{"id":5397,"date":"2021-02-07T12:07:43","date_gmt":"2021-02-07T08:07:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/actiongadgetsreviews.com\/?p=5397"},"modified":"2021-02-07T12:27:34","modified_gmt":"2021-02-07T08:27:34","slug":"gopro-video-codec","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/actiongadgetsreviews.com\/gopro-video-codec","title":{"rendered":"GoPro Video Codec"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Many people frequently ask what is the difference between the two GoPro video codecs present in recent GoPro cameras. Follow my highlights on the differences in both codecs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What is a Video Codec<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

A codec is a combination of two words; co<\/strong>mpressor and de<\/strong>compressor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A video codec is an important tool that is used to reduce a video file into a smaller and manageable size.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It generates an encoded video or audio file, then the video player or target computer software will decode it following the rules guided by that codec and plays the video back with comparable quality to the original.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Without a video codec, it would be literally impossible to handle the huge file sizes in raw videos.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To put it simply, a codec takes light and sound from your camera and puts it in digital format that a computer can read and that’s called compression.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then eventually, our computers read it and play it back the same way it was originally captured and that is called decompression.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When using either codec to compress your video on a GoPro camera, your video file will be saved with a .mp4 file extension.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What is H.264<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

H.264<\/a> also known as Advanced Video Coding (AVC) is the most widely used codec made by Microsoft corporation and it came after the H.263.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

AVC provides significantly better bitrate than the H.263 for similar file types and sizes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Many video players, software, and phones are compatible with this codec and it is not easy to encounter any problems when using it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What is H.265<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

H.265<\/a> also known as High-Efficiency Video Coding (HEVC) or MPEG-H Part 2 is a newer technology in this space and it succeeds H.264 which has dominated the market since 2003.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

HEVC performs better than H.264 in many aspects including shrinking 4K videos up to 64 percent and 1080P videos up to 57 percent compared to its predecessor H.264.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

HEVC lives up to its name because it provides better compression almost double what you can get with AVC.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This codec is very beneficial especially when shooting videos with a resolution of 2K and above or when live streaming an event to your favorite social media platforms.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

HEVC is much more complicated to encode since it requires powerful resources to prepare the footage for final playback.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For this reason, you need to ensure that you have a powerful computer to be able to edit footage recorded in HEVC.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Many video players and computer software support HEVC video-coded playback but still, we have some players that are not compatible.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For such a case, you will need to download the HEVC video extensions<\/a> to enable playback.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Differences between H.264 and H.265 video codecs<\/strong> – H264 vs H265<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The following table highlights the major differences between AVC and HEVC.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

H.264 (AVC)<\/strong><\/td>H.265 (HEVC)<\/strong><\/td><\/tr>
Moderate file size<\/td>Further reduced file sizes<\/td><\/tr>
Normal compression<\/td>Offers almost double compression of what you get from AVC<\/td><\/tr>
Supports from 4 x 4 to 16 x 16-pixel macroblocks<\/td>Supports up to 64 x 64-pixel CTU\u2019s (Coding Tree Units).<\/td><\/tr>
Just allows for 9 directions of motion hence the inter frame prediction is much less predictive<\/td>Allow for 33 directions of motion hence the inter frame prediction is very predictive.<\/td><\/tr>
Does not support high resolutions<\/td>Supports high resolution including 8K with pixels measurements of 8192 x 4320 pixels<\/td><\/tr>
Requires more bandwidth compared to H.265. For instance, it needs internet speeds of 32 mbps to livestream 4K videos.<\/td>Does not need much bandwidth, for instance, it can use an internet speed of 15mbps to livestream 4K videos.<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Here is a video by ‘AndyHandy Tech Tips’ going in-depth on the difference between H264 and H265:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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