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A Lesson On Video Formats

Steve KSteve K Posts: 3,233
in Carrara Discussion

I've been trying to get up to speed with Vegas Pro (now owned by Magix), with this year's 48 Hour Film Contest coming up.  I get to the "Render As" screen, it has more options than Heinz has pickles (does Heinz still make 57 varieties?)  Based on past contest requirements, it looks like I have three options: AVC/AAC MP4, HEVC/AAC MP4, and Quicktime.  The Quicktime option looked a little funky, maybe the proportions were a little off.  So I sent samples of the other two to the local 48HFP contest producer.  She says the AVC version worked in her encoder, but not the HEVC.  The latter would play in the VLC player, but she needs to be able to convert the file for screenings, etc.  So AVC/AAC MP4 it is (how many acronyms are there?).  Turns out the HEVC is supposedly the latest and greatest, but not much use for me.  More here:

https://www.boxcast.com/blog/hevc-h.265-vs.-h.264-avc-whats-the-difference

Comments

  • MistaraMistara Posts: 38,675

    cant go wrong with an mp4 format

  • 3drendero3drendero Posts: 2,024
    Mp4 is usually the container for both video and audio, like the older mkv for PCs. H264/AVC and sometimes incorrectly called mp4 is getting close to 10 years now and supported everywhere, from mobiles to PCs. The newer h265/hevc is around 3 years old and only supported in newer hw/sw. Sure it is half the size or double the quality, but a hassle for most users still. Quicktime is dead, even Apple gave it up years ago.
  • Steve KSteve K Posts: 3,233
    3drendero said:
     Quicktime is dead, even Apple gave it up years ago.

    Yes, but the 48 Hour Film contest still lists it as one of the preferred formats, with DV/DVCPro NTSC compression (NOT Sorenson, the default for Vegas).  I'm guessing many teams use Final Cut Pro (Mac only), and it may have advantages for Quicktime?  I dunno ... glad I can use the AVC version of MP4.  The 48 Hour folks are absolutely against Windows Media Video (WMV), which works fine for me.  Again, must be a re-working for the screenings.  Or something.

  • 3drendero3drendero Posts: 2,024
    WMV is also somewhat outdated and replaced by AVC/H264. DV/NTSC was used for DVD class video. Weird old rules they have...
  • MistaraMistara Posts: 38,675

    there so many lovely tutorials for fincal cut pro.

    i was looking at refurbished macs to run fcp

    i don't understand the apple os's. other than iphone.

    high sierra, etc.

  • WendyLuvsCatzWendyLuvsCatz Posts: 38,200

    I am trying to fix my codec issues too

    I uninstalled the K-lite codec pack and installed a different one from off sourceforge but still not resolved for iClone at least, now it cannot read mp4 at all, before it flipped it and mov upside down, wmv and avi still ok, my mp4’s play and Hitfilm renders them happily, I seem to have endless issues getting some programs to recognise mp4 and if I need specific codec packs that would mean they would not render mp4 suitable for redistribution which is the reason I am trying to forgo codec packs.

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