What's the video equivalent of 16bit TIFF?

[Dinarius]

In other words, if I want to give someone a video file in the best possible quality, which format should I be saving it in?

Also, if I gave someone a TIFF file, they would have to have some software means of opening/viewing it.

What is required (both Mac and PC, please) for whichever video format(s) you recommend?

Many thanks.

D.

[Christopher Sanderson]

There is no easy answer since it depends on what the recipient is going to do with it and it also depends very much on what format the footage was recorded in.

(IOW no point in giving a 16 bit TIFF if it was originally shot as a medium quality JPEG)

Can you give more details of the original and the intended use? Will the recipient be doing any work on the footage?

[Dinarius]

Thanks for the reply.

It was shot in MP4.

The reason I want to give the best possible quality is because I don't know what will happen down the line, so I want to cater for all eventualities.

Thanks.

D.

[Christopher Sanderson]

MP4 is the container. It will help to know what codec is embedded.

But at this distance and based on what you have said, I would give them as close to the camera original as you can.

Assuming you have done some NLE editing of copies of the camera originals and assuming that in your NLE, you have changed nothing as far as the format is concerned (and these are major assumptions which may well be incorrect), I would export from your NLE into exactly the same format, bitrate, codec, frame rate as the camera original. IOW all the NLE has to do is make a copy of the footage with adjusted In & Out points.

If however the NLE has re-encoded, 'optimized' or done any work at all on the footage other than i/o points, you will need to tell me what codec etc was originally used and what the NLE format is. Generally a camera recorded original contains compression which is 'expanded' or optimized for editing in the NLE. On a Mac I generally go from H264 420 original to ProRes 422 for editing/colour correction and then back to an H264 encoded (compressed) final.

Short form: there really is not a simple answer 

[fredjeang2]

There is no easy answer since it depends on what the recipient is going to do with it and it also depends very much on what format the footage was recorded in.

(IOW no point in giving a 16 bit TIFF if it was originally shot as a medium quality JPEG)

Can you give more details of the original and the intended use? Will the recipient be doing any work on the footage?

Got a question: if an original footage has been shooted with one of those naughty ultra compressed codecs AVCHD, isn't that better in the case of further manipulation to create copies in a more robust format like Prores, DNxHD, or Open EXR to avoid the bleeding? (further more degradations).
Just like in fact we would transform an original jpeg into PSD previous to work the file.

Or is it just a mystic ?

[Christopher Sanderson]

Absolutely it is worth while! For both less cpu-intensive editing (+more accurate?) and for any CC adjustments. If you put an 8 bit image inside a 12 bit space for adjustment, the extra room will allow for finer adjustments. It will not create anything that was not there originally but it is also less likely to introduce banding and artifacts.

A rule of thumb is to manipulate in the largest space available & practical.

[fredjeang2]

Absolutely it is worth while! For both less cpu-intensive editing (+more accurate?) and for any CC adjustments. If you put an 8 bit image inside a 12 bit space for adjustment, the extra room will allow for finer adjustments. It will not create anything that was not there originally but it is also less likely to introduce banding and artifacts.

A rule of thumb is to manipulate in the largest space available & practical.

Thanks. You confirm what I was seeing. Cheers.

[John Brawley]

DPX is the motion version of TIFF.  cDNG is also another motion version of TIFF, with audio and timecode.

You could encode to these for archival purposes but the files will be massive and unwieldy. 

What resolution are the original files ? 

You might be better of rendering to a format like ProRes 4444 which is 12 bit and keeps all the colour information nicely and has half a chance of playing on a normal computer.

JB

[fredjeang2]

DPX is the motion version of TIFF.  cDNG is also another motion version of TIFF, with audio and timecode.

You could encode to these for archival purposes but the files will be massive and unwieldy. 

What resolution are the original files ? 

You might be better of rendering to a format like ProRes 4444 which is 12 bit and keeps all the colour information nicely and has half a chance of playing on a normal computer.

JB

Yes, I use DPX. Here it's also very common the archiving in JEPG2000.