Wow, this is one of the best, if not the best, videos I've ever seen on this subject! Your presentation was so easy to follow, especially due to your animations! I sure wish I had found this video a couple of weeks ago, because I just spent hours upon hours and days upon days for two weeks learning most of this stuff from many different (hard to follow) sources. If I had come across this video sooner it would have saved me two weeks of living hell. However, it still helps to reinforce what I have learned and helps me "see" it in my head better, and so I'm less likely to forget it. From now on, I will refer to this video whenever I need a reminder. Thank you!!!
Guyus Seralius This might be the kindest comment I have gotten on RUclips so far. Originally, I made this video for a forum where the same questions and confusion came up on a very regular basis, and instead of explaining it every time, I wanted a simple video to link to. I had no idea people would watch and like it so much. :)
seriously dude, I saved this video for reference! I saw so many about conversion and compression and FINALLY you gave me simple words explanation and a solution! Most of the others don't suggest you they just talk... Thank you!
+Konstantinos Bogiatzakis Thanks a lot, man! This is exactly why I made the video in the first place: People on a forum always asked the same questions and I (or others) tried to explain the same principles first. So I made this to have something to link to and save time. :-) Never thought it would be watched this often, but I am seriously happy that it helps, and comments like yours more than make up for the time it took. Thanks again.
+Konstantinos Bogiatzakis Hands down the best explanation in a nutshell I have ever seen. I FINALLY GET IT! Thank you! I have been so confused with it, and there was nothing that really explained it in any of the software I've used...awesome, dude. Big thumbs UP :)
Ran across this video while working on a project. Absolutely brilliant way of the break down for codecs & containers. I don't think is there a better way of explaining the it the way you've done it in this video. Great & priceless video information Mr. Fahrenberger - THANK YOU !!
This is one of the best videos I have ever seen on Codecs. Simple, yet comprehensive. I understand much better now; what I capture in, what I will edit with, and how I will distribute completed files. :-)
Wow, this is one of the most flattering comments I've gotten yet. It's so great to hear that the effort will be for the benefit of students and totally makes it worth the work. Thanks a lot!
Having taught Digital Media in a High School for 7 years up till 2011, I wish I had this as a teaching aid then, to help to explain this highly confusing issue, thank you, very well done!
That is one of the best presentations I've seen. As far as the formats are concerned the Matroska and .avi extensions are widely used among the p2p community, also for converting video files.
Thank you so much for creating & sharing this video. This is by far one of the most well explained content on this subject. Special mention on the simplicity of it, since even a layman like me could easily follow this.
I've been looking for these answers on a lot of videos and they just got me confused! But you man, you did it very nice well explained! Everyone confused about this topic should watch this video. Thanks a lot! Great video!
Thank you Flo for making this wonderful, clear and straight forward video! Imagine how much fun and how easy learning would be if all tutorials were as good as yours! Thanks again!
Outside the Apple and Adobe 'bell jars', Matroska (MKV) IS actually a widely supported container format (and even more so now that Microsoft supports it natively (if containing recognized video formats) in both Windows 8.1 and Windows 10), so I beg to differ. ;) MP4 is also inferior to MKV in terms of soft/hardware player support for advanced metadata features (chapters, multiple subtitles/audio tracks) - and it might force to downgrade the quality of your audio and video streams, since it is much more restrictive in terms of format support. MKV should always be preferred for preservation, since it also allows for lossless video and high definition audio formats. MP4 is mainly suited for quick video distribution - not preservation/archiving purposes. MOV and MXF only exist because of professional conservatism against open standards. Anything else only exist because of outdated hardware restrictions. Roughly put, there is in principle no need for other video container formats than MKV (but industry still refuses to play along, so that is why we still have to mess with dozens of soon obsolete container formats). Much the same can be said about FLAC now that it will also be natively supported by Windows. However, MKV is a great streaming format, whereas FLAC is useless for streaming. As for video formats that is something that is constantly improving. H.265 and maybe VP10 might someday fully replace H.264. As for lossless video, the best free format is probably FFV.
I absolutely and wholeheartedly agree that MKV is a great and highly flexible container. This video however was not meant to show the best codec or container there is, but to tell people who don't know anything about the subject matter, what codec and containers might be good for them. And as much as I love MKV, there are very few hardware players who support it, most editing software will refuse it and even youtube, the very site you are commenting on, does not list MKV as a supported container for uploads, although they do accept it more often than not. So, while the support is getting better and I love to see that, it is still nothing I would recommend to someone who has no idea. In addition, this video was made 3 years ago and things were still looking much bleaker back then. :) To each his own opinion, and you seem to know what you are talking about, but in this case, I don't think I can agree with your statement.
Florian Fahrenberger I forgot to mention that you give some really valuable and information in this video. One of the best I've come across on the subject here on RUclips. :) If I look at a broad range of new consumer hardware used for home cinema (Media Centers, DVD/Blu-ray players, Xbox...), it seems that most of them offer some kind of MKV support: Samsung, Philips, Hitachi, Daewoo, Medion, Panasonic, LG, and even Sony... So what kind of hardware (other than Apple or older hardware) do you mean?
eurositi Thanks a lot. I did actually (really, this is not just a silly reaction) want to thank you for writing such an extensive and useful comment, which is also absolutely not common on youtube. And I am sure people will read it and it will help them. At the time I made this video, MKV files were not supported by my BluRay player, by Windows systems out of the box, and by my Android phone. I know that things have gotten significantly better, and with a decent player like VLC, you can basically play any codec or container on modern devices. Yet those older BluRay players are still around and not gone away in many households. If I want my mom to be able to play back a video, I sadly still can't send her an MKV, which is a shame. And I would still hesitate the container to recommend for uploading on youtube and vimeo, since it is not officially on the "supported" list, even though it works sometimes. But maybe I'll just have to go and do some more research to make an updated version of this video. I mean, by now, the H.265 standard is also out and getting more and more widely supported, which would be another increase in quality. If only I had the time to make more informative videos... :) Thanks again for your comment, I'll definitely upvote it and hope that it will help some people.
This was SO helpful. Thank you so much for making it! I leaned a lot. One suggestion - don't use blue background with orange text. It makes an optical illusion-like effect when viewing, making the content much harder to discern.
VERY HELPFUL! I did not know that mpeg-4 was h.264 this whole time, because whenever I checked on Bandicam for mp4 codecs, that was the only one there. All I want to do is record a flash game in 30 fps (480p is fine) so what should I aim for?
Wow, job well done sir! This is a very, very informative tutorial, packed with tons of concepts, and compressed into a roughly 9 minute long video. Thank you very much for sharing.
