Video Codecs and Editing

Intra-frame Codecs

If the individual frames are saved as separate files, they are called image sequences, just like many JPEGs in a folder. Some popular image sequence formats are:

• TIFF – used for mastering
• DPX – Used in film scans and digital mastering
• EXR – Used in VFX
• JPEG2000 – DCI

An intraframe codec is bunched as one file. A few popular intraframe codecs:

• MJPEG – JPEGS bunched together
• Prores – Apple’s favorite
• DNxHD – Avid’s baby
• ALL-I – Found in the newer DSLRs
• Cinema DNG – Adobe’s baby for RAW image sequences

Inter-frame Codecs

A few popular interframe codecs are:

• H.264 (A variant of MPEG-4)
• MPEG-4
• MPEG-2
• AVCHD (A variant of H.264 AVC) – developed by Sony and Panasonic
• XDCAM – Sony’s baby
• XAVC – Sony’s new baby
• VP9
• h265 (HEVC)

In addition to image sequences, intraframe codecs and interframe codecs, there’s also uncompressed video, uncompressed RAW, and compressed RAW.

Notes:

• intraframe codecs are lighter on a CPU
• if you have powerful enough computer to handle it, do not reencode video to intraframe codecs
• dualcore i3 3.4GHz is sufficient to handle 720p x264 in Kdenlive video editor, but not 1080p (commonly used bitrate on internet…15-30Mbps)
• videos with a high bitrate - something like 720p BDRips x264 - video editing is choppy
• videos with intraframe codecs can be cut and rendered without reencoding, so there isn’t any loss of quality because of subsequent reencode. Also it is faster

Source:

• http://wolfcrow.com/blog/intra-frame-vs-inter-frame-compression/
• my own experience