Codec H.264 vs H.265? 30fps vs 24 fps??? When and why?

[vindibona1]

I've got an incoming M2P and I've never had the option of H.265 before. I've been learning to edit on DaVinci Resolve and I know it supports both. So when would one want to use the 264 codec or the 265?

As a bonus question, I see some folks like to use 24fps rather than 30fps calling 24 "more cinematic". What make a slower frame rate more cinematic, and what do you guys prefer and why?

TIA

 

[Cobra193]

H265 is newer version H264, and apparently much more efficient However it’s not as common and not as widely supported by hardware, so it depends on your audience.

I almost always use 30fps because of what I shoot. 24 FPS is preferred for movie content because it has more motion which is what people are used to in movies. Higher FPS gives you a clearer image. I do a lot of commercial real estate so I want my footage to be clear and crisp which is why I also DONT use a 16ND filter. I will use a 4 ND if I need to tame my exposure down a bit to be evenly divisible by 30 (FPS).

so both depend on what your shooting and your audience.

 

[sch]

265 High-Efficiency Video Coding (HEVC). Delivers higher quality video at the same bitrate as H. 264.Because H.265 compresses your data so much more efficiently, using it as your video compression tool will drop your bandwidth and storage requirements by roughly 50%.at what cost? you need 9-10x more computing power.

The 24fps more... cinematic look is because produces more motion blur. but at 30fps, you get a slightly more crisp and clean image.

 

[vindibona1]

H265 is newer version H264, and apparently much more efficient However it’s not as common and not as widely supported by hardware, so it depends on your audience.

I almost always use 30fps because of what I shoot. 24 FPS is preferred for movie content because it has more motion which is what people are used to in movies. Higher FPS gives you a clearer image. I do a lot of commercial real estate so I want my footage to be clear and crisp which is why I also DONT use a 16ND filter. I will use a 4 ND if I need to tame my exposure down a bit to be evenly divisible by 30 (FPS).

so both depend on what your shooting and your audience.

Good answer. Thanks. I suspect that once I get my Part 107 license real estate is going to be a large part of what I do with my drone. Warming up to that, as personal projects I've started capturing iconic buildings in my area, but so far only with my Mini.

The adjustable shutter/aperture on the drone is going to be a whole 'nother thing. Yeah.... Following the Sunny 16 rule, on a sunny day, if I am correct, a 4ND should put you at f5.6 @ 1/60, right? I suppose I could pull out my old Minolta FlashMeter IV and figure out which ND might be needed. Should I buy a single ND filter, or is there a small kit that you recommend? I don't see the point of polarizers or UV filters... but one or two ND's might come in handy.

 

[boblui]

You use H265 if you shoot in 10-bit profiles ( DLog-M or HLG ) because 10-bit ( vs 8-bit for normal profile ) means bigger files, more compression is needed.

24 fps alone does not give you more motion blur unless you reduce the shutter speed to 1/24 sec as well.

 

[vindibona1]

265 High-Efficiency Video Coding (HEVC). Delivers higher quality video at the same bitrate as H. 264.Because H.265 compresses your data so much more efficiently, using it as your video compression tool will drop your bandwidth and storage requirements by roughly 50%.at what cost? you need 9-10x more computing power.

The 24fps more... cinematic look is because produces more motion blur. but at 30fps, you get a slightly more crisp and clean image.

Since I haven't received my M2 yet, I don't know what I'll experience in terms of card space needed. I've ordered two new micro SD cards because the ones for my Mini are only rated at U1 and work fine with the Mini, but I suspect at 100mbps the U3's will be required. I just received a 128gb U3 and a 64bg card. Should these be big enough for to cover an hour or two of flying/recording?

I tend to download my files off the cards as soon as I get home and then either delete them from the card or just reformat the card before flying the next time as it is a routine I picked up years ago when cards didn't have much capacity. Any here in digital long enough to remember these? They were huge (and hugely expensive back in the day). I think I paid $300 for the 340mb drive! ...

 

[Camino Ken]

Since I haven't received my M2 yet, I don't know what I'll experience in terms of card space needed. I've ordered two new micro SD cards because the ones for my Mini are only rated at U1 and work fine with the Mini, but I suspect at 100mbps the U3's will be required. I just received a 128gb U3 and a 64bg card. Should these be big enough for to cover an hour or two of flying/recording?

