Discussion of file formats used in your information system. Justify your use of these formats

Discuss: Identify issues and provide points for and/or against.
There were various file formats that were used within the information system for the multimedia presentations that were created. This included:

• jpeg: This format was used for most of the images on the hypermedia website. It was easy to manipulate and edit without the actual quality of the image being affected (pixelated).Furthermore the "degree of compression can be adjusted allowing a selectable tradeoff between storage size and image quality". Moreover this format was also used for the background images on the web pages, which were clear. This format was also used for the images which matched the corresponding information, and when it came to adjusting the images to the same size, it stayed clear and was easy to adjust. In terms of file size, jpeg images did not take too much storage space, enabling more storage space for the web pages and videos. Yet a disadvantage to this is, as JPEG loses quality and information every time it is saved.

• png (portable network graphics image): This was used for the logo used within our newsbroadcast video. The logo was created on Microsoft Publisher. As it was used within the newsbroadcast video in every slide, it had to be adjusted to a smaller size. Once done, the image was still clear and the image quality was left unaffected.

• m4a: This is an audio file, that was on iTunes. It was the original format for the background music use for the web pages. When the background music (with this format) was originally placed on the web page, it did not work. Thus it had to be converted to another appropriate file format. The songs required were only in this file format, and so it was vital that they were converted if used. Yet a problem had occurred, as it was converted online, the converting of a file did not work, so the song had to be looked up on Youtube, and converted accordingly.

• wav: This is an audio file. The background music used on the first web page was converted from m4a to wav. Even though the .m4a file was renamed to .wav, obviously this still did not work. So it was converted online by media converter to .wav file ( using a youtube video of the same song). The reason that it was converted to this particular file format, was because in a previous website created by the team, the background music was in this particular file format. 

• m4v: This is a video format, which was used for the welcome video, the newsbroadcast video and the bloopers video. This was the default format for the video when edited on iMovie (Apple application). The video worked and was clear & of good quality, even when it was uploaded onto Sharepoint Designer (which is a Microsoft application). Furthermore when uploaded onto the web page, the video was using Quick Time player to display the video.

• ppt: This is a powerpoint presentation. It is the format used for the p.p. on the question of emerging trends (blogs), for the storyboards (website and video on Google Documents) as well as for the Network Topologies question. As the powerpoint presentation was unable to be viewed on the web pages, SlideShare which used the same file format ,uploaded the presentation, and was able to be embedded within the web page. 

• doc: This is a word document. The downloadable links for the question on transmission media page, is a word document ( for the crossword questions and answers). It enables the student to print out the document. Any person with a computer, who clicks on the downloadable link, will be able to save or open the file and view the document. It is an extremely common file format.

• html: This is web page. It was the default/common format, for the web pages created on Sharepoint Designer. All the web pages were saved in this file format and opened up in any web browser (Internet Explorer, Safari, Firefoz etc….).

Sanea.