Codec reviews from Reddit
Summary
We analyzed 168 Reddit reviews across 40 subreddits and 50 posts to rank the best Codec brands recommended by redditors, including communities like r/metalgearsolid, r/ffmpeg, r/editors, r/SonyHeadphones, r/colorists. Top-rated brands include Apple (4.5/5), Metal Gear Solid 1 (4.9/5), Sony (4.0/5).
Stats
Reviews168
Subreddits40
Posts50
Brands59
Products34
168 reviews from
and
By Brand
/By Product
#1
Apple
4.5
(33)
"That's why we switched to Apple ProRes 422 on the Win11 Avid systems. Pretty much the same footprint as SQ, but 10 bit."
"I think you should at least consider going up to HQX or Apple ProRes 422, as those codec flavors can handle 10-bit (or 12-bit) colors for smoother gradients."
"Prores is specifically designed to be re-encoded through multiple generations with minimal quality loss, so it's a good choice."
"ProRes 4444+ or DNxHR 444 is best as intermediary format."
"I always use 4444"
"ProRes 4444 or DNxHR 444"
"ProRes 4444 or DNxHR 4444"
"ProRes 4444 is your best bet if you're dealing with live action footage."
"The usual choice for this kind of requirements is Prores. It is reasonably fast, compresses well and is "visually lossless through many generations of decoding and reencoding"."
"Often, Avid DNxHR or Apple ProRes are what you really want (if you really want quality)."
#2
Metal Gear Solid 1
4.9
(18)
"MGS1."
"MGS1 all day, everyday of the year."
"MGS 1 easily."
"MGS1 and it’s not even close!"
"Mgs 1 is just fucking iconic."
"Imo 1 is the iconic codec."
"1 and it’s not even close."
"MGS 1."
"MGS1 no contest."
"I feel 1 is most clear in terms of seeing faces and is also iconic."
#3
Sony
4.0
(16)
"I use HS also and love it. Will add that XAVC S produces a basically identical image that’s less compressed- so larger files but easier to edit full res."
"The quality is great and keeps the file size small at the end of the day even for long form recordings"
"I hear very big difference between SBC and LDAC."
"Practically the potential for highest quality would be getting 12-bit Prores RAW from an external recorder."
"For quality, Xavc s-i is what I use and it seems to work great, never had any complaints."
"For quality, Xavc s-i is what I use and it seems to work great, never had any complaints."
"The XAVC- I Codec in Slog3.cine is a pretty solid codec and gamma combination for post production."
"Also forgot to mention that HS won't play back in the free version of Resolve and some other applications."
"The SI one does use the most space and will make sure to get the most detail out of complex shots."
"Oddly enough "the best image quality" is subjective. I've found what works for me is to test out the different codecs and frame rates on the content I make."
#4
H.264
4.0
(10)
"I'd re-export the video as an .mp4 using h.264/h.265, but I'd also export a .webm file, load both, and let the browser decide which one to play."
"Lossless h264 is the way to go I think."
"H.264 - Low efficiency, good at preserving details"
"H264 is fine, make sure the bitrate is at least 12 Mb/s is the resolution is 1080p or 35 Mb/s if it’s 4K."
"I'd go with h264"
"There's debate about whether to use H.264, VP9, or AV1 but whatever you choose, I recommend downloading the high-bitrate premium version if it's available."
"I just grab both codecs (VP9 and H264), however, if I only had to choose one, I’d probably stick with H264."
"I usually stick to archiving h254 just because it's a more convenient format to work with than vp9."
"If you use h264 and set it so that it keyframes every frame it is similar to dxv in that you can scratch with it"
"H264 does run hardware accelerated on a lot platforms."
#5
x264
3.7
(7)
"X264 high10 is very good if the profile is no problem, also probably the best choice for achieving visual lossless"
"If you’re dead set on lossless you should try x264 and x265 lossless and compare file sizes."
"In lossless mode x264 shines."
"In lossless mode? It’s lossless is very good. Better than x265 lossless believe it or not."
"I store most of my video using the "x264" variant with a constant rate factor of 19."
"AV1 doesn't always give the same quality as x264 at lower bitrates."
"Software x264 totally wiped the floor with it in terms of quality vs bitrate at low bitrates."
#6
Avid
4.2
(6)
"Often, Avid DNxHR or Apple ProRes are what you really want (if you really want quality)."
"I’d always prefer DNXHR 12b with the right settings selected for it to have the best color data."
"I would keep the original files as long as possible - and convert to something like DNxHD (or ProRes if you’re on macOS) if you need a better quality source file."
"You should be using at least DnX HQ or ProRes HQ to be compliant."
"Our current workflow involves transcoding all footage to DNxHD SQ via Media Encoder to work in an Avid Mediacentral / Interplay environment."
"You should have a DNX HQ codec in your list, but I don’t know if it’s only in paid version."
#7
Metal Gear Solid 3
4.2
(5)
"Metal Gear Solid 3 has the best."
"1 is iconic but my favorite is the 3rd one."
"MGS3. It has that older aesthetic, setting it apart from the other titles."
"I like 3 best because it’s such a nice mix of old and new."
