Golden Rule of Compression

CompressionTip
Written By Jeff Greenberg

The Golden rule of Compression (above all others) is this:

​Try to compress your video only once. Each time you compress your product, you're taking a chance and lowering it's final quality.

I keep seeing people use tools like Handbrake to rip a DVD into MPG4 and then use another tool, like Apple Compressor to make ProRes. That's taking a distribution quality codec (MPEG2) taking it to another distribution quality (h.264) and then to an editorial codec.​

Try, when possible to only transform your video once​ - at the end of your editorial process.

Compression Tips like this can be found by attending sessions at Post Production World at NAB (this link includes links to non-PPW sessions)

Jeff Greenberg
This is my really short bio. Once upon a time, I was a premed student who foolishly took a film class (and I was over 25 at the time!) I now teach the technologies involved in film/video. Feel free to ask me anything you'd like!
jeffigreenberg.com
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