Overview: Production and preservation codecs

Production and preservation codecs serve workflows where editing access, reconstruction quality or long-term fidelity influence coding choices.

A format chosen for editing may prioritize efficient picture access over the smallest delivery file. A preservation workflow can place another emphasis on exact reconstruction. The codecs in this group span those purposes; their individual pages distinguish picture access, compression and reconstruction properties.

• Motion JPEG
  Motion JPEG stores video as independently JPEG-compressed pictures or fields, with packaging details that vary by implementation.

• DV video
  DV video is an intra-frame compressed video format commonly encountered in digital tape transfers.

• Apple ProRes
  Apple ProRes is a family of intra-frame video codecs used for production and editing, with separate variants for different quality and sample requirements.

• Avid DNxHD
  Avid DNxHD identifies the established HD production-codec workflows within the VC-3 video coding family.

• Avid DNxHR
  Avid DNxHR identifies resolution-independent production workflows in the VC-3 video coding family.

• FFV1
  FFV1 is a lossless video coding format whose decoded sample values match the samples supplied to its encoder.

References

• ITU-T T.81: JPEG compression and coding
• SMPTE ST 314: DV-based audio, data, and video at 25 and 50 Mb/s
• SMPTE RDD 36: Apple ProRes bitstream syntax and decoding process
• SMPTE ST 2019-1: VC-3 picture compression and data stream format (2016)
• RFC 9043: FFV1 video coding format versions 0, 1, and 3