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Author Topic: What is the "best video format"  (Read 11450 times)

Árni F. Sigurðsson

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What is the "best video format"
« on: September 28, 2012, 04:36:41 AM »

I often get a question from clients about what is the best format to bring their video for playback on our system and I actually have no idea on how to answer that question. I've usually been able to play most files that I get (usually using VLC player)

We are running not all that powerful HP computers running windows 7. Our entire projection system is built around a resolution of 1920x1080p

Is there any specific format I should be asking for in video playback ? Does windows run some files better than other. I've had some larger bitrate videos run slow and holding up. (as I said, not too powerful playback machines)

For bigger events (like last night we were playing a 120gb movie in 1920x1080 ProRes mov) we have a QuadCore Mac Pro and for that I always ask for anything that QuickTime plays.
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Sam Feine

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Re: What is the "best video format"
« Reply #1 on: September 28, 2012, 07:57:55 AM »

I always just ask for an HD mov because just about anything should be able to play it, and it tends not to be too badly compressed.
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Brad Weber

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Re: What is the "best video format"
« Reply #2 on: September 28, 2012, 09:22:05 AM »

The thread title may be confusing me, are you asking about video format, video signal format, physical media format or video file format?  Or all of these?
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Árni F. Sigurðsson

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Re: What is the "best video format"
« Reply #3 on: September 29, 2012, 06:46:25 AM »

The thread title may be confusing me, are you asking about video format, video signal format, physical media format or video file format?  Or all of these?

Video file format
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John Livings

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Re: What is the "best video format"
« Reply #4 on: October 02, 2012, 12:26:22 AM »

For bigger events (like last night we were playing a 120gb movie in 1920x1080 ProRes mov) we have a QuadCore Mac Pro and for that I always ask for anything that QuickTime plays.
[/quote]

The 120 gb sounds like about 1 hour of uncompressed HD video. (12 GB for SD Video) The massive files would be an editing or a raw type of format.

You normally "Acquire" video in one Codec, "Edit" it in another and "Deliver" it in another format.

My understanding is "Pro Res" or "Pro Res HD" is an Editing Codec.

A single layer, Single Side DVD will only hold 4.7 GB (or 4.5 GB if you are "Burning" it) so if you're Editing File is 120 GB, getting to 4.5 GB or 4.7 GB to fit on a disk requires down resing  (Yes you can use "DL, DS/DL to get up to about 8 or more GBs).

My understanding is that anything that is delivered in other than Blu Ray is SD, regardless of what you shot or edited the video in.

Please help me out here if I have misstated anything.

Regards,  John

http://lifehacker.com/5893250/whats-the-difference-between-all-these-video-formats-and-which-one-should-i-use
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Bojan Bajsic

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Re: What is the "best video format"
« Reply #5 on: October 02, 2012, 06:25:36 AM »

The best video format would be the one that works best for you.

The thing is, there are codecs designed (as mentioned before) specifically for acquiring, editing and playback. In an ideal situation, one should want to play back things in a 'playback' codec. Editing codecs usually store more information, picture is cleaner et all, but they cannot be reproduced with 100% success rate, without dropouts, unless you have a proprietary playout machine.

For windows machines with VLC, from my experience, i stick to following for playback:
- mp4 in h.264 @ <30Mbps, ac3 or pcm sound
- mp2t @ 25Mbps, ac3 or pcm sound
- no quicktime or .mov or .avi or prores or any editing only codec (CanopusDV) or such.

Rarely do we now have issues with playback (unless someone goes to copy large files or install programs while things are playing).

So in short, mp4 and mpeg2 seem still like best playout codecs which don't have playback issues and also work well on mac computers.
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Mac Kerr

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Re: What is the "best video format"
« Reply #6 on: October 02, 2012, 10:22:28 AM »

For bigger events (like last night we were playing a 120gb movie in 1920x1080 ProRes mov) we have a QuadCore Mac Pro and for that I always ask for anything that QuickTime plays.


The 120 gb sounds like about 1 hour of uncompressed HD video. (12 GB for SD Video) The massive files would be an editing or a raw type of format.

You normally "Acquire" video in one Codec, "Edit" it in another and "Deliver" it in another format.

My understanding is "Pro Res" or "Pro Res HD" is an Editing Codec.

A single layer, Single Side DVD will only hold 4.7 GB (or 4.5 GB if you are "Burning" it) so if you're Editing File is 120 GB, getting to 4.5 GB or 4.7 GB to fit on a disk requires down resing  (Yes you can use "DL, DS/DL to get up to about 8 or more GBs).

My understanding is that anything that is delivered in other than Blu Ray is SD, regardless of what you shot or edited the video in.

Please help me out here if I have misstated anything.

Regards,  John

http://lifehacker.com/5893250/whats-the-difference-between-all-these-video-formats-and-which-one-should-i-use

Almost all the video playback I see is from Pro Res 422 files, either HD or SD. The most common playback software is with Playback Pro. PBP can handle SD, HD, 4:3, 16:9, and probably other formats. Generally it is a dedicated machine, but can be a Mac Pro, or a MacBook Pro.

Blu Ray and DVD are consumer formats that rarely have timecode, or machines that can be accurately cued up, 2 items that are key in a professional playback scenario.

Mac
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TonyWilliams

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What is the "best video format"
« Reply #7 on: October 02, 2012, 01:25:29 PM »

I typically use Apple ProRes, and H.264 codecs. Running off a Mac Pro or MacBook Pro. I have a few applications that help transfer other codecs that don't work into these.

-Squared5.com (free)
-Handbrake.fr (free)
- Apple Final Cut

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Mac Kerr

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Re: What is the "best video format"
« Reply #8 on: October 02, 2012, 03:05:07 PM »

You normally "Acquire" video in one Codec, "Edit" it in another and "Deliver" it in another format.

My understanding is "Pro Res" or "Pro Res HD" is an Editing Codec.

In addition to my previous comment, many systems are now Pro Res 422 start to finish. Either in camera or external recorders record in Pro Res, Final Cut edits in Pro Res, and Playback Pro plays back Pro Res, as examples. I would say it is the current best format for professional use.

Mac
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brian maddox

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Re: What is the "best video format"
« Reply #9 on: October 02, 2012, 03:26:46 PM »

In addition to my previous comment, many systems are now Pro Res 422 start to finish. Either in camera or external recorders record in Pro Res, Final Cut edits in Pro Res, and Playback Pro plays back Pro Res, as examples. I would say it is the current best format for professional use.

Mac

+1

at my church we operate in ProRes across the board.  We use BMD recorders that record in ProRes422.  we edit in ProRes422 with Final Cut Pro.  and we Use ProRes422 for playback using our presentation software [ProPresenter].  In an Apple centric workflow ProRes422 works very well.  I do archive in h.264 to conserve disk space.
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Re: What is the "best video format"
« Reply #9 on: October 02, 2012, 03:26:46 PM »


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