I tend to download my files off the cards as soon as I get home and then either delete them from the card or just reformat the card before flying the next time as it is a routine I picked up years ago when cards didn't have much capacity. Any here in digital long enough to remember these? They were huge (and hugely expensive back in the day). I think I paid $300 for the 340mb drive! ...

View attachment 109323

The M2 Pro uses a little over 3/4 of a GByte per minute of video at 4K, 30 so your cards will hold about 80 and 160 min respectively.

 

[THE CYBORG]

figure out which ND might be needed. Should I buy a single ND filter, or is there a small kit that you recommend? I don't see the point of polarizers or UV filters... but one or two ND's might come in handy.

I use the Freewell variable ND filters, saves as lot of swapping around.

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[jlatas]

You use H265 if you shoot in 10-bit profiles ( DLog-M or HLG ) because 10-bit ( vs 8-bit for normal profile ) means bigger files, more compression is needed.

24 fps alone does not give you more motion blur unless you reduce the shutter speed to 1/24 sec as well.

Actually, your shutter speed should be 2x the frame rate...so for 24fps, you should be using 1/50 or 1/60

 

[theDRONEranger]

Correct on the H265 vs H264. My problem at the present is my laptop HD decided to quit working. Fortunately, my data is preserved on multiple external HDs. Problem is now that the repair replaced the HD, free under warranty, I have downloaded both the HEIF app and the HEVC 265 app. I still cannot get Adobe Premiere Elements to view 265. Delete, restart, reinstall, wash rinse, repeat. Adobe says it works with 265, laptop says it doesn’t. I can view on Windows 10 viewer, but NOT Adobe. Aaarrggggggg!

 

[vindibona1]

This is really helpful. Computer processing power isn't so much an issue as is RAM. I've got an Alienware desktop with 32gb of RAM plu 16gb on the graphics card (GTX1070). I could probably use another internal HD or two, but I've got several external drives for longer term storage.

So I guess what it comes down to is the question, will H265 slow down the process to make it less efficient vs the amount of space it saves over H264? Yes, no?

I use the Freewell variable ND filters, saves as lot of swapping around.

Thanks. That is definitely something I would want to consider. Does it change the sharpeness or clarity of the image any more than a 1-layer ND filter?

 

[vindibona1]

Correct on the H265 vs H264. My problem at the present is my laptop HD decided to quit working. Fortunately, my data is preserved on multiple external HDs. Problem is now that the repair replaced the HD, free under warranty, I have downloaded both the HEIF app and the HEVC 265 app. I still cannot get Adobe Premiere Elements to view 265. Delete, restart, reinstall, wash rinse, repeat. Adobe says it works with 265, laptop says it doesn’t. I can view on Windows 10 viewer, but NOT Adobe. Aaarrggggggg!

Have you considered trying DaVinci Resolve? The "regular" full featured version is FREE and the super-duper, professional STUDIO version is only $300. I know it offers H265 as it gives me the option set the program for it. A lot of folks are switching from the full Premier to DaVinci Resolve. It's got everything from color grading, a "Fusion" section that I presume does a lot of what After Effects does, an audio editing section...almost everything the amateur video editor would need- all rolled into one unified program- for free! It may take a bit to get used to where everything is. And there are so many tutorials out there for individual tasks. I found it easier to learn (the basics- with a few fancy things thrown in) than some of the more basic rudimentary editing programs. In full disclosure, I am not happy with Adobe's software "rental" practices and am so happy that there are viable alternatives, at least in the video field.

 

[theDRONEranger]

Have you considered trying DaVinci Resolve? The "regular" full featured version is FREE and the super-duper, professional STUDIO version is only $300. I know it offers H265 as it gives me the option set the program for it. A lot of folks are switching from the full Premier to DaVinci Resolve. It's got everything from color grading, a "Fusion" section that I presume does a lot of what After Effects does, an audio editing section...almost everything the amateur video editor would need- all rolled into one unified program- for free! It may take a bit to get used to where everything is. And there are so many tutorials out there for individual tasks. I found it easier to learn (the basics- with a few fancy things thrown in) than some of the more basic rudimentary editing programs. In full disclosure, I am not happy with Adobe's software "rental" practices and am so happy that there are viable alternatives, at least in the video field.

