Let’s say you have a very good technology that allows you to have a high quality video using a small bit rate allowing high quality video to be offered to a wide variety of devices, from low-performance mobile phones to Blu-ray devices equipped with Maximum performance
In summary, the H264 is suitable for any platform, from handheld devices to high definition material.
The H264 standard reduces the amount of information needed to play a video.
Its compression system that I explain roughly so that it can be better understood in the video The best codec for editing videos makes you get a more compressed file and that does it along with its versatility of playback on different devices that is the preferred codec to export the final result of our edition.
It’s time for H.264.
Learn how to choose the right coding tool and optimize H.264 encoding for ideal quality and device compatibility
H.264 It is the only compression technology that plays on all computers, mobile devices, and OTT players. This makes producing high quality H.264 files compatible with your devices an essential skill. Helping you acquire and / or polish these skills is the objective of this article.
Well, we will start with the compatibility issue, because if the file cannot be played on the device that is needed, its quality does not really matter much. Then, we will see, the resolution, frame rate and data rate of your encoded file, since if these are wrong, using the H.264 encoding parameters will not matter either. So we will cover how to choose the correct coding tool and the H.264 codec and how to quickly adjust the x264 encoding parameters for optimal quality in the file.
Are you one of those who have hundreds of movies on the hard drive? Convert them to H.265 to save (much) space
Now that the H.265 format has been seated for a while and more and more devices are able to decode it, it is time for you to convert your movies to save hard disk space. A video in H.265 format measures up to 50% less than in H.264, while retaining the same quality.
What is H.265?
Also known as HEVC (“high efficiency video coding”), it is a video compression standard published in 2013 that improves its predecessor in several aspects, the H.264 / AVC format, whose first version was published in 2003. H.265 offers higher image quality at smaller bit rates, which means that files take up less space. It also supports 8K UHD resolution.
How does it benefit me? If you have an iPhone, you may already be using H.265. Apple introduced it in iOS 11 to reduce the size of videos, but only when they are stored on the phone (if you share them, they are converted to a more compatible format). You can also use it to save some space on your computer or multimedia server.
Imagine you have a movie on your hard drive that comes from a Blu-ray. The movie has been encoded in H.264 format and measures 12 GB. If you convert it to H.265 with a video encoder program (or video encoder, in English), the movie will measure between 6 and 9 GB. As simple as that.
Does H.265 have disadvantages?
Yes. First, compatibility. Only modern devices are capable of decoding H.265, so don’t bother if you have a TV or multimedia device that doesn’t support the format. Players like Plex transcode the movie in real time if your device is not compatible (that is, they convert H.265 to H.264 while watching the movie), which consumes a lot of energy and resources.
It is very hard for machines to code H.265, so you need a powerful CPU or GPU to do it faster (the good thing is that you only have to do it once). But it’s also hard to decode it, so a cheap NAS or player won’t be able to do it. H.265 gets along with old gadgets.
One last consideration: it is not clear that H.265 is the future. Large platforms such as YouTube and Netflix are bidding for another more compatible format called AV1 just because they don’t want to pay the H.265 license.
In any case, H.265 is the present. If you want or need to save gigabytes on your hard drive, you have the solution a few clicks away.
