Which video format is better?
Surely, like me, you have often wondered which video format is best for recording, editing and exporting for YouTube or social networks. And there is not a single format for everything, but many, too many! Let’s see which ones you need for each task.
In what format to record on camera
The semi or professional video cameras that we can find in the market have recording options in the most common formats, in addition to some RAW formats that we can find in cameras with higher segments. For example, the BlackMagic 6K is capable of recording on Blackmag
ic RAW, the new format developed by BlackMagic Design.
It is always recommended to use the least compressed formats possible as long as we are going to work intensively with the color of that video. This is like a photograph: we will always have much more leeway with a RAW photo than with a compressed JPG photo.
For this reason, the cameras include slightly more compressed formats, such as ProRes, H.264 or H.265. ProRes is a mid-range format that offers a good balance of image quality and size and allows for color correction without loss of quality, making it suitable for professional environments. But undoubtedly the fastest and most suitable for ordinary mortals is the H.264. H.264 is the JPG of video, an off-road format accepted by the vast majority of online video players and services.
H.264 problem? That when editing is a resource eater, since the CPU has to decompress the signal. But if you have a fairly powerful PC you should have no problem. Oh, by the way, there are video editors capable of decoding H.264 and H.265 using the GPU, not at the software level, but at the GPU level. For example, in DaVinci Resole Studio we can activate this option by going to the preferences and in Decoding we activate Use hardware acceleration and NVIDIA or the graphics card we are using. I tell you that the speed jump is dramatic.
Also, there are some cameras capable of recording in H.265 format. For example, we can record in H.265 (also known as HEVC) on the Panasonic GH5, but only in a very specific recording format. It is noteworthy that this mode in the Panasonic allows HDR through HLG (Hybrid Log Gamma or high dynamic range). So if you have a monitor compatible with this system, use the original color space of these Rec2020 HLG clips, since selecting this color space in DaVinci Resolve you can get images with a great dynamic range, or change the color space later. to Rec709 to recover light levels of this standard space.
Okay, and up to this point the big question: in what format do we record? It depends. It is not the same if you are recording a short film than a video for YouTube. In my personal experience, for YouTube I do not complicate my life and use more or less standard configurations. In fact, right now I’m recording this using the GH5 H.264’s preset with 8bit color at 25fps and 100mb and with the Cinelike D color profile, not V-Log or anything like that, but Cinelike D. Note that YouTube then compresses the video, I do not see much sense in recording with more bitrate or more color depth, so I use this simple and busy preset.
VIDEO CONVERSION SOFTWARE
Then there are other formats like MP4 or AVCHD, but basically they use a lower bit rate.
But it may be the case that we want to record a movie with our GH5. In that case I do recommend going to more “professional” profiles so to speak. Keep in mind that each camera is a world, but as a general rule, when we are recording something with a more cinematic aspiration, I recommend going to the highest quality option that the camera gives. There are cameras that allow you to record in RAW, so we will need tons of storage. For example, in the GH5 the highest quality preset is 4K at 400 megabits per second with a color depth of 10 bits. Take chestnut. That is, 50 megabytes per second at 10 bit color, absolutely crazy.
In fact, it is so crazy that any SD card is not worth it, because if we use one that has a low writing speed, we will run out of buffers and stop recording. So it is essential to use special cards that allow this recording speed, for example I have the 128GB Sony M Series, which allow a writing speed of 150 Megabytes per second. Be careful, here we are mixing megabytes and megabits. In the camera preset we will see 400 megabits, that is, the mbps in lowercase, while the card shows it in Megabytes, with the MB in uppercase.
