Which codec

VP9 is widely supported by browsers, and hardware implementations of the codec are fairly common. VP9 is a good choice if you are able to use a WebM container and can provide fallback video when needed.

This is especially true if you wish to use an open codec rather than a proprietary one. Color spaces supported: Rec. The decision as to which codec or codecs to use begins with a series of questions to prepare yourself:. In the sections below, we offer recommended codec selections for specific use cases. For each use case, you'll find up to two reccommendations. If the codec which is considered best for the use case is proprietary or may require royalty payments, then two options are provided: first, an open and royalty-free option, followed by the proprietary one.

If you are only able to offer a single version of each video, you can choose the format that's most appropriate for your needs. The first one is recommended as being a good combination of quality, performance, and compatibility.

First, let's look at the best options for videos presented on a typical web site such as a blog, informational site, small business web site where videos are used to demonstrate products but not where the videos themselves are a product , and so forth.

If your mission is to present video at the highest possible quality, you will probably benefit from offering as many formats as possible, as the codecs capable of the best quality tend also to be the newest, and thus the most likely to have gaps in browser compatibility.

There are not currently any lossless—or even near-lossless—video codecs generally available in web browsers. The reason for this is simple: video is huge. Lossless compression is by definition less effective than lossy compression. For example, uncompressed p video by pixels with chroma subsampling needs at least 1.

Using lossless compression such as FFV1 which is not supported by web browsers could perhaps reduce that to somewhere around Mbps, depending on the content. That's still a huge number of bits to pump through a connection every second, and is not currently practical for any real-world use.

This is the case even though some of the lossy codecs have a lossless mode available; the lossless modes are not implemented in any current web browsers. The best you can do is to select a high-quality codec that uses lossy compression and configure it to perform as little compression as possible.

One way to do this is to configure the codec to use "fast" compression, which inherently means less compression is achieved. To prepare video for archival purposes from outside your web site or app, use a utility that performs compression on the original uncompressed video data. For example, the free x utility can be used to encode video in AVC format using a very high bit rate:. While other codecs may have better best-case quality levels when compressing the video by a significant margin, their encoders tend to be slow enough that the nearly-lossless encoding you get with this compression is vastly faster at about the same overall quality level.

For example, if you're using the MediaStream Recording API to record video, you might use code like the following when creating your MediaRecorder object:. The resulting file will use a bit rate of no more than Mbps shared between the video and audio tracks. You will likely need to adjust these values depending on hardware performance, your requirements, and the specific codecs you choose to use.

This bit rate is obviously not realistic for network transmission and would likely only be used locally. Breaking down the value of the codecs parameter into its dot-delineated properties, we see the following:.

The documentation for your codec choices will probably offer information you'll use when constructing your codecs parameter. Skip to main content Skip to search Skip to select language Web technology for developers Web media technologies Media type and format guide: image, audio, and video content Web video codec guide Change language. Imagine the amount of data needed to store uncompressed video: A single frame of high definition x video in full color 4 bytes per pixel is 8,, bytes.

A minute of HD video would need A fairly typical 30 minute video conference would need about The potential effect of source video format and contents on the encoded video quality and size Feature Effect on quality Effect on size Color depth bit depth The higher the color bit depth, the higher the quality of color fidelity is achieved in the video.

Additionally, in saturated portions of the image that is, where colors are pure and intense, such as a bright, pure red [ rgba , 0, 0, 1 ] , color depths below 10 bits per component bit color allow banding, where gradients cannot be represented without visible stepping of the colors. Depending on the codec, higher color depths may result in larger compressed file sizes. The determining factor is what internal storage format is used for the compressed data. Frame rate Primarily affects the perceived smoothness of the motion in the image.

To a point, the higher the frame rate, the smoother and more realistic the motion will appear. Eventually the point of diminishing returns is reached.

See Frame rate below for details. Assuming the frame rate is not reduced during encoding, higher frame rates cause larger compressed video sizes. Motion Compression of video typically works by comparing frames, finding where they differ, and constructing records containing enough information to update the previous frame to approximate the appearance of the following frame.

The more successive frames differ from one another, the larger these differences are, and the less effective the compression is at avoiding the introduction of artifacts into the compressed video. The complexity introduced by motion results in larger intermediate frames due to the higher number of differences between frames. For this and other reasons, the more motion there is in a video, the larger the output file will typically be.

Noise Picture noise such as film grain effects, dust, or other grittiness to the image introduces variability. Variability generally makes compression more difficult, resulting in more lost quality due to the need to drop details to achieve the same level of compression. The more variability—such as noise—there is in the image, the more complex the compression process and the less success the algorithm is likely to have compressing the image to the same degree.

Unless you configure the encoder in a way that ignores some or all of the variations caused by noise, the compressed video will be larger.

Resolution width and height Higher resolution video, presented in the same screen size, will typically be able to more accurately portray the original scene, barring effects introduced during compression. The higher the resolution of a video, the larger it gets.

