MPEG-4 is an open standard developed from the MPEG video standard ISO/IEC 14496, building on MPEG-1 and MPEG-2 and also based in part on Apple QuickTime (.mov). MPEG-4 is still an evolving standard and is divided into a number of parts that are optimized for different purposes. MPEG-4 provides a large and rich set of tools for encoding. MP4 is generally a dissemination/access format. H.264 MPEG-4 Part 10, also AVC (Advanced Video Coding) is at the moment one of the most frequently used format for recording, compression and distribution of video content.   

The FFmpeg tool can help you to convert almost any audio and video file from the command line. It is free to use, and is available for Windows, Linux and Mac operating systems. However, before depositing audiovisual material in the DANS Archive, please always contact DANS for discussion on the available formats/containers and possible migrations.