will dragging and dropping mp4 videos from flash drive to flash drive alot cause loss?

[fox64]

Will there be any perceivable loss in video or sound quality if you drag and drop mp4 or any videos from flashdrive to flashdrive to flashdrive alot so you can have the videos over the years?


Or is it something I dont need to worry about?

 

[voyagerfan99]

It's the same answer as your picture saving thread http://www.computerforum.com/thread...to-save-pictures-in-a-lossless-format.235586/. Unless you change between file formats (MPEG to WMV, etc.) you aren't going to lose any quality in video by simply copying the file.

 

[beers]

^ that. Exactly the same answer as your other thread, this isn't a VHS or vinyl record type of situation.

 

[strollin]

As an aside, that's the reason the movie industry doesn't want you to be able to copy a DVD. With the old analog VHS tapes, each copy (generation) caused significant video quality loss so that by about the 3rd generation the quality had deteriorated to the point it wasn't worth copying again. In the case of digital copies, the 1,000th generation will have the exact same video quality as the 1st.

 

[fox64]

I see, so dragging and dropping from one flashdrive to another flashdrive copies it the same?

So if you make a copy of a copy of a copy, will there be any "generation loss"?

 

[johnb35]

No there won't be any loss. A copy is an exact copy.

 

[fox64]

Cool, I see.

I heard someone say something about there being a difference between "copying" and "saving as".
This is where some of my confusion came from.

So "dragging and dropping" is a form of copying?

 

[strollin]

With a video, you won't be able to change it simply by using "Save as" so, in regards to a video, "Save as" or copy or dragging and dropping will result in the same thing. A video needs to be processed frame-by-frame in order to change it from something like an AVI to an MP4, it can't be done in a simple save operation like a photo file.

 

[beers]

So if you make a copy of a copy of a copy, will there be any "generation loss"?

This is the exact same original question, just rehashed. In a digital environment, a copy is an exact bit-for-bit clone of a file.

What exactly is difficult to understand about that?

 

[fox64]

I wanted to make sure we were talking about generation loss (a copy of a copy of a copy).
Not changing format loss (jpg to raw to bmp etc....).

I guess you can say reading about lossy and lossless formats made me paranoid.

 

[voyagerfan99]

There. Is. No. Generation. Loss. When. Copying. Files.