Video Formats & Codecs
Video file container contains data (video and audio). The data is encoded with one of the codecs in the next chapter, but the container doesn't necessarily determine which codec the data is encoded with. For example, .mov containers can contain videos encoded with H.264 or NotchLC or HAP codecs.
.avi | .mp4 | .mov |
.wmv | .wma | .asf |
.3gp | .3gp2 | .3gpp |
.m4a | .m4v | .vob |
.webm | .mts | .mpg |
.mpeg | .mkv | .flv |
Codec is a portmanteau of coder/decoder and describes the algorithm used to encode and decode video data (video and audio). LightAct, as a media server, can only decode the data, not encode it.
We categorize codecs in 2 groups: ones that are decoded on the CPU and the ones decoded on the GPU. The GPU group of codecs have usually a much better performance (measured as the maximum resolution at a given framerate) at the expense of much larger file sizes.
CPU | GPU |
|---|---|
H.263, h.264 (AVC) | NotchLC |
MPEG, MPEG-4 | HAP, HAPa, HAPQ |
Windows Media Video | |
WebM | |
Sorenson | |
ProRes | |
VP9 | |
Good to know: for best performance, we usually recommend NotchLC codec.
If you are having any problems with video importing and/or playback and would like to contact our support, please attach videoImportSummary.json file, which you can find in C:\ProgramData\Lightact\Lightact4\logs.
Last modified 6mo ago