Lossless codecs for REAL editors

[Castor Troy]

I'm glad everyone agrees

Editors in the industry only cut the clips and nothing more. They don't have the time nor do they care about the technical stuff. Half of them don't even know how to turn on their Avid system.

I remember one video I edited for a client, I asked him what codec he wanted and he was like "uhhh... quicktime".

[Phantasmagoriat]

Maybe I'm at a loss too as to what codecs are as well. Could someone give me a brief explanation??

CODECS are what allow you to Write & Read video in certain file formats (ie. COding & DECoding).

Analogy:

• Codecs are to Video; as Dictionaries are to Books.
  Just as an English Dictionary can be used to interpret/write Books in English,
  the x264 Codec reads/writes Video in the x264 format.

[Pie Row Maniac]

I remember one video I edited for a client, I asked him what codec he wanted and he was like "uhhh... quicktime".

I remember having that level of technical knowledge when I was in high school.

[Castor Troy]

I remember one video I edited for a client, I asked him what codec he wanted and he was like "uhhh... quicktime".

I remember having that level of technical knowledge when I was in high school.

It was all about cinepak and mpeg1 back in those days!

[post-it]

I remember one video I edited for a client, I asked him what codec he wanted and he was like "uhhh... quicktime".

I remember having that level of technical knowledge when I was in high school.

It was all about cinepak and mpeg1 back in those days!

you forgot Umatic and Reel-to-Reel direct editing.

On this board you've got it lucky; even TV Stations only recognize Umatic Controllers
and Gen-Lock System Editing. Here, you can get exposed to Digital encoding:
.. this would have been impossible 20 years ago and non-productive even 15 years ago.
Mpeg-2 is fine for DVD's -- but I'm thinking; there HAS to be a better way!

[OtakuGray]

So would it be better or worse in the end to use lossless codecs or another codec thats smalller?

[outlawed]

Real Editors use turnkey systems for editing master footage or use DV version for quick n dirty portable editing like Castor mentioned. You have to look beyond the codec when looking at what pros do since deadlines are everything and you need to maxmize your output. A top to bottom system that handles everything does have its uses. The question to be asking is what cameras and their footage exist and what the pros/cons of them are.

[Phantasmagoriat]

So would it be better or worse in the end to use lossless codecs or another codec thats smalller?

If you don't have much time or disc space, you would probably just use the smaller, lossy originals.
Or if your computer is beefy enough, you might be happy enough with the speed of a lossy editing codec.

But if you have the time & space; or your computer isn't fast enough; then yes, by all means use lossless so you have a more comfortable time editing... since your workflow is limited by read/write speed, not computing power (it's generally faster).

HOWEVER, I would think professionals have fast enough computers to not care... or even need to know about lossless editing... especially when AMV-like precision isn't always required.


Real-world-editing needs to be practical. AMV-editing is not practical.


(so the two need to be treated differently)

[OtakuGray]

So in the long run, lossy codecs are better?

Honestly, i just use lagarith lossless on everything lolol I have a 500gb harddrive and its not full yet...so i must have pretty bad quality, or a decent sized harddrive...

Also. if you don't know what a codec IS ...isnt that unprofessional? If I was a professional video editor, i would want to know everything about videos, even the unnecessary stuff...

[Phantasmagoriat]

So in the long run, lossy codecs are better?

Depends what you mean by better. Lossy and Lossless both have advantages/disadvantages. You use what's best suited for what you are doing. Very generally I would say for quick/precise editing use Lossless. Lossy may work for everything else, but then again maybe not.

Also. if you don't know what a codec IS ...isnt that unprofessional? If I was a professional video editor, i would want to know everything about videos, even the unnecessary stuff...

While you could say that... (and to a certain extent I agree... kind-of...) but you also have to acknowledge that some pretty amazing stuff can be created by people that don't understand all the tech. Actually, I would wager there's a higher likelihood that people don't understand it; and got into the industry based on Arts credentials and Creative abilities, not tech... ofc, it depends what stage of video production they are part of...