Brown Bags I can not answer to your comment directly, the reason might be a G+ account that is not yet linked...? Anyways: From what I see in the camcorder description on the homepage, the .MP4 container option in the HXR-NX3 is thought of as a backup function or to directly upload a version to the net. It is not meant to be of high quality, and can actually be recorded parallel in addition to the 1080-files. More precisely: The 1080-files can be recorded at up to 28Mbit/s, and the .MP4 will only be at 3.5Mbit/s. It will also be at a worse resolution (1280x720) and at a maximum of 30 frames per second. Also: Do you know what the "i" or "p" mean at the end of your resolution numbers, like 1080i/60? They stand for interlaced/progressive frames. This means that at 1080i, the camera will record 60 "half-frames" per second, only saving every second pixel line. You will therefore end up with only 30 full frames per second, and every frame with fast moving objects will have ugly zickzack-lines at the edges. On the other hand, 1080p/60 will just save 60 full frames per second, each one as sharp as the camcorder can produce. There really is no reason to shoot in interlaced mode, unless you have to deliver the final product that way, which might be the case for some TV stations. But even then, you could always interpolate a real 60i image from a 60p image without real quality loss. So: Always shoot "p" if you can! :)
OLDTPBUSER 22 I think it was included in the Apple Loops with Final Cut or Logic. As far as I remember, it was called "Cartoon Theme". Maybe that information and Google will help you. If not, I can look it up in my old project file, but I'd have to search through a lot of data...
Florian Fahrenberger, thank you very much for your video. For the first time I have the ideas more clear. I've been trying for a long time unsuccessfuly to export AVCHD (from a Sony Video camera HDR-CX405) to a mac, but I can't get without loose because as you say in your video it has to be all the files no just the .mts, but no converter take all the files. Only the mts ones and that suppose a big loose. Your converter directly say "Couldn't convert file AVCHD. Sorry". Please is there some way? maybe with the terminal? Thank you in advance.
Hi Florian, thank u for ur video. Very well explained!!..I am new to this .. I shot a video with my sony A7sII slow motion in NTSC 60fps slow motion..The result was a Mp4 output.There were lots of folders in the sony files..I just copied the clip folder which contained the footages and left the rest(Like mediapro.xml/ status.bin/thumbnl) My final output should be in PAL 24fps..I am editing in fcpx. Should I transcode the files into apple pro res first or Proxy( How do I relink afterwards if so) or directly work on mpg4. And how do I convert the NTSC into PAL.. ? Thanks a ton
That was really great. Thank you so much. Trying to get a better grasp on this stuff and that was a wonderful visual presentation on such a complex subject. Well done :)
Wow, what an excellent breakdown of codecs and containers, thank you for taking the time to do this! I agree that AVCHD containers are impractical for ingesting, and keeping the metadata intact. I recently bought a Sony CXR-900 and it only offers AVCHD, and I cannot find a good way to import the videos on my iMac without losing the metadata. Am I forced to buy a professional video editing program to import the clips with their associated metadata?
I have a new Kindle Fire HDX device with 7 inch screen. I am having difficulty utilizing Open Ripper version 3 from DVD-cloner as the Kindle Fire is not listed although many product like Android and IPad are listed.. Could you comment upon your recommendation for the best H.264 video parameters includingsample rates, frame rates, etc., plus pixels HxW to display upon the 7" Kindle Fire HDX screen and the best Audio format between AAC and AC-3 you would recommend. This was excellent video!
It is an excellent breakdown of codecs and containers, i would like to ask that i try to edit MOV file but after editing and saving file in MP4 then the audio and video is not matching and also i loose the quality of video is not same as original plz help me
Thank you for the great Video. Couple of questions. What is a good codec to save a video in if it will be put into a SCORM package so it can be used for streaming to someones computer in a training video series. the average length of those video's are around 30 minutes. Also a separate question. Does the codec I'm using in editing or output have something to do with how the video plays back. For example I do a lot of DSLR video and sometimes during the camera movement in the outputted movie the camera pan's are not very smooth. I'm wondering if this has to do with the codecs used. Thanks very much!
Hi Florian and thanks! I'm sorry for my bad english...I have a new camcorder Legria HF G30 and a MAC Book Pro bought 6 years ago but I'll buy a new Imac in the next week. In your opinion for the best quality video of my DVDs, is better: -to record in AVCHD and then to convert to MPEG4 in the camcorder? -to record in AVCHD and then to convert to IMOV in the MAC? -to record in AVCHD and then to convert to MPEG4 in the MAC? -to record directly in Mpeg4 and then to edit in my Mac? THANKS
Florian, Thanks for the great video and explanation. Very thoughtful and I'm sure it took you a while. I'll be sharing this with video students in the future as it seems to be one of the hardest things to understand (crash!)
I am aware of that. This was supposed to be a very rough overview, and I stick by what I've said. Royalty cost is a pain, but MP3 has is too, just like H.264, and ogg and webm are (sadly) not very well supported. An .avi container with MJPEG video and PCM audio is not very well compressed since PCM is raw and MJPEG is very old. I don't have an XBox or PS3, so it would be interesting to know if .mp4 will not play back on those...? I have had terrible experience with .wmv, then again, I'm on Mac.
Great job Florian. You recommend MTS or MP4 for editing in Final Cut Pro 7. Since they both require conversion, is there any benefit from one over the other? For example the XA20 offers both options. Please advise.
In my style of video editing where I always slide frame-by-frame for the best "cut" it always slows my PC. No wonder whenever I edit a video keeps lagging... and thus I know the reason now why... I am still having problems how to edit the extracted .avc file in my editing software.
So for editing, would you suggest taking the source footage which is most likely interframe codec (likely .mp4), and convert it to intraframe ProRes (as .mov) to then import this in the video editor; then compress the final render with interframe codec again to mp4? Wouldn't that back-and-forth introduce quality loss, even if minor?
GaborBartal Well, yes. The thing is: When rendering out, even if it is to the exact same codec as the input files, your editing software will reencode everything. Even if you don't apply any filters or such and just cut the footage, the key frames will change and the whole video will be rendered newly. The extra step via ProRes will maybe introduce a tiny bit of extra quality loss, but I don't think it is noticeable. If you can really see this difference, you should better shoot with cameras that record raw video or something. ;) To be honest, when I made this video 4 years ago, I always converted to ProRes just to speed up the editing process. By now, computers have gotten so fast that this step can often be left out unless you are working with crazy effects plugins that take forever to render... so I usually just import the original footage and put it on the timeline.
Florian Fahrenberger That is true, my computer has no real problem working with uncompressed source videos, so that's why I was wondering :) But I didn't notice this was done 4 years ago, thanks for the update and info!
Hi Florian, just watched your video from a Mac Rumors post. There were two facts that I did not know, thanks. I have a couple of camcorders and a 70d to shoot my video but I am having a problem with one of the MTS files stuck on the HD on my Sony HDR XR260 camcorder. It is 450mb and will play half way through in camera and then stop, if I go at 2x speed I can play through the glitched spot and then continue to play normally at 1x speed. When I try to copy it to my MBP all the other files will copy over to FCP X but that one. Through the finder I selected the camcorder and showed Package Contents of AVCHD/BDMV/Stream/00019.mts. When I try to copy it to my hd it stops at the midway point. So I am thinking that the file is corrupted but not beyond repair. I tried repairing with Apple's Disk Utility but I am thinking it is just scanning the outer AVCHD container and not the mts files inside. I dl iskysoft's Data recovery a[[ and it can see that files data but don't want to purchase it if it isn't going to recover it. Do you know of any software to repair this file or at least get it onto my video hd?
