compatible cross platform codec for editing?

[verydoomed]

what would be a good codec to use for making a file that can be stored and kept for editing later - so the file could be opened in a linux editing program like Kdenlive or if on windows sony vegas or premiere guess I am wanting a very compatible one
I have seen Lagarth and Utvideo being mentioned but Utvideo encoded video can not be opened in Kdenlive on linux

[smok3]

perhaps DNxHD or prores or possibly something bigger (png mov, anim-rle mov ..)

p.s. for ut video decoder you would have to update ffmpeg on linux.

[JEEB]

I have seen Lagarth and Utvideo being mentioned but Utvideo encoded video can not be opened in Kdenlive on linux
Ut Video has been fully supported for a while in libavcodec (as in, from summer/fall of last year or so), but I guess you'd have to update the libavcodec library (as well as possibly your KDEnlive itself) in order to use it.

Prores and DNxHD are "professional" editing formats and a certain Apple editor will only take the first as "native input" IIRC. They IIRC are not lossless though (just lossy formats with very, very high bit rate).

PNG in MOV is also "good enough" for certain scenarios where there are payware editors related to the workflow and where you want lossless (better than raw RGB in MOV, which is what I got from a certain company size-wise >_>).

Anyways, looking at the software you're planning on using I'd probably go with Ut Video -- as long as your decoder libraries are new enough with KDEnlive. On Windows you can just install the DMO/VFW codec package. Lagarith is semi-supported in libavcodec, but I generally don't recommend using it.

[LoRd_MuldeR]

Intra-only H.264 would be an option to consider. Can be "very high-quality" or even "true lossless". Supports 4:2:2/4:4:4 subsampling as well as 10-Bit. And it's widely supported nowadays.

(Most OpenSource tools use libavcodec anyway, so H.264 should be no problem at all. Commercial video editors support it as well, though "consumer" products may not support all the "advanced" features like 4:2:2/4:4:4 or 10-Bit)

[CruNcher]

You could also use a system like store everything supported by Matroska in .MKV and if needed remux it in the applications compatible format :) this has some advantages in terms of system complexity since some issues with .ts got fixed it seems to be also much more stable now to utilize this for Transport streams even Multiplexed ones should be possible to transfer seamlessly :)


MKV -> MOV (VFR isn't easy to maintain yet though)
MKV -> MPG
MKV -> MP4 (VFR isn't easy to maintain yet though)
MKV -> TS
MKV -> M2TS (problematic for blu-ray though because of HRD incorrect)
MKV -> AVI (VFR isn't easy to maintain yet though)
MKV -> WEBM
MKV -> FLV
MKV -> MFX
MKV -> WMV (VFR isn't easy to maintain yet though)

[JEEB]

Intra-only H.264 would be an option to consider. Can be "very high-quality" or even "true lossless". Supports 4:2:2/4:4:4 subsampling as well as 10-Bit. And it's widely supported nowadays.

(Most OpenSource tools use libavcodec anyway, so H.264 should be no problem at all. Commercial video editors support it as well, though "consumer" products may not support all the "advanced" features like 4:2:2/4:4:4 or 10-Bit)
Agreed, if you could use lossless H.264 everywhere it'd be quite perfect. Although its main point would be higher bit depth support mostly, as Ut Video can support various subsampling modes (4:2:0, 4:2:2, RGB, RGBA -- only 4:4:4 YCbCr is left).

(note, I am leaving Macs out of the equation completely as only Windows and Linux editing software was mentioned -- but I would guess that at least some editing suites on the Mac support Perian input via the QuickTime API)

[Atak_Snajpera]

i would also recommend avc-intra as intermediate format. for good combatibility with editors use mp4 container.
x264_8bit.exe --preset superfast --tune fastdecode --keyint 1 --crf 14.
btw. sony vegas 11 pro does not support 10 bit natively :(

UPDATE: 10bit works in avi (decoded by ffdshow)

[verydoomed]

Thanks for the replies, I will look into Utvideo more but when I go to render in Kdenlive(0.8.2.1) I dont see Utvideo as an option.
As for X264 I rendered a file from Kdenlive and not only did it not playback properly using GnomeMplayer (the system built in player) it would also not play properly using a windows program - the video would freeze for a bit at the begining then start to play normaly. So I guess getting a compatilbe setting might be a problem. Maybe I shouild just try and stick with a standard mpeg2
the x264 settings I used were
f=avi vcodec=libx264 acodec=libmp3lame ar=44100 ab=256k coder=1 flags=+loop cmp=+chroma partitions=+parti8x8+parti4x4+partp8x8+partb8x8 me_method=hex subq=7 me_range=16 g=250 keyint_min=25 sc_threshold=40 i_qfactor=0.71 b_strategy=1 qcomp=0.6 qmin=10 qmax=51 qdiff=4 bf=3 refs=2 directpred=1 trellis=1 flags2=+bpyramid-mixed_refs+wpred+dct8x8+fastpskip wpredp=1 rc_lookahead=20

[Atak_Snajpera]

ffv1 will give you better compression than utvideo. why don't you try avc-intra?

[verydoomed]

ffv1 will give you better compression than utvideo. why don't you try avc-intra?

Yes thanks I am going to try avc-intra out - just not quite sure how to do it from within kdenlive - will fiddle around with it.