HEVC vs H.264quality and size difference? Help you software gurus : )

[hidaven]

How exactly does HEVC work its magic if the file sizes are the same based on Mbps? If I record in either codec Im still recording at 100Mbps right? How do we save half the file size? Is 100Mbps in HVEC like 200Mbps in H.264?

lastly, my Power director 16 will let me input 10bit HEVC but will only export it at 8 bit, why, who knows. Do I gain anything shooting in 10 bit if I have to render or produce in 8 bit? Otherwise witht his software it makes no sense shooting in D-log to get the extra 2 bits.....

Thanks in advance.

 

[hidaven]

Anyone?

 

[Sockeye]

If the file size is the same, h265 can carry more information / higher quality than h.264. Or the other way around, a h.265 video with the same quality is around 20-25% smaller in file size than a video in h.264.

The 10bit raw material allows you to color grade more in post. Rendering it down to 8bit will cost you some color information, but will still look better than having only 8bit upfront.

 

[Dmbrody]

How exactly does HEVC work its magic if the file sizes are the same based on Mbps? If I record in either codec Im still recording at 100Mbps right? How do we save half the file size? Is 100Mbps in HVEC like 200Mbps in H.264?

lastly, my Power director 16 will let me input 10bit HEVC but will only export it at 8 bit, why, who knows. Do I gain anything shooting in 10 bit if I have to render or produce in 8 bit? Otherwise witht his software it makes no sense shooting in D-log to get the extra 2 bits.....

Thanks in advance.

There is probably a good primer on Wikipedia, but in a nutshell, YES, H.265, or HVEC, crams approximately twice the information into a video file as h.264. Put another way, h.265 retains the same subjective image quality as h.264 at half the data rate. This is achieved with “fancy math” (algorithms) that can be very taxing on your processor.

I don’t know anything about power director, but conceptually, YES, if you are going for absolute best image quality, then yes it’s still worth it to capture in 10bit even if you will delivery in 8bit. With the right software (like Resolve) you can control what makes it to your final 8 bit file. In other words you can push highlights, shadows, and color around before you render. It’s kind of like capturing at a 4K resolution, even though you intend to deliver in 1080p.

 

[Sportivod]

This article may help: All About Digital Video

 

[Tuskegee Airman]

How exactly does HEVC work its magic if the file sizes are the same based on Mbps? If I record in either codec Im still recording at 100Mbps right? How do we save half the file size? Is 100Mbps in HVEC like 200Mbps in H.264?

lastly, my Power director 16 will let me input 10bit HEVC but will only export it at 8 bit, why, who knows. Do I gain anything shooting in 10 bit if I have to render or produce in 8 bit? Otherwise witht his software it makes no sense shooting in D-log to get the extra 2 bits.....

Thanks in advance.

It’s 2019 and they’ve learned how to encode video more efficiently. HEVC/H.265 (high efficiency video codec) is nothing more than a newer version of video compression. So 100Mbps is still 100Mbps. But it is a little bit more hardware intensive.

It’s still worthwhile to record in a higher bit rate because some software will make use of the extra data when performing edits even if it’s only outputting 8 bit.

 

[wingmen]

I agree with Tuskegee. On paper, HEVC is a superior technical codec and eventually it will replace H.264 as the dominant codec. Hevc has the ability to deliver similar quality at 2/3 to 1/2 half the bitrate of h.264. But that means it will take more CPU power to encode and decode. I did a comparison once, by using the same settings, crf 19, dts core, PGS subtitles. The actual file size was smaller by 400mb. Not a huge difference actually. Video quality was a little sharper with better color using HEVC x265 8bit.