Sandy Baldwin You are absolutely correct that the file is corrupted but apparently not beyond repair. You can of course try with different software and see if it gives you any result, but I have honestly never tried such a thing. The first thing I would try is copy it via the Terminal and see if that gives you an error message. If yes, you can "deep copy" the file using the "dd" command, which will probably just copy it even if it is corrupted. Type something like "dd if=/Volumes/SD/broken_movie.MTS of=~/Movies/broken_movie.MTS conv=noerror,sync" into the Terminal, this should work. But to recover it, I don't really have a foolproof option and don't think the youtube comments are the best medium for help... :)
Thanks for the video.... just wanted to know the EXACT Differences between codec and container... from what i understand codec is set of frames all compressed and placed in a container for final output... thanks
That was very informative, I'll probably not remember everything, so I expect I'll be watching this video again a few times in the future. Thanks for sharing.
Excellent and clear, thank you. My question is as I use Prosumer Panasonics for video I have a Choice of .MP4 or the AVCDH. Using the Davinci Resolve Editor I would be best dropping my video files to edit as .MP4 and Davinci will take care of the rest?
Well... it's probably gonna be okay. There are two reasons you might consider recording in AVCHD though: Especially in prosumer camcorders, the MP4 recording is often times at a lesser quality (less resolution or bitrate), which is noticeable. I had this problem on some Canon prosumer camcorders. So check your manual for this. You will also have to check if your camcorder model can record longer videos in MP4 if you ever want to do that. The file size on SD cards (at least the FAT formatted ones, which is almost all) is limited to 4GB, so if your video gets longer than a certain time, the MP4 recording can either stop completely or start a new file right afterwards. In my experience, camcorders usually don't do the latter. :-( In AVCHD however, the video can and will be split into file chunks of usually 1GB size and you can record as long as your battery and card space allow. On correct import, the software will just see one long clip. For concerts etc., this is crucial. Hope that helps.
Thank you, I will look into your reply. As for this, "On correct import, the software will just see one long clip." I am still cutting my teeth on DRS, so saying more than that would take pages.
Sorry, my notifications didn't come through... So: The most important thing (if you have already picked an H.264 codec, which most converters will do automatically) is to set the bitrate. The higher the bitrate, the bigger your files will be but the better the quality. Are you working with the Compressor included in Final Cut Studio? In this case, just look for the "RUclips 1080p" setting. It's pretty decent.
HOw do I get one video with multiple bit rates into one container so the video will play on all devices? And what container would be used for that ( mp4, HLS )?
I could use some help. I recorded some dance concerts on my AVCHD camcorder but didnt know enough to import from the flash drive in Powerdirector. Instead I took just the .mts files and used them in Powerdirector and the resulting quality is not very good. I know it can be better because I recorded another dance concert and did import (capture) from the flash drive and the quality was so much better. My end product is for the customer and it is DVD. Is there something I can do with the raw .mts files that will result in good dvd's at this point.
Eric Feinstein I'm guessing that Powerdirector is doing something weird when importing .MTS-files. The quality inside is the exact same, so it must be a software problem. You could try converting them beforehand. Either just switch the container to something like .MOV, for example with the software I linked to in the video description. Or you can convert them to ProRes with "MPEG Streamclip". Both programs are free. If that doesn't work, you should try in a forum for Powerdirector. I don't know the software and I'm sure others have had similar problems. Good luck!
Sandra Bourdonnec I'm sorry, I don't quite understand what you want to know... if you want an answer, you will have to elaborate he question some more...
Enjoyed ........ one Q : I have many .avi videos that I want to convert to mp4. It would seem, that knowing the specs of the avi, it would be easy to convert ...any suggestion on a "bulk" / "batch" type of converter........bonus points for 'free" :-)
This is very helpful presentation. I have one question like how the default media player's of OS like windows media player or android stock player does not supporting much video formats while vlc or mx_player are supporting very formats. Could you please explain the core technical details.
Basically, the programmer of each default media player decides what codecs it will support and what codecs it won't. There is hardly anything you can do about it, but there are some third-party solutions that will install additional codecs into the default player directly. The reasons why some formats are not supported are sometimes the cost (some codec licenses do cost money), sometimes laziness, but mostly political. Meaning: Microsoft knows that many clients' machines will run a simplistic windows. So if you want to deliver to such a client, you will deliver a video codec that Windows Media Player can play natively. So if the player only supports Microsoft-formats, this greatly pushes their codecs. On Android, my guess is that it's mostly for storage room reasons: A mightier player will be bigger and not necessary for many people, and (app) storage space is rare on phones.
Maybe, yes. If you actually only want to change the container (if the .avi already contains an mpeg4 stream of some sort), I programmed a little App called "Video Container Switcher" (it's on sourceforge for free). I did the Mac version, but a nice French guy did a Windows version of it. That will only switch containers and not re-encode the streams. That's very fast and without quality loss. I can't link in a comment, but I'll put it in the video description.
Is there a lossless way to convert AVCHD (.mts and .mt2(?)) to intraframe? I was wondering why it was so taxing on my system to make artistic edits an timing adjustments. Also, I'm working on a Windows based unit w/Corell editing software. Thanks for the info I didn't know I needed.
Sorry, there is no way to do this. Whenever you are changing the actual codec, there will be re-encoding and it will be with some loss and it will demand computing time. And lots of disk space. :( So you can try working with an intraframe codec (many people use the free software "MPEG Streamclip" for conversion) and see if it helps to speed up your workflow.
@Florian Fahrenberger I'm using Final Cut Pro 7 and I'm having rendering problems (ie: my youtube videos look low quality-shot w/Canon T3i & 24-105mm lens) Where can I find the correct import/render codec settings ??? Please help :(
This is very much dependent on the codec. Almost all codecs create pixel blocks of adjacent pixels with the same or similar colors. Sometimes the whole image is Fourier transformed into frequency domain and the higher frequencies are cut off, smoothing out the image to a certain degree. The algorithms are actually very complicated. I don't think I can help you unless you refine your question.
Worked before, now it says mp3 is not supported..... the music portion of the Win Movie Maker does not light up or function.... only the photo and video button next to the music button works....... thanks
I frankly don't understand the question... do you have a file that doesn't work anymore? Can you not watch my video anymore? Sorry, you need to specify if you want me to help you...
On my Canon HF G40 cam It has MP4 and AVCHD as capturing options. MP4 at 35kbps and AVCHD at 28kbps. Which is better for capturing? To my eye they both look the same but sometimes AVCHD looks better.
My best advice would be to check the camcorder manual. I have not used the G40 myself, but for the previous models, there was a very clear phrase in the format description like "For the highest possible quality, use this and this setting.". :-)
Here's my understanding (We use a G10, AVCHD-only model): The highest quality to view would be the AVCHD. You might use this IF 1. You want to play output direct from your camera (i.e. uncompressed), or 2. your editor works with AVCHD. (I use Magix Video ProX, which does brilliantly.). You would definitely want to Use AVCHD if your intended output is BlueRay. However, in other casese - for ease of export and versatility of options, use MP4. You can immediately use the footage (without editing). Or you can edit, and reduce file size. MP4 is seemingly universally versatile for editors and playback devices. So, if the quality of MP4 is fine, and you are not outputting to bluray, it is probably in most cases more flexible and simply easier to stay fully in MP4.
my uncle has an old box t.v and it is connected to a d.v.d player which also has a u.s.b slot but when i try to play a video which i encoded in h.264 codec and .mp4 container, it says the file isnt supported. which format should i export in so as to play in that almost 8 years old t.v.?
