Higher bit depth codecs can store more colors, which makes video appear smoother and subtler. The most common bit depths for video are 8-bit (16 million colors), 10-bit (1 billion colors), and 12-bit (68 billion colors). This is basically the number of colors that make up an image. Bit Depthįirst, you need to understand bit depth (also called color depth). While the mathematics and computer science behind codecs are quite complicated, there are only a few fundamental concepts you need to know to choose the right codecs for your production. Of course, to pick codecs effectively, you need to understand how they impact the visual qualities of video. As with everything in post-production, test all your codec choices before the project begins. The last thing you want is to find out some or all of your footage is unusable because the codec isn’t compatible with your software or hardware. It is usually much safer, faster, and cheaper to pick codecs that you know will fit neatly into a pre-planned/pre-existing workflow, than it is to improvise a new workflow around codecs that you have not used before. To a large extent, codecs determine what you can do with your footage in post and how complex your workflow will be. Different codecs are good in different contexts, but there is no single codec that works for every use case.Ĭhoosing codecs is one of the most important technical decisions you will make for your project. On the other hand, codecs with too little compression might make your video uneditable on normal computer hardware, and cause issues when transferring data between teams or facilities. Using a codec with too much compression might make your desired color-correction unachievable, or make your VFX work look unrealistic. That said, you will be able to tell a difference if you choose the wrong codec for certain post-production processes. The right codec will make your footage much easier to manage, and you may not even be able to tell a difference from the original. While not all codecs are created equal, there are many high-end codecs you can choose from that still deliver stunning image quality. But just because the image is compressed doesn’t mean it will look worse. It’s just too large and too complex to work with in most cases.Ĭodecs solve this problem by reducing the size of your footage and making it easier to work with across the post-production pipeline. So, you will probably never have the option of working with uncompressed footage (video without a codec) all the way through your workflow. A single minute of uncompressed 4K footage measures in the dozens of gigabytes. We need codecs because uncompressed video files are gigantic. As the name implies, codecs make video files smaller for storage, and then turn the compressed data back into a usable image when you need to use it again. The term codec is a shortening of the words compressor-decompressor or coder-decoder. Codecs are a core technical consideration for every step of post-production, so it is critical that everyone who touches your workflow understands the basics.Ī codec is the set of rules that tells computers and electronic equipment how to handle your media files, most notably digital video footage.
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