Why H.264 SUCKS for VIDEO EDITING

If you don't have smooth playback when editing your videos, it might be because you're editing in the codec h.264. This codec was never meant for editing and that's why your playback is choppy. Let me show you the correct codec to edit videos in ;)

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[alexsalchemy]

Intra-codec... well, that would explain why I'm struggling to edit some videos! Thank you for this simple explanation!

[ColbyStewart]

Absolutely beautiful video! Stunning! Love the studio and lighting. Also great info on the .264 vs ProRes. Thanks!!

[michaeloeser]

That´s why I use an external recorder (Ninja V) with my Canon R6 and R5 because the Ninja can record in ProRes 422 which is a breeze to edit on a silicon based Mac.

[orinorio]

It's simple . If you use Mac use ProRes. If you use Windows use H.264. On Windows ProRes has the same issues that H.264 has on Mac.

[DennisvandenBroek-nl]

If your timeline is stuttering, try in the Davinci menu: Playback -> Render cache -> Smart.

Still troubles? If you have too much sfx on a shot, your videocard has work to hard. Try in the edit tab -> right click on the file with the effect. Render in place.

Choose DNxHR instead of DNxHD, DNxHD is for HD footage, DNxHR up to 8K..

[RobbieStrike]

Great explanation Paul, I have a 4k cannon camcorder and it only records h.264 but I cold convert some of the seens that have layered effects or Green screen that can slow down and be choppy. That is the main reason why editing h.264 is choppy when editing.

[professionalpotato]

If the camera supports it, the native All-I codecs work too. ProRes 422 (HQ) takes up quite a bit more space. Transcoding h.264 to ProRes 422 (HQ) for example is a waste of space as the original footage might not be good enough quality to begin with if shot in 8/10bit 4:2:0.
Transcoding to ProRes Proxy is more than enough. Premiere Pro users should note there are different proxy formats and transcoding to h.264 proxies wouldn't make much of a difference.

[jac]

Hmm. I captured all of my old vhs tapes using an Elgato video adapter about 6 years ago into individual h.264 files, am I SOL? These are pretty rough camcorder VHS tapes so the quality isn't really an issue, it's just me now wanting to edit them together but now I don't know what software I should use to do that having seen this. iMovie? I'm more of an audio guy, with only a little bit of dabbling in iMovie when I captured some old DV tapes a few years ago. And since the good old days of making DVDs from home movies has come and gone, I haven't looked into something that's not impossible to learn how to edit the videos with.

[wingitprod]

I'm still confused. I'm working with multiple formats and rez, ultimately dumbing down to to SD. Premiere is a constant wrestling match. It likes to continue to play after trying to stop and it'll sit when I hit play. Messing w/ Min/Max usually kicks into playing. Should make all comps the same codec or embrace the suck as always?

[harryck]

Thanks for your previous reply but I have pretty a major question that no one discusses on Youtube. The question is what is the highest quality required for Youtube that makes sense? One can have a lot of hassle recording 600mbps RAW formats, 10-12 bits, terabites of data but eventually all these videos will pass through severe Youtube compressions which annihilates all tries and value of lossless and other high-quality formats. You may say - watch it in original quality but this contradicts with the main goal - mass accessibility. Delivering your videos is the main goal of what everyone does. How to find that reasonable quality? How does it look like? Otherwise, it may appear that Sony A7SIII and Panasonic G80 bring the same final result seen on Youtube. I hope you get my idea and if you'll make a deeper video on that it may become viral.

[Gamma-jlib]

My trouble is that DaVinci Resolve 19 doesn't support the H.264 High L5.2 video file. Could you help me? THANKS!

[AoyagiAichou]

h264 is not interframe with All-I though, is it? I know you mentioned it in a footnote of sorts, but that does make that statement any less incorrect I think. But, of course, h264 and h265 are delivery codecs whilst DNxHD/HR and ProRes are for further processing - much like for example CineV and V-Log respectively.

[JROSS]

I got windows computer not sure if matters I’m gonna be filming with iPhone using Blackmagic would you recommend h.265 or proress??

[RabiiHayani]

For my gopro video files avc and hevc i use adobe media encoder to transcode files to apple pro res 422 422 HQ or to the gopro cine form yuv 10 bit its work perect with color correction and more thing ...

[XYZXX]

Hevc is good but we need h.266 x266 codec now days for 4k

[mehmetcaglar]

Hello, the bruise on your face at 00:40 is also seen in my videos. What should I do? Or can we fix this in premiere pro?

[ImNotFlutters]

wow I totally didn't see Apple working for Apple. Who would have thought :O

[jcody_parker]

HVEC on my DJI Action 4 edits a lot less smooth than H.264, even a single HVEC video on the timeline is choppy, when and entire 30 minute video edit with the H.264 clips are smooth. Why is this?

[paulgonzalez]

Hi Paul! I have an iPhone 14 Pro 128GB which can record 4k at 60 fps with H.264 and 1080p at 30 fps with ProRes. Which is the highest resolution setting?

[TechMixr]

Apple Silicon solved this for me. Abandoning Intel was the best decision I ever made. Editing 6K HEVC and 4K H264 is great on this machine. It plays fine, it scrubs at about 80-90% as well as ProRes without transcoding the footage or rendering.