Tough to say without knowing the brand. H.264 has existed for 14 years now, but it took a while until all brands implemented it, so it might well be that your uncle's DVD player does not. If you want to be absolutely sure, you can encode in MPEG-2 and save in an .mpeg container. That is essentially what DVDs are and any DVD player should be able to play it. The quality won't be as great using the same bitrate, but you can crank the bitrate up to a degree and get comparable results (with bigger files, obviously). I hope that helps. Tough to say with so little information...
EXCELLENT explanation! thank you! question tho... why does it seem to be so difficult to simply change a video's container? for example, when i download ".avi" & ".mkv" video's from the internet & want to watch them on my Apple devices (iPhone, iPad, Apple TV), i need them to be ".mp4" video's instead. i don't want to spend the TIME to go thru the whole "conversion" process with apps like Handbrake when it seems you can simply change their containers out with apps like Mkv2Mp4 or the old Video Container Switcher in a fraction of the time. problem is, when i use those utilities, various problems arise like having mp4's with audio out of sync or no audio at all & sometimes jittery video. i love the speed of these container switcher apps but why don't the video's play exactly the same since they're not actually converting the codecs & such?
Well, the role of the container has been simplified to its most relevant parts in this video explanation. The problem is usually: The more modern and advanced the encoder, the more complex the encoding and the relation between the streams and the container becomes. For example, to preserve quality and save disk space, an encoder can nowadays vary the video and audio bitrates constantly and even change video frame rates or audio sampling rate during the film to accommodate for more or less changes in a scene. The problems then usually arise in the "multiplexing" or short "muxing" of the two streams. Essentially, the container stores information at which points the two streams should be stitched together, there can be one of those points (the beginning) or several during the video playtime. And if the conversion is complex and not straight forward, this demuxing and muxing can lead to errors, usually audio and video being out of sync, if the source does wild stuff with frame rates, sampling rates or bitrates...
Thanks a lot, I had not seen this H.264 episode by indymogul. And I'm certainly not trying to compete with them. :) I was just getting annoyed by having to explain this exact same thing on forums over and over. Now I'll just post a link to this video. :)
Thank you for your clarity and excellent work in making this video. Beautifully done! I need to edit several DVDs to fix picture quality and add Titles and info , trim out bad sections. and fix the audio where needed. What conversion format should I use ? I was thinking H264 but can a new DVD be burned without converting again first? After the fixes, I need to burn these to DVD again without losing quality. How should I go about this? I am using a Mac.These will be viewed on TVs and also for classes projected onto a large screen. Quality is important.
+arisingmusic1 Are those really DVDs? Not BluRays? In SD (standard definition)? And they are definitely supposed to be again burned to DVD afterwards? On a Mac, are you using iMovie for this? Or do you have any other professional editing software? Just for information: Whenever you change anything in the video (like an edit or improving the picture), it has to be reencoded and you can't just keep the original data in any way. DVDs exclusively use MPEG2 for a codec, so H264 in this case does not make sense since it needs to be reencoded. In any case, H.264 probably doesn't make sense. If quality is important, I would probably convert the DVD to a ProRes codec and edit it. You can do that either with e.g. iMovie directly or with a free tool like MPEG Streamclip (from Squared 5). Then in the end when you are finished just export the file with a "DVD high quality" preset, something like that should be available in any editing software. It is almost certain that the exporting quality of your software will be better than if you export to H264 and then do the conversion via your DVD burning tool. Just to encourage you: Unless you really do something very wrong, the exporting and reencoding will probably not degrade your DVD video to a very noticeable degree. So you should mostly concentrate on the editing which will probably be more important.
+Florian Fahrenberger Hi Florian Thanks for replying so quickly These are not Bluray- the dvd content was converted and transferred from either VCR or Hi8 analog videotatpe.. I dont want to use i movie because the files will be so Huge. These videos are mostly of someone teaching . Could we communicate by email?
Sorry to hear that. I have never worked with Windows Movie Maker, but heard terrible things about it. Great free alternatives are "avidemux" for simple editing and "lightworks" for more professional stuff (google them), maybe you would rather want to go with one of these? If you send me a private message and tell me what camera exactly you have or want to buy, I can maybe help you importing footage. From this rant, I can't really tell a lot...
Great video, but no explanation of Google's VP8 or VP9 though, that offer 50% compression gains on h264...is this good/bad/ugly for users, and should we be using them instead?
Any tips on how to display the date/time metadata in the the final product? I need this for evidence all my surveillance video? I know there are some programs out there that can read the data and burn it on the image, but I have not found one that works very well.
Sorry, I have only done that once and essentially manually. I don't know any automatic program that does that. You might find that your camcorder is able to do this, they sometimes are. But the newer models probably got rid of that feature since the date is stored in the metadata and does not need to be on screen...
HOLY F**K! the clarity and practicality of this video is Mind Boggling. Some one gives this man a medal
Wow, this is one of the best, if not the best, videos I've ever seen on this subject! Your presentation was so easy to follow, especially due to your animations! I sure wish I had found this video a couple of weeks ago, because I just spent hours upon hours and days upon days for two weeks learning most of this stuff from many different (hard to follow) sources. If I had come across this video sooner it would have saved me two weeks of living hell. However, it still helps to reinforce what I have learned and helps me "see" it in my head better, and so I'm less likely to forget it. From now on, I will refer to this video whenever I need a reminder. Thank you!!!
Guyus Seralius This might be the kindest comment I have gotten on RUclips so far. Originally, I made this video for a forum where the same questions and confusion came up on a very regular basis, and instead of explaining it every time, I wanted a simple video to link to. I had no idea people would watch and like it so much. :)
Florian Fahrenberger
I agree. Excellent stuff.
Guyus Seralius gg
Guyus Seralius gg
Guyus Seralius itrue
seriously dude, I saved this video for reference! I saw so many about conversion and compression and FINALLY you gave me simple words explanation and a solution! Most of the others don't suggest you they just talk... Thank you!
+Konstantinos Bogiatzakis Thanks a lot, man! This is exactly why I made the video in the first place: People on a forum always asked the same questions and I (or others) tried to explain the same principles first. So I made this to have something to link to and save time. :-) Never thought it would be watched this often, but I am seriously happy that it helps, and comments like yours more than make up for the time it took. Thanks again.
+Konstantinos Bogiatzakis Hands down the best explanation in a nutshell I have ever seen. I FINALLY GET IT! Thank you! I have been so confused with it, and there was nothing that really explained it in any of the software I've used...awesome, dude. Big thumbs UP :)
damn that orange text on the blue background is really fuckin up my eyes man
Ran across this video while working on a project. Absolutely brilliant way of the break down for codecs & containers. I don't think is there a better way of explaining the it the way you've done it in this video. Great & priceless video information Mr. Fahrenberger - THANK YOU !!
good job man, my eyes are bleeding now because of contrast. next time try green on red
Me too
the green text will look fade, better yellow on a blue background
Felt confident seeing and reviewing this succinct seminar before a job interview.
Very VERY well explained! It holds true even still, even if the standards are slowly evolving. Thank you very much!
boy, this guy explained it well. make more videos man! spread the knowledge. God bless ya
BEST 10 minutes on Codecs and Containers I've come across! Took notes. Great stuff!