I’ll down and try. Thanks

 

[jlatas]

Correct on the H265 vs H264. My problem at the present is my laptop HD decided to quit working. Fortunately, my data is preserved on multiple external HDs. Problem is now that the repair replaced the HD, free under warranty, I have downloaded both the HEIF app and the HEVC 265 app. I still cannot get Adobe Premiere Elements to view 265. Delete, restart, reinstall, wash rinse, repeat. Adobe says it works with 265, laptop says it doesn’t. I can view on Windows 10 viewer, but NOT Adobe. Aaarrggggggg!

Do you have Premier Elements 2020 or an older version...I believe only the 2020 version supports H.265

btw...Davinci Resolve, even the free version, is awesome...tons of YouTube tutorials to help a person get going

 

[THE CYBORG]

This is really helpful. Computer processing power isn't so much an issue as is RAM. I've got an Alienware desktop with 32gb of RAM plu 16gb on the graphics card (GTX1070). I could probably use another internal HD or two, but I've got several external drives for longer term storage.

So I guess what it comes down to is the question, will H265 slow down the process to make it less efficient vs the amount of space it saves over H264? Yes, no?


Thanks. That is definitely something I would want to consider. Does it change the sharpeness or clarity of the image any more than a 1-layer ND filter?

Short answer NO

 

[theDRONEranger]

Have you considered trying DaVinci Resolve? The "regular" full featured version is FREE and the super-duper, professional STUDIO version is only $300. I know it offers H265 as it gives me the option set the program for it. A lot of folks are switching from the full Premier to DaVinci Resolve. It's got everything from color grading, a "Fusion" section that I presume does a lot of what After Effects does, an audio editing section...almost everything the amateur video editor would need- all rolled into one unified program- for free! It may take a bit to get used to where everything is. And there are so many tutorials out there for individual tasks. I found it easier to learn (the basics- with a few fancy things thrown in) than some of the more basic rudimentary editing programs. In full disclosure, I am not happy with Adobe's software "rental" practices and am so happy that there are viable alternatives, at least in the video field.

I’ll give the Resolve a try. I was using the PremiereElements 2020 before my HD went belly up. I have no idea why PE2020 will not play nicely now!?!?

 

[MavicAir2Marc]

Correct on the H265 vs H264. My problem at the present is my laptop HD decided to quit working. Fortunately, my data is preserved on multiple external HDs. Problem is now that the repair replaced the HD, free under warranty, I have downloaded both the HEIF app and the HEVC 265 app. I still cannot get Adobe Premiere Elements to view 265. Delete, restart, reinstall, wash rinse, repeat. Adobe says it works with 265, laptop says it doesn’t. I can view on Windows 10 viewer, but NOT Adobe. Aaarrggggggg!

I have no problem with seeing H265 in Adobe, but I can't see them in the finder of my 2010 iMac that's running High Sierra. Once I put them in premiere, it plays like any other codec (minus the dropped frames that my video card can't handle as well, that's why I use proxies).

 

[monteolsen1]

Correct on the H265 vs H264. My problem at the present is my laptop HD decided to quit working. Fortunately, my data is preserved on multiple external HDs. Problem is now that the repair replaced the HD, free under warranty, I have downloaded both the HEIF app and the HEVC 265 app. I still cannot get Adobe Premiere Elements to view 265. Delete, restart, reinstall, wash rinse, repeat. Adobe says it works with 265, laptop says it doesn’t. I can view on Windows 10 viewer, but NOT Adobe. Aaarrggggggg!

Hi

Not sure what to say about the problem with Premier Elements. It works find on my Ryzen 7 desktop with 16 MB RAM.

 

[theDRONEranger]

Still cannot figure out why Adobe Premiere Elements 2020 does not play nicely with my HEVC 265 videos.
Attached is screen shot of settings. Do it help anyone. I have since downloaded the Davinci Resolve (free). But I would still like to overcome the problem with Adobe PE 2020.