Speaker 1: Alright, so when it comes to editing video, one of the things that can affect your performance almost more than anything else is the video codec. Resolution and frame rate also play a huge role, but the codec can make or break how easy or hard that 4K 60fps footage is to edit. One codec may play back extremely smoothly while another codec is constantly stuttering and you can't seem to get real playback without constantly having to render the clip. You've probably noticed that not all 4K footage is equal. 4K footage from a drone tends to be significantly harder to edit than 4K footage from a regular DSLR. And that is exactly where the codec comes into play. In this video, I'm going to try and simplify the complicated topic of video codecs. This topic can be extremely overwhelming with lots of technical information, but by the end of this video, I hope that you will have a better understanding of some common codecs and how they will affect you and your editing. Even if it starts to seem confusing, stick around until the end because I will try and simplify all of the information into something very easy to understand, even if you don't want all of the technical information and you just want to know, hey, don't use this or hey, use this. Before we dive into the codecs discussion, I want to quickly talk about containers. Containers are the dot extensions at the end of your video name, like .mp4, .mov, .avi, and so on. The container is what holds the information about the video as well as the audio information and the metadata. The container does not typically tell you very much, if anything, about the codec. The container is also not responsible for how hard or easy your video is to edit. That is the codec and bitrate. I just wanted to mention this quickly so that you are aware that the container is not the same as the codec. So anytime I say codec, do not think about .mov, .mp4, or anything like that. We're not talking about anything like that in this video. In fact, those are not all that relevant to how hard or easy your video is to edit. All right, so there are two main types of compressed and mezzanine. Mezzanine formats are also referred to as intermediate codecs or editing codecs. So if you ever hear those terms, they are all interchangeable and basically mean the same thing. A compressed codec aims to pack a lot of information into a very small file size. The plus side is you get smaller file sizes and still retain a lot of quality, but the downside is that since the footage is compressed, your computer has to decompress it whenever you play back the file in your video editing software. This means your computer has to do a lot more processing work for you to be able to even see that video. Now on the flip side, you have mezzanine codecs, and they are massive in comparison to compressed codecs. But one of the big benefits of these codecs is that they are significantly easier to play back in your video editor because the computer doesn't have to decompress the file as it plays back, which saves your computer from having to do extra work. Mezzanine codecs were designed to improve editing performance while compressed codecs were designed to deliver small file sizes. This allowed people to use smaller SD cards and not take up as much hard drive space when they were shooting video. And that is why compressed footage is so popular. All right, now that you know about the two main types of codecs, let's talk about which ones are the most popular for compressed and mezzanine because there are different types of compressed and mezzanine codecs that you should be aware of. For compressed codecs, by far the most popular one is H.264. This is what almost every single DSLR and mirrorless camera on the market uses as their codec. You've probably even noticed when you export your video out of Premiere that the default option is H.264. And that's because H.264 can deliver and shoot such small file sizes, which helps when giving the file to someone else. They don't need as much hard drive space to store that file. This is because it can shoot high quality video in a much smaller file size, which is great for consumers because they don't need lots of hard drive space. The next most popular is H.265, which is the next generation of H.264 and isn't quite as popular yet, but phones and cameras are starting to adapt quickly. H.265 can actually compress files to half the size of H.264, which is great for file sizes, but this also means your computer has to do a lot more work to decompress that H.265 footage, which means it can be an absolute nightmare for you to edit. Even really high end computers will struggle with H.265. For mezzanine codecs, the three most popular are Apple ProRes, Avid DNxHD, and GoPro Cineform. These codecs are designed to allow for a fluid editing experience because the footage isn't compressed like H.264 and your computer doesn't have to do all that decompressing while it plays back the footage. Because these files aren't compressed though, this means it can result in file sizes that are three to five times larger than regular H.264 files. Now that you're aware of what these codecs were designed for, let me explain why H.264 is so difficult to edit. This is something a lot of people really don't know about or can't wrap their head around, but it is extremely important to understand. The way that H.264 works is that it takes one image at the start of the sequence, and then for the next handful of frames, it actually doesn't recapture the entire scene. It only captures what has changed from that first frame. And this is what allows the file sizes to be so small. Instead of having a whole frame for every single frame that it captures, it only has to redraw what changed from the last scene. Now after enough frames, it does eventually have to recapture a whole new frame, but the intervals at which this is captured is different for each camera and manufacturer. So for example, you might have a camera that shoots H.264 where the first frame is a whole frame and the next 15 frames are all predicted frames. This means that your computer constantly has to look back to the first frame to figure out what has changed so it can keep redrawing the whole image. After