HD Master File Codec for Windows

[Angelo Lorenzo]

It’s all a compromise. I think we’re still a few years (2-3) off from widespread adoption of the newer Motion Jpeg2000 (it’s being considered the archival format for digital cinema and institutes like the Smithsonian). Most of the codecs below, with the exception of some uncompressed variants, are 8 bit. This doesn’t make a huge difference since your originating footage isn’t off high end motion picture cameras like the RED or Arri Alexa.

Some of the info below mentions Avid’s DNxHD codec; Avid makes the codec available for free for Quicktime, so you can use it cross-platform without Avid software. It is limited to 1920×1080 though.

From the adobe forum: https://forums.adobe.com/thread/530559

Quicktime – Animation: Completely lossless. Highly efficient in terms of file sizes for graphics, not so much for “footage”. Cross-patform, industry standard.

Quicktime – PNG: Completely lossless. Very efficient for most content types. Extremely taxing to decode, it may not play back easily in anything but the most powerful computers (still useful as a master file). Cross-patform, industry standard.

Quicktime – JPEG2000: Similar pros and cons to Quicktime – PNG. (about 15-20% smaller than PNG)

Quickime PhotoJPEG: Nearly lossless, but not completely, when set at 100 per cent. Very efficient with all content types. Easy to decode. Cross-patform, industry standard.

Quicktime – “None”: Bad idea. Same quality as the the first two, much higher data rates. Cross-platform.

AVI “No compression”: Bad idea. Same quality as the the first two, much higher data rates. Cross-platform.

AVI Lagarith (and other similar, free, add-on lossless codecs): Completely lossless. Highly efficient in file size/data rate. As a non-standard codec, it is only available in computers which have it installed and nobody knows if it will be available five years from now, leaving you with an unusable file. Windows-only.

Another post to note:
Well, Avid DNxHD is “visually lossless”, ie it’s not really, mathematically lossless.

The quality is similar to Quicktime PhotoJPEG at 100 per cent, but file sizes are really smaller (But, truth be told, when you set PhotoJPEG to 90 something per cent, it uses 4:2:2 sampling instead of 4:4:4 and data rate goes down accordingly).

Again, Quicktime PhotoJPEG doesn’t require to download a third party codec at all.

So, choices are compromises.

[George Koklas]

@ Angelo Lorenzo

I think that I will have to take Lagarith out of the equation because

a) You do not consider it an industry standard, thus support is questionable
b) I am still terrified of the idea that it may not work as supposed
c) AVI is 8-bit only and although my footage is 8-bit people suggest that 10-bit offers more latitude if you wish to work on it later (feel free to correct me at any time)

So, what I am left with are the following:

1) Quicktime PNG. Huge file, lags a bit in premiere if imported for editing, best possible quality, widely spread.

2)DNxHD. I did try it and I have to say that I was amazed by the file size and how easy it was for premiere to handle it in the timeline. But although my eyes fail to see any difference during playback, simply knowing that some onformation has forever been lost drives me crazy 🙁

I know you will say that it my decision to make, but what would you use?? (and why?)

[Angelo Lorenzo]

I burn finished programs to Quicktime JPEG2000 with uncompressed audio.

This is where your mindset may differ from mine. I keep all of my original footage, I save my Premiere Pro project file, and I also export an XML, EDL, and AAF of the project; these are all edit decision lists in different formats.

As far as I’m concerned, the master is “locked” and is of high quality to derive other media (different encoding for different tv channels or online services, dvd, so on) without degradation. In other words, I don’t anticipate pristine 10-bit 4:4:4 because I’m not going back to remaster color and so on. Even if I did, it would probably be so close after the time of lock that I’d just pop open the project file and keep going.

[George Koklas]

Thank you for your reply.

I guess I will stick with Quicktime PNG as my master-archiving
format, purely for psychological reasons 😉

I wish other opinions would be shared as well, regarding personal preferences, although I am sure that if 10 people posted I would get 10 different workflows. But that is the way things are and I respect that.

A bit on the off-topic side, what strikes me as weird, is that unlike photography were RAW is the one and only king (yes there are CR2, NEF, DNG, etc but a RAW is a RAW file no matter what) in world of video things are way more complicated (and a bit chaotic may I say) when it comes to file formats.

[Jj Black]

“It is limited to 1920×1080 though.”

Incorrect. It will do almost all standard sizes, usually with 3 tiers of bitrate and 1 10bit option for each.

DNxHD is a great codec… it’s a bitch to have to install the codec for some people, but it’s the option to go for if you’re not dealing with ProRes capable system.

YUV 10bit is also awesome, but holy moly the file sizes are huge.