knowing your video editing codecs
Knowing your video editing codecs.
So you have decided to try out some video editing your PC or Mac. I would say that knowing your video editing codecs is essential.
What is a video codec?
A video codec is a hardware or software based tool for encoding video. Codecs apply to audio files as well as video.
What are they for? Uncompressed video requires hug amounts of storage space. Without video compression it would be close to impossible to store your SD or HD video on tapes or memory cards.
Video picture quality. The rule is normally that the lower the compression the higher the picture quality. Having said this some of the modern codecs are very efficient at compressing video without picture quality loss.
Video Bitrate. Bitrate is measured in Bits per second of picture information. Broadcast Standard (In the UK) bitrate is 50 mega bits per second. With 4:2:2 colour sampling.
H.264. Is a modern video codec. It is predominantly used for High Definition video on the Internet.
Apple Pro Res. Is used heavily within Apple video editing programmes such as Final Cut Pro.
MPEG 4. Is employed for Blu Ray HD video discs.
AVI. Is a Predominantly Windows PC video codec.
Latest video camcorders. Formats.
Sony are now employing their XAVC recording format which is dedicated to 4K video production. This format empolys MPEG 4. AVC/H encoding for very high picture quality. Content formats are listed below.
- 4K (4096 x 2160 and 3840 x 2160), HD and proxy resolution.
- MPEG-4 AVC/H.264 video compression.
- 12, 10 and 8 bit colour depth.
- Up to 60fps.
- MXF wrapping format can be used.
- 4:4:4, 4:2:2, 4:2:0 colour sampling.
Panasonic cameras such as the Panasonic HCX-1000 use .mov video. This makes life very easy when ingesting video clips into Final Cut Pro. This is due to the fact that FCP X uses, .mov as its native editing codec.
