4 ms·

Can someone explain to me like a i'm 5 year old what now is considered the best compression codec and most widely used one too? I remember H264 being popular, i

Can someone explain to me like a i'm 5 year old what now is considered the best compression codec and most widely used one too? I remember H264 being popular, is it still the same? What happened to HVEC? Also what is better as a container, mp4, mkv or avi?

neitsab 6y ago
If by best you mean "most efficient space/quality ratio while maintaining correct performance and compatibility", then I'd argue HEVC/H.265 for video and Opus for audio are strong contenders for the current "best". They provide nice upgrades in efficiency compared with their predecessors, are still generally compatible (while nowhere near AVC/H.264 and MP3/AAC, their decoding is available on major platforms with increasing hardware support for HEVC), and their most used encoders (x265 and opusenc) have sane defaults and CLI. However, that strongly depends on your use case: where are the files going to be played (which hardware/software, how old, which OS, what battery requirements...)? What are the media to be encoded/decoded like (screencapture, Blu-Ray, voice or acoustic concert...)? AVC/H.264 is still the king of compatibility and speed/performance, albeit at a lower quality or higher file size. MP3/AAC, depending on the encoder and parameters used, still do a good job and are faster (better optimized) than Opus. VP9 (video) is kind of niche and complex to use properly, although it is well supported due to its use YouTube. AV1 and its proprietary counterpart are not there yet, although I have a few files encoded (by others) with it and they play mostly fine, but it's on recent hardware/software and it can still be pretty iffy (like e.g. fast forwarding). But the promise is huge! Re: containers, don't bother with AVI unless on a veeery old stack; go with MKV whenever you can (most flexible) or MP4 when you cannot (most compatible? Especially with proprietary vendors à la Apple). So you know, like with cipher suites and other things I'd say you have two sets, the "modern" one with HEVC+Opus encapsulated in MKV, or the "compatible" one with AVC+AAC in MP4. I always go with the first one because my requirements allow it and I prefer the space/quality efficiency over anything else, but depending on the use case you may have to resort to the compatible set.
imagetic 6y ago
h264 is still dominant by a long shot and the most widely used today. I can't speak for server/streaming services but on the ground where video editing takes place, it's the winner. h265 was supposed to replaced it but things leapfrogged and hardware acceleration didn't come fast enough. At this point I think most of the industry is looking at what is next. About a year ago I started seeing more h265 support in cameras, but it's rare I get an h265 file from editors/productions, ever. I'm reading more and more about AV1 and MPEG-5 being next in line. mp4, but there isn't really a "best" container. AVI isn't very common though.

neitsab 6y ago

If by best you mean "most efficient space/quality ratio while maintaining correct performance and compatibility", then I'd argue HEVC/H.265 for video and Opus for audio are strong contenders for the current "best". They provide nice upgrades in efficiency compared with their predecessors, are still generally compatible (while nowhere near AVC/H.264 and MP3/AAC, their decoding is available on major platforms with increasing hardware support for HEVC), and their most used encoders (x265 and opusenc) have sane defaults and CLI. However, that strongly depends on your use case: where are the files going to be played (which hardware/software, how old, which OS, what battery requirements...)? What are the media to be encoded/decoded like (screencapture, Blu-Ray, voice or acoustic concert...)? AVC/H.264 is still the king of compatibility and speed/performance, albeit at a lower quality or higher file size. MP3/AAC, depending on the encoder and parameters used, still do a good job and are faster (better optimized) than Opus. VP9 (video) is kind of niche and complex to use properly, although it is well supported due to its use YouTube. AV1 and its proprietary counterpart are not there yet, although I have a few files encoded (by others) with it and they play mostly fine, but it's on recent hardware/software and it can still be pretty iffy (like e.g. fast forwarding). But the promise is huge! Re: containers, don't bother with AVI unless on a veeery old stack; go with MKV whenever you can (most flexible) or MP4 when you cannot (most compatible? Especially with proprietary vendors à la Apple). So you know, like with cipher suites and other things I'd say you have two sets, the "modern" one with HEVC+Opus encapsulated in MKV, or the "compatible" one with AVC+AAC in MP4. I always go with the first one because my requirements allow it and I prefer the space/quality efficiency over anything else, but depending on the use case you may have to resort to the compatible set.

imagetic 6y ago

h264 is still dominant by a long shot and the most widely used today. I can't speak for server/streaming services but on the ground where video editing takes place, it's the winner. h265 was supposed to replaced it but things leapfrogged and hardware acceleration didn't come fast enough. At this point I think most of the industry is looking at what is next. About a year ago I started seeing more h265 support in cameras, but it's rare I get an h265 file from editors/productions, ever. I'm reading more and more about AV1 and MPEG-5 being next in line. mp4, but there isn't really a "best" container. AVI isn't very common though.