What is the most convenient format ...............

Hi there folks,

I have been charged with converting a load of old company films to a digital format.
This I have done and now the the time has come for archiving and setting up easy retrieval.
As this is on a company internal LAN size is of no importance, but compatability with Windows and Media Player is.

So what format should I store these films in, if I want someone to be able to access them on a Windows, just out of the box, laptop or PC with Media Player?

Which would "JUST PLAY" or "Play For Sure" as MS like to call it.

I just want people to be able to download the file and watch it and delete it when they have finished with it. There will be NO streaming facility. I don't want them to have to download any add ons or codecs etc. I just want someone who has just been given a brand new PC or Laptop with Windows and Media Player installed to be able to watch it without having to do anythig other than download it from the intranet storage server in Windows Media Player............

I said size is not important, but of course it is, but compatability on a PC or Laptop that they have just set up is more important...........

Many thanks in advance..........

Why not just use Windows Media Video (WMV)? Guaranteed to play on any Windows machine right out of the box..

The encoder is free from Microsoft..

Edited by deleted (Mon 22-Jun-09 18:45:33)

In reply to a post by Spasch:

Why not just use Windows Media Video (WMV)? Guaranteed to play on any Windows machine right out of the box..

The encoder is free from Microsoft..

I would second this and should lead to minimal problems in playing. on all machines. Sure divx/xvid can compress further than wmv but you would need to install that on every machine ..

Brilliant, that is exactly what I wanted to know thanks, basically I wanted to know what was guaranteed to play on a windows PC or laptop straight out of the box and now I know I can get converting!

Thanks again folks, I really appreciate the time you both took out to reply, it really will help.