This plays a key role in the final size of the video. Video encoder configuration effects on quality and size Feature Effect on quality Effect on size Lossless compression No loss of quality Lossless compression cannot reduce the overall video size nearly as much as lossy compression; the resulting files are likely to still be too large for general usage. Lossy compression To some degree, artifacts and other forms of quality degradation wil occur, depending on the specific codec and how much compression is being applied The more the encoded video is allowed to deviate from the source, the easier it is to accomplish higher compression rates Quality setting The higher the quality configuration, the more like the original media the encoded video will look In general, higher quality settings will result in larger encoded video files; the degree to which this is true varies depending on the codec Bit rate Quality generally improves with higher bit rates Higher bit rates inherently lead to larger output files The options available when encoding video, and the values to be assigned to those options, will vary not only from one codec to another but depending on the encoding software you use.

Staircase effect The staircase effect is a spatial artifact that occurs when diagonal straight or curved edges that should be smooth take on a jagged appearance, looking somewhat like a set of stair steps.

Wagon-wheel effect The wagon-wheel effect or stroboscopic effect is the visual effect that's commonly seen in film, in which a turning wheel appears to rotate at the wrong speed, or even in reverse, due to an interaction between the frame rate and the compression algorithm. Original frame Inter-frame differences Difference after motion compensation The first full frame as seen by the viewer.

Here, only the differences between the first frame and the following frame are seen. Everything else is black. Looking closely, we can see that the majority of these differences come from a horizontal camera move, making this a good candidate for motion compensation. To minimize the number of pixels that are different, here we take into account the panning of the camera by first shifting the first frame to the right by two pixels, then by taking the difference. This compensates for the panning of the camera, allowing for more overlap between the two frames.

Images from Wikipedia There are two general types of motion compensation: global motion compensation and block motion compensation. Supported bit rates Varies depending on the video's level; theoretical maximum reaches Mbps at level 6. Supported frame rates Varies by level; for example, level 2. Commercial use requires a license. Note that multiple patent pools may apply.

Supported bit rates Up to , Kbps Supported frame rates Varies by level; up to FPS is possible Compression Lossy DCT-based algorithm Supported frame sizes x 96 to 8, x 4, pixels; varies by profile and level Supported color modes Information below is provided for the major profiles. Mozilla will not support HEVC while it is encumbered by patents. Supported bit rates Up to 1. Supported bit rates Up to Mbps; varies by level and profile Supported frame rates Abbr.

Supported bit rates Up to 2 Gbps Supported frame rates Arbitrary; any non-zero value is supported. The frame rate is specified as a bit numerator and a bit denominator, to allow for non-integer frame rates. Supported bit rates Arbitrary; no maximum unless level-based limitations are enforced Supported frame rates Arbitrary Compression Lossy DCT-based algorithm Supported frame sizes Up to 65, x 65, pixels Supported color modes Profile Color depths Chroma subsampling Profile 0 8 Profile 1 8 , , and Profile 2 10 to 12 Profile 3 10 to 12 , , and f Color spaces supported: Rec.

Lifewire Technology Review Board Member. Article reviewed on Oct 16, Tweet Share Email. Some people who share their files on the web choose to use obscure codecs to shrink their files. What is a video codec? What is an audio codec? What is the Xvid codec?

Was this page helpful? Thanks for letting us know! Email Address Sign up There was an error. Please try again. You're in! Thanks for signing up. There was an error. In short, video encoding is a process of compressing video files to play smoothly like a video recording instead of a quick, laggy, slideshow of individual images. Video encoding also reduces the size of compressed files significantly , making storing and distributing them much easier.

But what is the role of video codecs in the encoding process? Why do you need a video codec anyway? What are the best video codecs out there, and how do you choose the right one? Codec is a device or software that shrinks a digital data file into a more manageable size to make the storage and distribution processes easier.

That makes creating and storing things like long-form and HD videos more widely accessible. The way codecs work is that they apply an algorithm that compresses video files into a container format to make transporting and storing them easier. After the files reach their destination, codecs decompress them , making them viewer-ready.

The reason you need a codec is simple — uncompressed audio and video files are massive! That makes it challenging to transport them, particularly over the internet. Without codecs, all digital media files would take dozens of times longer to download!

Also, codecs optimize video files for playback. That means they will be much smoother and with higher frame rates. One vital thing we have to mention before moving to our picks for the best video codecs is the difference between a codec and a container format. Container format is a package or a wrapper that contains all the necessary metadata of a digital file , including an audio codec , video codec, and closed captioning.

Here are some of the most common container formats:. If, however, you know the name of the codec, simply search for it on the internet and install it. Most media files contain codec information in their metadata, which can be seen through their properties. Right-click the file you want to find the encoding codec for and click Properties from the context menu. If you do not find any such information, you can use the Video Inspector tool to determine these codecs and download them too.

Download and install the application from the given link and launch it. From the app, click Browse and then select the file to determine its codec information. The Video Inspector app will then display the desired information, as shown in the image below:. As you may find in the image, the desired codecs are not available on my machine.

If you have a similar scenario, simply click on the Download button beneath each codec and you will be automatically taken to a web search for the codec. It is very unlikely that users will experience such codec errors on a Windows 10 PC that has not been altered. However, if you still do, getting over the error should not be a problem since we have applications like Video Inspector to save the day. Check installed Codecs.