This is one of the best videos I have ever seen on Codecs. Simple, yet comprehensive. I understand much better now; what I capture in, what I will edit with, and how I will distribute completed files. :-)
Wow, this is one of the most flattering comments I've gotten yet. It's so great to hear that the effort will be for the benefit of students and totally makes it worth the work. Thanks a lot!
Having taught Digital Media in a High School for 7 years up till 2011, I wish I had this as a teaching aid then, to help to explain this highly confusing issue, thank you, very well done!
That is one of the best presentations I've seen. As far as the formats are concerned the Matroska and .avi extensions are widely used among the p2p community, also for converting video files.
Thank you so much for creating & sharing this video. This is by far one of the most well explained content on this subject.
Special mention on the simplicity of it, since even a layman like me could easily follow this.
I've been looking for these answers on a lot of videos and they just got me confused! But you man, you did it very nice well explained! Everyone confused about this topic should watch this video. Thanks a lot! Great video!
This video is immensely useful. Sir I appreciate your work. One of the best explanatory videos I've come a crossed.
Thank you Flo for making this wonderful, clear and straight forward video! Imagine how much fun and how easy learning would be if all tutorials were as good as yours! Thanks again!
6 years later, still a great explanation! Thanks a lot!
I think this video is a great addition to yours. Both videos are helpful and become even more powerful together.
Thank you Fahrenberger. You really explained codecs and containers in a straightforward way and I learned a lot.
Sorry, everyone. Notifications for comments didn't get through to me for the past weeks... I only notice the comments now.
Outside the Apple and Adobe 'bell jars', Matroska (MKV) IS actually a widely supported container format (and even more so now that Microsoft supports it natively (if containing recognized video formats) in both Windows 8.1 and Windows 10), so I beg to differ. ;)
MP4 is also inferior to MKV in terms of soft/hardware player support for advanced metadata features (chapters, multiple subtitles/audio tracks) - and it might force to downgrade the quality of your audio and video streams, since it is much more restrictive in terms of format support.
MKV should always be preferred for preservation, since it also allows for lossless video and high definition audio formats.
MP4 is mainly suited for quick video distribution - not preservation/archiving purposes.
MOV and MXF only exist because of professional conservatism against open standards.
Anything else only exist because of outdated hardware restrictions.
Roughly put, there is in principle no need for other video container formats than MKV (but industry still refuses to play along, so that is why we still have to mess with dozens of soon obsolete container formats).
Much the same can be said about FLAC now that it will also be natively supported by Windows. However, MKV is a great streaming format, whereas FLAC is useless for streaming.
As for video formats that is something that is constantly improving. H.265 and maybe VP10 might someday fully replace H.264. As for lossless video, the best free format is probably FFV.
I absolutely and wholeheartedly agree that MKV is a great and highly flexible container. This video however was not meant to show the best codec or container there is, but to tell people who don't know anything about the subject matter, what codec and containers might be good for them. And as much as I love MKV, there are very few hardware players who support it, most editing software will refuse it and even youtube, the very site you are commenting on, does not list MKV as a supported container for uploads, although they do accept it more often than not.
So, while the support is getting better and I love to see that, it is still nothing I would recommend to someone who has no idea. In addition, this video was made 3 years ago and things were still looking much bleaker back then. :)
To each his own opinion, and you seem to know what you are talking about, but in this case, I don't think I can agree with your statement.
Florian Fahrenberger I forgot to mention that you give some really valuable and information in this video. One of the best I've come across on the subject here on RUclips. :)
If I look at a broad range of new consumer hardware used for home cinema (Media Centers, DVD/Blu-ray players, Xbox...), it seems that most of them offer some kind of MKV support: Samsung, Philips, Hitachi, Daewoo, Medion, Panasonic, LG, and even Sony... So what kind of hardware (other than Apple or older hardware) do you mean?
eurositi Thanks a lot. I did actually (really, this is not just a silly reaction) want to thank you for writing such an extensive and useful comment, which is also absolutely not common on youtube. And I am sure people will read it and it will help them.
At the time I made this video, MKV files were not supported by my BluRay player, by Windows systems out of the box, and by my Android phone. I know that things have gotten significantly better, and with a decent player like VLC, you can basically play any codec or container on modern devices. Yet those older BluRay players are still around and not gone away in many households. If I want my mom to be able to play back a video, I sadly still can't send her an MKV, which is a shame. And I would still hesitate the container to recommend for uploading on youtube and vimeo, since it is not officially on the "supported" list, even though it works sometimes.
But maybe I'll just have to go and do some more research to make an updated version of this video. I mean, by now, the H.265 standard is also out and getting more and more widely supported, which would be another increase in quality. If only I had the time to make more informative videos... :)
Thanks again for your comment, I'll definitely upvote it and hope that it will help some people.
Florian-- GREAT video with vivid and lucid explanations of a sometimes difficult and arcane subject. BRAVO! Zehr Gut!
This made my day. I am very happy that this video is still helping people.
Hi Flo,
Beautifully clear and concise explanation.
Thanks!
TY! You've made this confounding topic easy to understand and implement. Best info video I'se seen on the subject
This was SO helpful. Thank you so much for making it! I leaned a lot. One suggestion - don't use blue background with orange text. It makes an optical illusion-like effect when viewing, making the content much harder to discern.
VERY HELPFUL!
I did not know that mpeg-4 was h.264 this whole time, because whenever I checked on Bandicam for mp4 codecs, that was the only one there. All I want to do is record a flash game in 30 fps (480p is fine) so what should I aim for?
Wow, job well done sir! This is a very, very informative tutorial, packed with tons of concepts, and compressed into a roughly 9 minute long video. Thank you very much for sharing.
PERFECT !
PERFECT !
PERFECT !
Many thanks for this thorough tutorial on this complicated subject.
Brown Bags I can not answer to your comment directly, the reason might be a G+ account that is not yet linked...?
Anyways: From what I see in the camcorder description on the homepage, the .MP4 container option in the HXR-NX3 is thought of as a backup function or to directly upload a version to the net. It is not meant to be of high quality, and can actually be recorded parallel in addition to the 1080-files. More precisely: The 1080-files can be recorded at up to 28Mbit/s, and the .MP4 will only be at 3.5Mbit/s. It will also be at a worse resolution (1280x720) and at a maximum of 30 frames per second.
Also: Do you know what the "i" or "p" mean at the end of your resolution numbers, like 1080i/60? They stand for interlaced/progressive frames. This means that at 1080i, the camera will record 60 "half-frames" per second, only saving every second pixel line. You will therefore end up with only 30 full frames per second, and every frame with fast moving objects will have ugly zickzack-lines at the edges. On the other hand, 1080p/60 will just save 60 full frames per second, each one as sharp as the camcorder can produce. There really is no reason to shoot in interlaced mode, unless you have to deliver the final product that way, which might be the case for some TV stations. But even then, you could always interpolate a real 60i image from a 60p image without real quality loss. So: Always shoot "p" if you can! :)
Very good video.
OLDTPBUSER 22 I think it was included in the Apple Loops with Final Cut or Logic. As far as I remember, it was called "Cartoon Theme". Maybe that information and Google will help you. If not, I can look it up in my old project file, but I'd have to search through a lot of data...
