MPEG-2 is the native format for all recordings made by the SnapStream Enterprise TV Server. It is the industry standard format for DVD's. An MPEG-2 decoder must be installed before MPEG-2 formatted files can be played on any machine on which Beyond TV is not installed. The MPEG-2 format is comparatively bulky, but it is necessary if the user intends to burn the recording to a DVD using a third-party burning program. The SnapStream DVD Burning utility can automatically transcode other formats during the DVD burning process.
Windows Media is a more efficient format which occupies much less space than the MPEG-2 format at comparable quality. It can be played on any PC with a sufficiently updated version of Windows Media Player. However, using the Windows Media format will preclude time shifting, which enables users to pause and rewind Live TV.
H.264 is compatible with Apple Quicktime, iPod, iPhone and AppleTV. It can be used with SnapStream's iTunes Integration feature.
