BTECLevel 3 Extended Diploma in Creative Media ProductionUnit 64: Motion Graphics and Compositing Video

Compression

BTECLevel 3 Extended Diploma in Creative Media ProductionUnit 64: Motion Graphics and Compositing Video

Compression

Codec is short for coder-decoder and describes the method in which video data is encoded into a file and decoded when the file is played back.

Most video is compressed during encoding, and so the terms codec and compressor are often used interchangeably.

BTECLevel 3 Extended Diploma in Creative Media ProductionUnit 64: Motion Graphics and Compositing Video

Compression

Transcoding is the process of converting from one codec to another.

Codecs can be Lossless, which means that they do not throw away any data, or Lossy, which means that data is lost during encoding.Lossless codecs are higher quality than lossy codecs, but produce larger file sizes.

In a video workflow, you should avoid transcoding to a lossy codec until final output.

BTECLevel 3 Extended Diploma in Creative Media ProductionUnit 64: Motion Graphics and Compositing Video

Compression

Examples of common codecs are:

http://wsa.wikidot.com/tbm:video-basics

Codec Lossless Recommended Use

DV-PAL No Capture/edit/output of DV-PAL video from camera; archive DV-PAL video

HDV No Capture/edit/output of HDV video from camera; archive HDV video

H.264 No Transcode video for web & computer playback (not suitable for editing)

MPEG-2 No Transcode video for DVD

Animation Yes Output/archive video (mainly motion graphics, animation, etc) from After Effects, Photoshop

Apple Intermediate Codec Yes Transcode AVCHD/H.264 video for editing; output/archive video

Apple ProRes 422 (Proxy) Yes Transcode AVCHD/H.264 video for editing; output/archive video

Apple ProRes 422 (LT) Yes Transcode AVCHD/H.264 video for editing; output/archive video