Florian Fahrenberger Hi, great video! Can you tell me what x264 codec is? Is it the same as H264?
mintik Yes, basically. "x264" is an open source encoder for H.264.
Florian Fahrenberger
tx for the quick reply (y)
Such a great summation of important info. I'm very grateful for the overview! Thank you!
Florian Fahrenberger, thank you very much for your video. For the first time I have the ideas more clear.
I've been trying for a long time unsuccessfuly to export AVCHD (from a Sony Video camera HDR-CX405) to a mac, but I can't get without loose because as you say in your video it has to be all the files no just the .mts, but no converter take all the files. Only the mts ones and that suppose a big loose. Your converter directly say "Couldn't convert file AVCHD. Sorry".
Please is there some way? maybe with the terminal?
Thank you in advance.
Thank you so much your lecture make me more valuable %
can you sagest/tell me any particular software which can be use to compress
vidoes/movies,
Hi Florian, thank u for ur video. Very well explained!!..I am new to this .. I shot a video with my sony A7sII slow motion in NTSC 60fps slow motion..The result was a Mp4 output.There were lots of folders in the sony files..I just copied the clip folder which contained the footages and left the rest(Like mediapro.xml/ status.bin/thumbnl) My final output should be in PAL 24fps..I am editing in fcpx. Should I transcode the files into apple pro res first or Proxy( How do I relink afterwards if so) or directly work on mpg4. And how do I convert the NTSC into PAL.. ? Thanks a ton
I'm glad someone explained this in simple terms I do think the industry has made it deliberately complicated for the lay person though...
This is an outstanding talk about a complicated subject. Well done!
That was really great. Thank you so much. Trying to get a better grasp on this stuff and that was a wonderful visual presentation on such a complex subject. Well done :)
Wow, what an excellent breakdown of codecs and containers, thank you for taking the time to do this!
I agree that AVCHD containers are impractical for ingesting, and keeping the metadata intact. I recently bought a Sony CXR-900 and it only offers AVCHD, and I cannot find a good way to import the videos on my iMac without losing the metadata. Am I forced to buy a professional video editing program to import the clips with their associated metadata?
Excellent presentation of this confusing topic!! Thank you for clearly explaining this!
This has confused me for so many years. Thank you good sir.
I have a new Kindle Fire HDX device with 7 inch screen.
I am having difficulty utilizing Open Ripper version 3 from DVD-cloner as the Kindle Fire is not listed although many product like Android and IPad are listed..
Could you comment upon your recommendation for the best H.264 video parameters includingsample rates, frame rates, etc., plus pixels HxW to display upon the 7" Kindle Fire HDX screen and the best Audio format between AAC and AC-3 you would recommend.
This was excellent video!
Incredibly helpful, thanks!
It is an excellent breakdown of codecs and containers, i would like to ask that i try to edit MOV file but after editing and saving file in MP4 then the audio and video is not matching and also i loose the quality of video is not same as original plz help me
Thank you for the great Video. Couple of questions. What is a good codec to save a video in if it will be put into a SCORM package so it can be used for streaming to someones computer in a training video series. the average length of those video's are around 30 minutes. Also a separate question. Does the codec I'm using in editing or output have something to do with how the video plays back. For example I do a lot of DSLR video and sometimes during the camera movement in the outputted movie the camera pan's are not very smooth. I'm wondering if this has to do with the codecs used. Thanks very much!
Super hero, thank you for this nice tutorial.
Could you explain what are the difference between mpeg1, 2, 3, and 4?
I have been looking for a tutorial like this.
Very clear, very instructive. Thanks!
this is the best video i've seen that explains codecs in the simplest yet detailed form...thank you so much :)
See, it's comments like this that totally make the video worth doing. :) Thanks for the encouragement!
This is a very good video...simply explaining complex things...well done!
Hi Florian and thanks!
I'm sorry for my bad english...I have a new camcorder Legria HF G30 and a MAC Book Pro bought 6 years ago but I'll buy a new Imac in the next week.
In your opinion for the best quality video of my DVDs, is better:
-to record in AVCHD and then to convert to MPEG4 in the camcorder?
-to record in AVCHD and then to convert to IMOV in the MAC?
-to record in AVCHD and then to convert to MPEG4 in the MAC?
-to record directly in Mpeg4 and then to edit in my Mac?
THANKS
Wow that was exactly what I needed, and well made! Great work man!
Dude.. any player for X265 HEVC video file. i tried almost every player including VLC, KMPLAYER, GOM PLAYER, POT PLAYER. none are working smoothly.
Very creative video and a very easy to follow demonstration. Great job!!!
Florian,
Thanks for the great video and explanation. Very thoughtful and I'm sure it took you a while. I'll be sharing this with video students in the future as it seems to be one of the hardest things to understand (crash!)
Thanks so much for your video. I learned so much. Very kind of you to put it out there.
I am aware of that. This was supposed to be a very rough overview, and I stick by what I've said. Royalty cost is a pain, but MP3 has is too, just like H.264, and ogg and webm are (sadly) not very well supported. An .avi container with MJPEG video and PCM audio is not very well compressed since PCM is raw and MJPEG is very old.
I don't have an XBox or PS3, so it would be interesting to know if .mp4 will not play back on those...? I have had terrible experience with .wmv, then again, I'm on Mac.
Great job Florian. You recommend MTS or MP4 for editing in Final Cut Pro 7. Since they both require conversion, is there any benefit from one over the other? For example the XA20 offers both options. Please advise.
In my style of video editing where I always slide frame-by-frame for the best "cut" it always slows my PC. No wonder whenever I edit a video keeps lagging... and thus I know the reason now why...
I am still having problems how to edit the extracted .avc file in my editing software.
Thanks. I finally understood the difference between codecs and containers.
Excellent video...thanks for the explanation.
Thank you, Florian. Very useful. I'll share with my filmmaking students.
Great guide! Thank you.
Little comment: its hard to read orange letters on blue background.
Nice presentation so that any one can understand. Thanks.
So for editing, would you suggest taking the source footage which is most likely interframe codec (likely .mp4), and convert it to intraframe ProRes (as .mov) to then import this in the video editor; then compress the final render with interframe codec again to mp4?
Wouldn't that back-and-forth introduce quality loss, even if minor?
GaborBartal Well, yes. The thing is: When rendering out, even if it is to the exact same codec as the input files, your editing software will reencode everything. Even if you don't apply any filters or such and just cut the footage, the key frames will change and the whole video will be rendered newly. The extra step via ProRes will maybe introduce a tiny bit of extra quality loss, but I don't think it is noticeable. If you can really see this difference, you should better shoot with cameras that record raw video or something. ;)
To be honest, when I made this video 4 years ago, I always converted to ProRes just to speed up the editing process. By now, computers have gotten so fast that this step can often be left out unless you are working with crazy effects plugins that take forever to render... so I usually just import the original footage and put it on the timeline.
Florian Fahrenberger That is true, my computer has no real problem working with uncompressed source videos, so that's why I was wondering :) But I didn't notice this was done 4 years ago, thanks for the update and info!
Hi Florian, just watched your video from a Mac Rumors post. There were two facts that I did not know, thanks.
