Once you have made the decision to add video to your website you will have to consider what video format is most appropriate.  In this article, we at DotDNA.com provide an overview on six (6) popular video formats... 

Moving Picture Experts Group (MPEG) -- This is arguably the most popular video format on the Internet due to its wide-spread use.  This is a good choice if you work with CDs, because you can burn your videos onto CDs

Windows Media (.wmv) -- This is a very popular video format choice.  The format was developed by Microsoft.   The video file size is small, the picture quality is great and the video is compressed.  Therefore, it is an excellent choice for displaying your video on the Internet. 

Audio Video Interleave (.avi) – This video format was also developed by Microsoft, and is of course supported by essentially all computers that use Microsoft Windows.  The AVI format will give you excellent video quality (probably the highest quality of all the formats discussed here), and it has the added benefit of being able to record back to a DV tape.  The major disadvantage is that the AVI video format delivers large file sizes.

Apple QuickTime (.mov) -- QuickTime was developed by Apple.  The QuickTime format is very popular and is an ideal choice for web transmission, but it does not work on a Windows computer without the use of an added component that the user has to install.  The video quality is great, but the file size is large relative to other streaming formats.

Real Media (.rm) -- This format was developed by Real Media, and is an excellent streaming format.  The video quality is good, the file size is small and it is a compressed format.  Real

Shockwave Flash (.swf) -- This format was developed by Macromedia –which was recently purchased by Adobe.  Flash video is a favorite for web developers.  The flash format is fast, has good quality video and gives the developer control over how the video is displayed in the page.