the 15 frames, the camera redraws a new whole frame for the next 15 predicted frames to reference back to so that it doesn't have to go all the way back to the beginning of the clip to keep referencing. These whole frames are called I-frames, which is short for intra-frame. The predicted non-whole frames are called B and P-frames. B stands for bi-directional predicted frame, which means it can predict frames before and after. P just stands for predicted frame, which means it's predicting the next frame. So if you ever see a camera that says IPB next to the frame rate, this means that they are shooting with H.264 using the IPB compression, which is what we just talked about. IPB is just short for intra-frame, predicted frame, bi-directional predicted frame. This is also called long GOP, which is just short for long group of pictures. Just because you don't see IPB in your camera doesn't mean it isn't H.264 though. That's just one way of telling that you're shooting in H.264. It is very safe to assume that if you are using a modern mirrorless or DSLR camera that they are all shooting H.264 or H.265. Unless they say otherwise, just assume that's the case. Most cameras don't shoot in a Kodak like ProRes until you get to really high-end cinema cameras or use external recorders for your DSLR. Now, another thing you should be aware of is some cameras have a setting called all eye. This is short for all intra-frame. If you see all eye in your camera, this means when it records, instead of capturing one eye frame and then a bunch of predicted frames, it actually captures every single frame as a whole frame, which is why it is called all eye. Because an eye frame is a whole frame with all of the data, so all eye just means every frame is a whole frame. All eye will always be easier to edit than long GOP. With long GOP, your computer has to do tons of calculations while you scrub to figure out how to draw the next image that you land on. With all eye, every frame is a complete picture. Your computer doesn't have to do all these calculations to draw the picture. The computer can simply pause anywhere and get all the data it needs from that one frame. With all eye, the file sizes of your media are going to be significantly larger than long GOP though, so the trade-off is smoother editing with all eye but larger files. Long GOP is a worse editing experience but smaller file sizes. Now if we take a look at a mezzanine codec like ProRes, they are also using all eye to record data, which means every single frame has all the data and the computer doesn't have to do calculations to draw the picture. But codecs like ProRes were also designed with editing in mind and they also do a handful of other things to make editing your media easier. Now I'm going to show you a triangle that will break down your choices when it comes to codecs. Of the three options in this image, you are only allowed to pick two at the same time, and that's how choosing a codec works. If you want high resolution video and efficient editing, you have to use a mezzanine codec like ProRes, which means huge file sizes but smoother editing. If you want high quality but small file sizes, you have to choose H.264, which means you sacrifice being able to edit smoothly, but you get smaller files. If you want small file sizes and efficient editing, you use a codec like ProRes, but you have to lower the resolution, which means sacrificing quality. There is nothing currently that allows you to achieve all three of these at the same time, otherwise every person would just be using that. People often think they need to buy a better computer to get better performance, which can totally help, don't get me wrong. But what most people find out is that they bought a $5,000 computer only to see that it still struggles with DJI drone footage and then they're just mad. If they had just converted the H.264 files into ProRes, they wouldn't have had this issue and probably wouldn't have needed to buy a new computer. As a rule of thumb, currently there are certain cameras you should always convert to ProRes if you want your life to be easier. These would be GoPro footage, DJI drones, and cell phone footage, especially iPhones. These all shoot with an H.264 or H.265 method that is highly compressed and your computer has to do a lot of work to decompress it. So I would highly recommend in every scenario just transcode these so that your life will be easier. We'll be covering how to do that in the next few videos. So as a simple recap, if you don't want all of that technical information, here are the rules you need to follow. Most if not all consumer cameras shoot in H.264 slash H.265. Cell phones, mirrorless cameras, drones, you name it, these all shoot H.264 or H.265. This is absolutely terrible for editing because the computer has to decompress all the footage to show the image on screen every single time you scrub, which means your computer is using a lot more power to make this happen. Some cameras will have an H.264 all eye option, which will result in much larger files, but generally provide smoother editing than when compared to long GOP formats. But the best editing codecs are Mezzanine. I prefer ProRes, but you can also use GoPro Cineform, which works on both macOS and Windows. ProRes does as well, but it was originally designed to work with Macs, but Premiere has since added support for both whether you are on Windows or macOS. So personally, that's what I would recommend using. But overall, it really doesn't matter which one you choose. They all perform roughly the same. Editing ProRes will reduce so much stress from your computer while editing compared to H.264. Using a Mezzanine codec can also enhance the stability of the system as well, since your computer isn't having to work so hard. I hope this video has helped you understand codecs better. I know it is a complicated topic, but the easy thing to remember is that H.264 is not meant for editing, while Mezzanine codecs are. Your life will be vastly improved by editing in a Mezzanine codec. In the next few videos, I'm going to talk to you about the two ways you can convert your H.264 footage into ProRes. If you guys have any other questions, feel free to let me know.