I have a couple of camcorders and a 70d to shoot my video but I am having a problem with one of the MTS files stuck on the HD on my Sony HDR XR260 camcorder. It is 450mb and will play half way through in camera and then stop, if I go at 2x speed I can play through the glitched spot and then continue to play normally at 1x speed.
When I try to copy it to my MBP all the other files will copy over to FCP X but that one. Through the finder I selected the camcorder and showed Package Contents of AVCHD/BDMV/Stream/00019.mts. When I try to copy it to my hd it stops at the midway point. So I am thinking that the file is corrupted but not beyond repair. I tried repairing with Apple's Disk Utility but I am thinking it is just scanning the outer AVCHD container and not the mts files inside.
I dl iskysoft's Data recovery a[[ and it can see that files data but don't want to purchase it if it isn't going to recover it. Do you know of any software to repair this file or at least get it onto my video hd?
Sandy Baldwin You are absolutely correct that the file is corrupted but apparently not beyond repair. You can of course try with different software and see if it gives you any result, but I have honestly never tried such a thing. The first thing I would try is copy it via the Terminal and see if that gives you an error message. If yes, you can "deep copy" the file using the "dd" command, which will probably just copy it even if it is corrupted. Type something like "dd if=/Volumes/SD/broken_movie.MTS of=~/Movies/broken_movie.MTS conv=noerror,sync" into the Terminal, this should work. But to recover it, I don't really have a foolproof option and don't think the youtube comments are the best medium for help... :)
Thanks for the video.... just wanted to know the EXACT Differences between codec and container... from what i understand codec is set of frames all compressed and placed in a container for final output... thanks
That was very informative, I'll probably not remember everything, so I expect I'll be watching this video again a few times in the future.
Thanks for sharing.
Could I find a song checking the audio files while I inspect the elements of a youtube videos?
Excellent and clear, thank you. My question is as I use Prosumer Panasonics for video I have a Choice of .MP4 or the AVCDH. Using the Davinci Resolve Editor I would be best dropping my video files to edit as .MP4 and Davinci will take care of the rest?
Well... it's probably gonna be okay. There are two reasons you might consider recording in AVCHD though: Especially in prosumer camcorders, the MP4 recording is often times at a lesser quality (less resolution or bitrate), which is noticeable. I had this problem on some Canon prosumer camcorders. So check your manual for this.
You will also have to check if your camcorder model can record longer videos in MP4 if you ever want to do that. The file size on SD cards (at least the FAT formatted ones, which is almost all) is limited to 4GB, so if your video gets longer than a certain time, the MP4 recording can either stop completely or start a new file right afterwards. In my experience, camcorders usually don't do the latter. :-( In AVCHD however, the video can and will be split into file chunks of usually 1GB size and you can record as long as your battery and card space allow. On correct import, the software will just see one long clip. For concerts etc., this is crucial.
Hope that helps.
Thank you, I will look into your reply. As for this, "On correct import, the software will just see one long clip." I am still cutting my teeth on DRS, so saying more than that would take pages.
Wonderful and Excellent explanation. Thanks very much..God bless u
It was great to hear you sir, I think i have founf my Guru of Compression. I will ask some questions in my next comments Thanks
Sorry, my notifications didn't come through...
So: The most important thing (if you have already picked an H.264 codec, which most converters will do automatically) is to set the bitrate. The higher the bitrate, the bigger your files will be but the better the quality.
Are you working with the Compressor included in Final Cut Studio? In this case, just look for the "RUclips 1080p" setting. It's pretty decent.
Missing codec: Windows Media Video 8 (WMV2).
Any idea where the heck i can download this for windows media player 11 vista 32 bit spk-2
HOw do I get one video with multiple bit rates into one container so the video will play on all devices? And what container would be used for that ( mp4, HLS )?
I could use some help. I recorded some dance concerts on my AVCHD camcorder but didnt know enough to import from the flash drive in Powerdirector. Instead I took just the .mts files and used them in Powerdirector and the resulting quality is not very good. I know it can be better because I recorded another dance concert and did import (capture) from the flash drive and the quality was so much better. My end product is for the customer and it is DVD. Is there something I can do with the raw .mts files that will result in good dvd's at this point.
Eric Feinstein I'm guessing that Powerdirector is doing something weird when importing .MTS-files. The quality inside is the exact same, so it must be a software problem. You could try converting them beforehand. Either just switch the container to something like .MOV, for example with the software I linked to in the video description. Or you can convert them to ProRes with "MPEG Streamclip". Both programs are free.
If that doesn't work, you should try in a forum for Powerdirector. I don't know the software and I'm sure others have had similar problems. Good luck!
Hello Florian, thank you very much for the video. :-) Could you tell me about Video format also ??? Thanks a lot (for movies screened for Cinema)
Sandra Bourdonnec I'm sorry, I don't quite understand what you want to know... if you want an answer, you will have to elaborate he question some more...
Enjoyed ........ one Q : I have many .avi videos that I want to convert to mp4. It would seem, that knowing the specs of the avi, it would be easy to convert ...any suggestion on a "bulk" / "batch" type of converter........bonus points for 'free" :-)
This is very helpful presentation.
I have one question like how the default media player's of OS like windows media player or android stock player does not supporting much video formats while vlc or mx_player are supporting very formats. Could you please explain the core technical details.
Basically, the programmer of each default media player decides what codecs it will support and what codecs it won't. There is hardly anything you can do about it, but there are some third-party solutions that will install additional codecs into the default player directly.
The reasons why some formats are not supported are sometimes the cost (some codec licenses do cost money), sometimes laziness, but mostly political. Meaning: Microsoft knows that many clients' machines will run a simplistic windows. So if you want to deliver to such a client, you will deliver a video codec that Windows Media Player can play natively. So if the player only supports Microsoft-formats, this greatly pushes their codecs.
On Android, my guess is that it's mostly for storage room reasons: A mightier player will be bigger and not necessary for many people, and (app) storage space is rare on phones.
Florian Fahrenberger Thanks for your quick response..
Maybe, yes. If you actually only want to change the container (if the .avi already contains an mpeg4 stream of some sort), I programmed a little App called "Video Container Switcher" (it's on sourceforge for free). I did the Mac version, but a nice French guy did a Windows version of it. That will only switch containers and not re-encode the streams. That's very fast and without quality loss. I can't link in a comment, but I'll put it in the video description.
Excellent video. Thanks. Wow video is complicated. Really appreciate you trying to explain it.
Great Video.!!. Can you help me with some videos related to DXVA 1.0 and 2.0 and how does they work ..
Please tell me which exporting format is good for high quality video in PC...premier pro CC15
Is there a lossless way to convert AVCHD (.mts and .mt2(?)) to intraframe? I was wondering why it was so taxing on my system to make artistic edits an timing adjustments. Also, I'm working on a Windows based unit w/Corell editing software. Thanks for the info I didn't know I needed.
Sorry, there is no way to do this. Whenever you are changing the actual codec, there will be re-encoding and it will be with some loss and it will demand computing time. And lots of disk space. :( So you can try working with an intraframe codec (many people use the free software "MPEG Streamclip" for conversion) and see if it helps to speed up your workflow.
