User:Mai X/HEVC

Here I want to explain some effective ways to transcode or re-encode video (with or without audio). I'll give a list of codecs that I use regulary. Also I'll compare some codecs by main parameters.

Video Features

About pixel formats, alpha-channel, bpp and YUV-subsampling.
Special words:

1. BPP (bpp) - Bits Per Pixel (Total bits for 1 pixel, i.e. RGB24 - 24 BPP).
2. BPC (bpc) - Bits Per Channel (bits for 1 component of a pixel, i.e. RGB24: 3 components - R, G, B; So 24/3 = 8; 8 BPC).
3. VFW (vfw) - Video For Windows. For more info - go here.

Pixel formats

These pixel formats are the most useful for me:

• RGB24 - raw RGB samples without alpha-channel (8 bpc). Can be compressed.
• RGBA32 - raw RGB samples with alpha-channel (8 bpc). Can be compressed.
• YUV 4:4:4 (YV24) - YUV format with highest bpc subsampling. Can be used with 10 or 12 bits profiles in H.26x codecs.
• YUV 4:2:2 (YUYV/YUY2) - Same as above, but with lower bpc subsampling. Can be used only with 8 or 10 bits profiles in same codecs.
• YUV 4:2:0 (NV12/YV12) - Same as above, but with the lowest bpc subsampling. Can be used only with 8 bits profiles in same codecs.
• RGBA64 - raw RGB samples with alpha-channel (16 bpc). Can be compressed. Not really useful, because 8 bpc is enough for everything.