H.264 is a new video codec standard which can achieve high quality video in relatively low bitrates. You can think it as the "successor" of the existing formats (MPEG2, MPEG-4, DivX, XviD, etc.) as it aims in offering similar video quality in half the size of the formats mentioned before.

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Also known as AVC (Advanced Video Coding, MPEG-4 Part 10), H.264 is actually defined in an identical pair of standards maintained by different organizations, together known as the Joint Video Team (JVT). While MPEG-4 Part 10 is an ISO/IEC standard, it was developed in cooperation with the ITU, an organization heavily involved in broadcast television standards. Since the ITU designation for the standard is H.264, you may see MPEG-4 Part 10 video referred to as either AVC or H.264. Both are valid, and refer to the same standard.

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The latest version of ffdshow supports H.264 playback. Please remember, ffdshow is a DirectShow filter so after you install it you'll be able to play H.264 in most video players you already have installed, including Windows Media Player. Alternatively you can download 5KPlayer and VLC player. Both can play H.264 without need of any codec or DirectShow filter. Apple QuickTime players support H.264 too, but their support is not so great for all formats, so don't use them for general H.264 playback. Generally most players or codec packs nowadays include H264 support so you shouldn't have any problems. You may also watch your H.264 files on your Xbox 360 and PSP with smooth playback.

You may come across all kinds of file extensions and still the codec can be H.264:

*.avi - People also use .avi for H.264 videos too!

*.mp4 - QuickTime use this format. Better than AVI as you can store AAC audio as well.

*.m4v - The standard file format for videos for iOS devices developed by Apple.

*.mkv - (Matroska container) - can support many video and audio formats.

*.h264 - Not commonly used, but you may download some video files with this extension name from Internet.

*MPEG-4 - One of the latest (audio and video) compression method standardized by MPEG group, designed especially for low-bandwidth video/audio encoding purposes.

Definition of Both MP4 and H.264

MP4 - a container format, full name is MPEG-4 Part 14, written as .mp4

MP4 is undoubtedly the most popular video format at present, because it allows a combination of audio, video, subtitles and images to be held in the one single file. Moreover, it can be played on nearly all devices, leaving other formats like AVI, WMV, MOV far behind; it can be shared on many online video sites like YouTube. It is usually encoded with H.264/HEVC/MPEG-4 video codec and AAC audio codec.

H.264 - a video codec

H.264, currently one of the frequently-used video codecs, is a popular compression for HD video. Since H.264 can achieve high quality video relatively low bitrates, it's commonly used in AVCHD camcorders, HDTV, Blu-ray, and HD DVD. MP4 (.mp4) is one of the H.264 encoded video formats.

The Difference between MP4 and H.264

From the respective definition above, we can easily see that MP4 is a file container format, while H.264 is actually a video compression codec that requires a video container to host the encoded video. They are different things, not even with the same property. In most cases, H.264 encoded files are MP4 files and they can also be AVI or MKV ones.

Compare MP4 with H.264 formats

File Extension

File Type of MP4: MPEG-4 Video File, developed by Moving Picture Experts Group.

MP4 is currently the most popular video format, commonly used for sharing video files on the Internet and can be played on most devices. The MPEG-4 video is compressed with MPEG-4 video encoding. Audio is compressed using AAC compression.

File Type of H.264: H.264 Encoded Video File

Video file encoded with H.264 compression, which is a popular format for high definition video; often used as the video format for AVCHD camcorders, HDTV, Blu-ray, and HD DVD; generally refers to a video file that is actually an .MP4 file.

MP4 is a file container format, while H.264 is actually a video compression codec that requires a video container to host the encoded video. Most of the time, H.264 refers to MP4 file encoded with H.264 codec, and a file with the ".h264" extension is generally a misnamed .MP4 file (or another supporting container file format such as .AVI or .MKV).

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