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‘Best’ codec for online transparent video?
I’m sure this has been discussed before but I couldn’t find anything via search, do point me to the right direction if you know a place!
Basically the subject says it all: what’s the ‘best’ codec for transparent video (HD) for online transfer? I don’t know the details of the codecs below and in stead of digging around and doing the calculations, I’m hoping some of you have done that already!
I need to download green screen footage online with a decent bandwidth (30Mbps), I’m looking for a codec that’s accurate, low’ish bandwidth and HD to recommend the client to upload. I automatically would go for ProRes 4444 with Alpha, but would any of these be more optimal while still being good enough quality?:
1) EXR sequence with greenscreen stripped out
2) AVI with PNG codec
3) MOV with Quicktime Animation codec at 32 BPP (Millions+)
4) Two h264 clips: one holds the RGB, one holds the Alpha pixels as GrayscaleThere is also the consideration that the client may be Windows-only (client not known at the moment) so ProRes might be a pain for them.
Cheers,
PJ————————————————–
Freelance Cinematographer, Camera Op, Video Editor and Motion Graphics Designer
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3 Replies
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So I assume you’re doing the green screen keying and sending footage back?
1) Transfer to you doesn’t matter much, depending on the footage, is camera original an option? Probably smaller in most cases than a good intermediate codec?
2) Unless you’re doing spill suppression and other things to the image, why not just send them a black and white video that is basically an alpha channel they can use on their end? Compressed Quicktime PNG would be lossless and work well in this situation.
Edit: Also, no ProRes encoder on Windows supports Alpha. If you have a ProRes file aready with an alpha channel from a Mac, then Quicktime and other apps will use it properly.
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Actually, it’s the other way around. They want to send over the keyed footage with an alpha channel.
Your no.2 point is a good one though, they could send me the camera originals and a b/w mask video as quicktime PNG w/ alpha.
And thanks for the tip in the edit, didn’t know that about windows encoding not supporting alpha channel.
Thanks for the tips.
Cheers,
PJ————————————————–
Freelance Cinematographer, Camera Op, Video Editor and Motion Graphics Designer
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[PJ Palomaki] “There is also the consideration that the client may be Windows-only”
The Quicktime flavoured DNxHD supports alpha channels, is available for any OS and it’s also free.
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