Can anyone tell me what video format to use?

"None of the answers have yet mentioned the PS3, just saying."

That's because you also said "I need to store TV shows on my hard drive in a format that will play on most computers." We are answering for computers, not game players. If you are concerned about PS3, post your question in the games category.

Any Windows system with QuickTime For Windows installed can play all MOV files. Any Windows 7 or 8 system can play MOV files.

Are you talking about 20 years down the line or two years? For 20 years, no one can even guess. We have no idea what format will be popular in 2032.

For two years ahead, it seems MP4 is the best choice, specifically, MPEG-4/H.264 (also called "MPEG-4 AVC" and "MPEG-4 Part 10"). Yes, it is annoying to those troglodytes using Windows XP with only the default Microsoft stuff, but that's there problem for using an 11 year old OS.

AVI is an ancient, not very good format that hangs on after 12 years just because of XP hold-outs. AVI has no support for b-frames. That means it has limited compression ability. In particular, H.264/AVC codec does not work well with AVI, and H.264/AVC is the new trend for the forseeable future in video encoding. AVI also has no support for attachments, such as additional fonts in subtitles. Since modern formats have none of the limitations and all of the advantages of AVI, we should wean ourselves (this mostly applies to Windows XP users) off AVI ASAP.

MPG-2 is another bad choice, since the licensing of that format is controlled by a group that includes Sony, and they impart a huge fee on anyone who wants to use their format. Unless you bought a Sony camcorder, you never need to think about MPG-2.

WMV is totally useless. Microsoft only format that isn't even supported outside of Windows in web pages. Let's not go there.

most mov files already contain MP4.

unfortunately the filename of mov and avi are now non specific as to their contents.

i wouldnt convert anything

try vlc player

otherwise divx.

mp4