Home videos on FCP - which codec for longevity

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Level 1

8 points

Home videos on FCP - which codec for longevity

Hi all,

I want to make a home videos of the family, probably one a year of the kids.

I shoot mainly 4K 60fps HEVC iPhone videos at the moment but this will likely change over time to 4K 60 HDR with potentially different codec with better gear - but for now mainly the iPhone.

my question - for longevity and compatibility (I own an LG OLED 4K tv and 2020 iMac) which codec and container should I use?

I have compressor so can create most things. Also, is there any benefit to creating two versions of each movie - one codec (264/hevc) and one higher quality (prores) which would be stored on big slow backup disks? (I’m not sure how most of my original footage captured on hevc would benefit from a prores file? If at all?

thanks in advance,

Posted on Jun 19, 2021 11:40 PM

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Answer 1

Best reply

Matti Haveri

Level 6

15,055 points

Jun 20, 2021 5:12 AM in response to Silicon28

I archive some selected original footage or a few FCP ProRes .mov exports or some FCP projects (that might not be readable in next versions) as well as all old VHS converted to .dv with iMovie 1.0.1-6.0.3 and the original .dv footage.

In FCP I recently switched from H.264 to H.265 exports.

AFAIK .mp4 is currently the most cross-platform future-proof wrapper and .m4v is very similar with only some DRM options added so usually just changing the suffix should work if some place insist on .mp4. .mov might differ more but sometimes it is unavoidable. Then there is the quite flexible .mkv but currently I try to losslessly convert all those to .mp4.

Two years ago I re-encoded all old cell phone movies with iPad-incompatible obsolete codecs to H.264 .mp4 with MPEG Streamclip in Mojave (I still have the original "raw" movies archived).

I'd expect H.264 and H.265 in .mp4 or .m4v wrapper to be readily readable in all decent applications for the next 20 years or even more...

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Answer 2

Jun 20, 2021 2:52 AM in response to Silicon28

You are on to a loser with this! 😈

Until 25 years ago most people had relied on paper photographs which hadn't changed in over 150 years but with the advent of digital video everything altered and new codecs are appearing every few years.

The most popular and universally playable format at present is .mp4 but whatever you choose you need to be prepared to re-encode everything every ten years, if not sooner.

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Answer 3

Jun 20, 2021 4:31 AM in response to Silicon28

H264 is one codec that is most widely supported throughout computers, smartphones, and tv, and should remain an option for a long time. HEVC should be fine, too. You may want to have a version in each.

Ian is right about probably having to recode after a few years, but this should get you started.

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Answer 4

Silicon28 Author

Level 1

8 points

Jun 20, 2021 5:41 AM in response to Silicon28

Thanks Matti,

so I suppose for now then on my iPhone 12. (Non pro - so does 8bit 4K 60 and 10bit 4K 30fps) and I shoot non hdr for a better frame rate I would be best to use HEVC 4K 60 FPS in 8 bit at a high bitrate of approx 60-80mbps (my iPhone 12 files are approx this bitrate when shot) for the best encode I could do at the moment ?

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Answer 5

Jun 20, 2021 7:25 AM in response to Silicon28

YMMV. I usually shoot at the best quality for editing and archive selected best original shots that might be useful to someone for the possible re-edits in the future.

My son says storage is "cheap" but there is a limit (my archives are still on two identical HDDs because large & fast sequential-write & reliable SSD is still quite pricey). Currently I do not routinely shoot faster than 25 or 30 fps (a few years ago I considered shooting all in 30 fps although being in a 25 fps PAL country and because mobile devices default to 30 fps but I am still on the fence about that).

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