@Florian Fahrenberger I'm using Final Cut Pro 7 and I'm having rendering problems (ie: my youtube videos look low quality-shot w/Canon T3i & 24-105mm lens) Where can I find the correct import/render codec settings ??? Please help :(
Excellent explanation. Thanks very much.
this is very helpful presentation.....
thanks.....
how the frames are compressed and decompressed in interframe codecs
This is very much dependent on the codec. Almost all codecs create pixel blocks of adjacent pixels with the same or similar colors. Sometimes the whole image is Fourier transformed into frequency domain and the higher frequencies are cut off, smoothing out the image to a certain degree.
The algorithms are actually very complicated. I don't think I can help you unless you refine your question.
Worked before, now it says mp3 is not supported..... the music portion of the Win Movie Maker does not light up or function.... only the photo and video button next to the music button works....... thanks
I frankly don't understand the question... do you have a file that doesn't work anymore? Can you not watch my video anymore? Sorry, you need to specify if you want me to help you...
On my Canon HF G40 cam It has MP4 and AVCHD as capturing options. MP4 at 35kbps and AVCHD at 28kbps. Which is better for capturing? To my eye they both look the same but sometimes AVCHD looks better.
My best advice would be to check the camcorder manual. I have not used the G40 myself, but for the previous models, there was a very clear phrase in the format description like "For the highest possible quality, use this and this setting.". :-)
Here's my understanding (We use a G10, AVCHD-only model): The highest quality to view would be the AVCHD. You might use this IF 1. You want to play output direct from your camera (i.e. uncompressed), or 2. your editor works with AVCHD. (I use Magix Video ProX, which does brilliantly.). You would definitely want to Use AVCHD if your intended output is BlueRay. However, in other casese - for ease of export and versatility of options, use MP4. You can immediately use the footage (without editing). Or you can edit, and reduce file size. MP4 is seemingly universally versatile for editors and playback devices. So, if the quality of MP4 is fine, and you are not outputting to bluray, it is probably in most cases more flexible and simply easier to stay fully in MP4.
my uncle has an old box t.v and it is connected to a d.v.d player which also has a u.s.b slot but when i try to play a video which i encoded in h.264 codec and .mp4 container, it says the file isnt supported. which format should i export in so as to play in that almost 8 years old t.v.?
Tough to say without knowing the brand. H.264 has existed for 14 years now, but it took a while until all brands implemented it, so it might well be that your uncle's DVD player does not.
If you want to be absolutely sure, you can encode in MPEG-2 and save in an .mpeg container. That is essentially what DVDs are and any DVD player should be able to play it. The quality won't be as great using the same bitrate, but you can crank the bitrate up to a degree and get comparable results (with bigger files, obviously).
I hope that helps. Tough to say with so little information...
EXCELLENT explanation! thank you!
question tho... why does it seem to be so difficult to simply change a video's container? for example, when i download ".avi" & ".mkv" video's from the internet & want to watch them on my Apple devices (iPhone, iPad, Apple TV), i need them to be ".mp4" video's instead. i don't want to spend the TIME to go thru the whole "conversion" process with apps like Handbrake when it seems you can simply change their containers out with apps like Mkv2Mp4 or the old Video Container Switcher in a fraction of the time. problem is, when i use those utilities, various problems arise like having mp4's with audio out of sync or no audio at all & sometimes jittery video. i love the speed of these container switcher apps but why don't the video's play exactly the same since they're not actually converting the codecs & such?
Well, the role of the container has been simplified to its most relevant parts in this video explanation. The problem is usually: The more modern and advanced the encoder, the more complex the encoding and the relation between the streams and the container becomes. For example, to preserve quality and save disk space, an encoder can nowadays vary the video and audio bitrates constantly and even change video frame rates or audio sampling rate during the film to accommodate for more or less changes in a scene.
The problems then usually arise in the "multiplexing" or short "muxing" of the two streams. Essentially, the container stores information at which points the two streams should be stitched together, there can be one of those points (the beginning) or several during the video playtime. And if the conversion is complex and not straight forward, this demuxing and muxing can lead to errors, usually audio and video being out of sync, if the source does wild stuff with frame rates, sampling rates or bitrates...
Florian Fahrenberger. play one of keri Victoria Tackett show me something of her only hurt she lives in Harriman Tennessee get that one right
Thanks a lot, I had not seen this H.264 episode by indymogul. And I'm certainly not trying to compete with them. :) I was just getting annoyed by having to explain this exact same thing on forums over and over. Now I'll just post a link to this video. :)
Fantastic video, clearly explained, to the point. I get it now!
Thank you for this! Any idea why handbrake conversion to mp4 would not be recognized by iDVD?
Very good content. I like your accent, it's so easy on the ears.
Thank you for your clarity and excellent work in making this video. Beautifully done! I need to edit several DVDs to fix picture quality and add Titles and info , trim out bad sections. and fix the audio where needed. What conversion format should I use ? I was thinking H264 but can a new DVD be burned without converting again first? After the fixes, I need to burn these to DVD again without losing quality. How should I go about this? I am using a Mac.These will be viewed on TVs and also for classes projected onto a large screen. Quality is important.
+arisingmusic1 Are those really DVDs? Not BluRays? In SD (standard definition)? And they are definitely supposed to be again burned to DVD afterwards? On a Mac, are you using iMovie for this? Or do you have any other professional editing software?
Just for information: Whenever you change anything in the video (like an edit or improving the picture), it has to be reencoded and you can't just keep the original data in any way. DVDs exclusively use MPEG2 for a codec, so H264 in this case does not make sense since it needs to be reencoded.
In any case, H.264 probably doesn't make sense. If quality is important, I would probably convert the DVD to a ProRes codec and edit it. You can do that either with e.g. iMovie directly or with a free tool like MPEG Streamclip (from Squared 5). Then in the end when you are finished just export the file with a "DVD high quality" preset, something like that should be available in any editing software. It is almost certain that the exporting quality of your software will be better than if you export to H264 and then do the conversion via your DVD burning tool.
Just to encourage you: Unless you really do something very wrong, the exporting and reencoding will probably not degrade your DVD video to a very noticeable degree. So you should mostly concentrate on the editing which will probably be more important.
+Florian Fahrenberger Hi Florian
Thanks for replying so quickly These are not Bluray- the dvd content was converted and transferred from either VCR or Hi8 analog videotatpe..
I dont want to use i movie because the files will be so Huge. These videos are mostly of someone teaching . Could we communicate by email?
+arisingmusic1 Sure, I just sent you a private message.
Awesome explanation and great job on the video!
Sorry to hear that. I have never worked with Windows Movie Maker, but heard terrible things about it. Great free alternatives are "avidemux" for simple editing and "lightworks" for more professional stuff (google them), maybe you would rather want to go with one of these?
If you send me a private message and tell me what camera exactly you have or want to buy, I can maybe help you importing footage. From this rant, I can't really tell a lot...
Great video, but no explanation of Google's VP8 or VP9 though, that offer 50% compression gains on h264...is this good/bad/ugly for users, and should we be using them instead?
Any tips on how to display the date/time metadata in the the final product?
I need this for evidence all my surveillance video? I know there are some programs out there that can read the data and burn it on the image, but I have not found one that works very well.
Sorry, I have only done that once and essentially manually. I don't know any automatic program that does that. You might find that your camcorder is able to do this, they sometimes are. But the newer models probably got rid of that feature since the date is stored in the metadata and does not need to be on screen...