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Best QuickTime HD codec for playback on all Computers
I’m going to be sending out some demo reels next week shot with the Red ONE and edited in 2K resolution. I would like to finish with a 1080P file to be burned to a data DVD so that the receiving party can simply download the file and have it played back on their machine. Can anybody recommend the best codec that can be universally played in HD on both Mac and PC’s?
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7 Replies
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h.264
Steve Eisen
Eisen Video Productions
Vice President
Chicago Final Cut Pro Users Group -
H264 is your best bet. It is as close to a universal format for HD content as you can get. Include VLC, a free player for PC, for Luddites who use older versions of Windows Media Player.
Many computers will struggle with 1080 content, so perhaps include a smaller size version as well.
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“Many computers will struggle with 1080 content, so perhaps include a smaller size version as well.”
Good call and H.264 it is.
Thanks for your help!
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Thank you for this post. Just wanting to know if I already gave a client QT files from my Sony Z7U that are 1440×1080. Is there anyway they can open them in QT or in Final Cut Express? They are having a problem doing so at the moment.
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The current version of FC Express supports HDV, so they should be playable. If they have an old version, maybe not (I think the very first version only supported DV)
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H.264 will not play on many Windows Media Players. If you want it to play universally I would encode in MPEG-1. It’s an ancient and bulky format, but It’s the only format that works with all versions of WMP and QT that I know of (MPEG-2 does not work either). I use Visual Hub and do a two pass encoding in MPEG-1 as Compressor offers no options—files look decent, but color accuracy is not great. I usually do both a QT H.264 folder and a MPEG folder on a data DVD. Give the viewer options so they don’t throw your reel in the trash when it doesn’t work! Good luck.
-Curt
Curt Schulz
MBP 2.53 4GB Ram/Mac OS 10.6.4/FCP7.02/Matrox Mini w Max -
It only supports HDV in the sense that it transcodes it to AIC on capture. Obviously this means somewhere on the computer there must be the relevant codec, but I’m not sure that it grants the user the ability to view HDV-codec movs (captured natively in FCP) in Quicktime, does it?
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