BMP vs OGV
A detailed comparison of BMP Image and OGV Video — file size, quality, compatibility, and which format to choose for your workflow.
BMP Image
Raster & Vector ImagesBMP is an uncompressed raster image format native to Windows. Files are large but preserve exact pixel data with no compression artifacts. Rarely used on the web due to file size.
About BMP filesOGV Video
Video FilesOGV (Ogg Video) is an open video format using Theora codec in an Ogg container.
About OGV filesStrengths Comparison
BMP Strengths
- Dead-simple format — trivially easy to read and write.
- Lossless and uncompressed — perfect bit-exact pixel storage.
- Universally supported in Windows applications since 1985.
- Supports 1, 4, 8, 16, 24, and 32-bit color depths.
OGV Strengths
- Patent-free codec (Theora) and container (Ogg).
- Mandatory for Wikipedia uploads — preserves public-domain video.
- Good for small educational clips.
- Open-source reference implementations.
Limitations
BMP Limitations
- Enormous file sizes — no meaningful compression in typical use.
- Not a web format — browsers support it but nobody serves BMPs over HTTP.
- No metadata support (no EXIF, no ICC profile in practice).
- Multiple header versions mean "a BMP" is ambiguous — parsers must handle several variants.
OGV Limitations
- Compression lags H.264 by ~40% at equal quality.
- Hardware decoders never adopted Theora.
- WebM (VP9/AV1) is the modern open-codec choice.
- iOS and Safari never supported Theora natively.
Technical Specifications
| Specification | BMP | OGV |
|---|---|---|
| MIME type | image/bmp | video/ogg |
| Extensions | .bmp, .dib | — |
| Compression | None (typical); RLE 4/8 bit (rare) | — |
| Color depths | 1, 4, 8, 16, 24, 32 bits per pixel | — |
| Byte order | Little-endian | — |
| Extension | — | .ogv |
| Container | — | Ogg |
| Video codec | — | Theora (typical); Dirac, VP8 (rare) |
| Audio codec | — | Vorbis, Opus, FLAC |
Typical File Sizes
BMP
- Small icon (32×32) 4 KB
- Screenshot (1920×1080) ~6 MB
- 4K image (3840×2160) ~25 MB
- Scanned A4 at 300 dpi ~25 MB
OGV
- Short educational clip (1 min, 480p) 8-15 MB
- Wikipedia demo video 5-50 MB
Ready to convert?
Convert between BMP and OGV online, free, and without installing anything. Encrypted upload, automatic deletion after 2 hours.
Frequently Asked Questions
BMP (Bitmap) is a raster image format developed by Microsoft for Windows. It stores images with no compression by default, resulting in large file sizes but pixel-perfect quality. It has been part of Windows since version 1.0.
OGV (OGV Video) is a video container format that bundles one or more video streams, audio tracks, and optional subtitles into a single file. The container format determines how metadata is organised and which codecs can live inside; the visual quality itself depends on the codec (H.264, H.265, VP9, AV1) rather than the OGV wrapper. It is part of the video files family.
BMP files open in Windows Paint, Photos, macOS Preview, GIMP, Photoshop, and virtually any image viewer. All Windows applications support BMP natively.
VLC, MPV and PotPlayer play nearly every OGV file on desktop. Browser support varies: modern Chromium, Firefox and Safari play common containers via the HTML5 <video> tag, but niche OGV variants may fail. If a device refuses your OGV, convert to MP4 with our OGV to MP4 converter for universal playback.
PNG is better than BMP in almost every scenario since it provides lossless compression (smaller files), transparency support, and wider cross-platform use. BMP is mainly relevant for legacy Windows applications.
Upload your OGV to KaijuConverter and pick MP4, MOV, MKV, WebM, or any other target. Our pipeline uses FFmpeg under the hood and stream-copies when codecs are compatible (no quality loss) or transcodes at high-quality defaults otherwise. Conversion runs server-side; both files delete within two hours.