, or submit a Help ticket if it is a problem you need our assistance with (and be sure to include all relevant information, errors, etc.)


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