Video Formats and Codecs

Just like with images, choosing your video codec is a crucial performance and quality consideration.

The main two video codecs to consider

There are two dominant video codecs, an older one and a newer one, with their own pros and cons.

x264/AVC (older)

The x264 codec is fast to encode, but results in comparatively large filesizes for a given quality.

x265/HEVC (newer)

The x265 codec gives much superior quality for a given filesize, allowing for a video of the same quality as an x264-encoded one to be even 2-3 times smaller. This is a huge improvement, and especially important for the web, where CDN bandwidth for videos can easily get very high indeed.

The only real downside to x265 is that it takes a lot longer to encode; in the past compatibility was also a problem, but most browsers and video players support it now.