"3 looks good in a different way - the still images of the characters make it feel of that era."
#8
ProRes
3.8
(5)
"ProRes is also always limited range YCbCr. Fine for most use cases but not ideal for mastering a film. It’s fast and light though!"
"I use ProRes."
"I still use ProRes. But hey, you could also use the avid standards."
"ProRes or some flavour of DNxHD. Both are practically lossless."
"ProRes isn’t lossless."
#9
AAC
3.5
(4)
"AAC 160 vbr is the best in terms of data to quality imo."
"I’ve also been doing AAC for compatibility and then AC3 because it works on my older home theater."
"I just slap AAC for the extra battery life and go on with my life."
"AAC 256 is low quality anyway but it saves bandwidth."
#10
Apple ProRes
4.0
(3)
"ProRes, DNxHD, and GoPro Cineform are all great for editing because they’re 'mezzanine codecs.'"
"Convert to prores or get a pc upgrade, i think the easiest way to get 422 hvec support is to get an intel gpu."
"Intraframe codecs like ProRes and DnXHR are more efficient than H.264 or H.265/HEVC."
#11
LDAC
4.5
(2)
"LDAC and LHDC are the only lossless Bluetooth codecs. At 16 bit, 44.1kHz, 909kbps they are lossless CD quality."
"I can tell notable details with LDAC that just isn’t there with the AAC codec."
#12
SanDisk
4.5
(2)
"I really cannot see the value in a cfast if you can buy a ssd with more functionality, speed, and storage at a fraction of the price."
"Thanks for the advice"
#13
Opus
4.0
(2)
"For me, to minimize artifacts and to minimize the annoyance level of artifacts, the choice is between Opus or high-bitrate (256+) AAC."
"Opus 320 is what I used."
#14
Metal Gear Solid 2
4.0
(2)
"Mgs2’s is my favorite."
"I still can’t fucking stand Rose."
#15
H.265
4.0
(2)
"H.265 - Better efficiency, not quite as good at preserving details, but still pretty good"
"H.265 can be fine quality if done correctly. Certainly keep it in 10 bit."
#16
Handbrake
4.0
(2)
"Try handbrake and/or ffmpeg"
"...use Handbrake, where you’ll have more control over the x265 compression."
#17
Ogg Vorbis
4.0
(2)
"Opus is good, ogg is what I use."
"After testing this for way too long, I settled on Ogg Vorbis VBR -q 0.5 which is \~160 kbps."
#18
Canon
4.0
(2)
"Shoot in XF-AVC 1080 intraframe given your massive amount of footage, it’ll be easier to edit."
"H265 is significantly better than h264, yes."
#19
HEVC
4.0
(2)
"Hevc_nvenc can do lossless if you have an nvidia card"
"Better compression that h.264. It offers more bang for your buck in terms of storage, with minimal quality drop off."
#20
WebM
4.0
(2)
"Definitely webm."
"Webm has good compression. Perhaps try vp8 or vp8?"
#21
AV1
3.5
(2)
"AV1 or HEVC are better than AVC on very high resolutions like 4K or more."
"AV1 - Low-bitrate streaming. Fantastic efficiency, but you'll lose some detail, even at high bitrates."
#22
UHS-II
5.0
(1)
"They are so much cheaper than cfast and just as fast if not faster."
#23
Bluetooth Codec Changer
5.0
(1)
"I highly recommend Bluetooth Codec Changer for knowing exactly what Codec, Sample Rate, etc."
#24
XAVC
5.0
(1)
"The best codec would be theoretically XAVC S-I 4K."
#25
Samsung Scalable Codec
5.0
(1)
"Use the 'samsung scalable codec', it will have higher bitrate, lower latency, better sound."
#26
RPM Fusion
5.0
(1)
"For your non-restricted codec needs you need RPM Fusion."
#27
ifi
5.0
(1)
"If you want good sound just use the ifi go blu. It has a great dac chip."
#28
VLC
5.0
(1)
"VLC media player - will play anything. It's by far the world's most popular free and open source video player for all platforms."
#29
Resolve
5.0
(1)
"Best option is probably Resolve. Render EXRs out of Nuke, then open them in Resolve and export from there."
#30
LHDC
5.0
(1)
"LDAC and LHDC are the only lossless Bluetooth codecs. At 16 bit, 44.1kHz, 909kbps they are lossless CD quality."
#31
Peace
5.0
(1)
"100% i use Peace equalizer apo to get the best tunings n then further tune them to my liking"
#32
PulseMixer
5.0
(1)
"Thanks, I just discovered pulsemixer very useful"
#33
Blueberry
5.0
(1)
"Blueberry worked for me"
#34
VLC on Shield
5.0
(1)
"VLC on Shield will play literally anything."
#35
Fre.Ac
4.0
(1)
"I use Fre.Ac to make a copy in 320kbps cbr for loading on portable devices that don't support FLAC."
#36
Rockbox
4.0
(1)
"Rockbox usually plays flac up to 96khz/24bit on the 5th gen or any PP5022 player in general just fine."
#37
Samsung
4.0
(1)
"They are running at 24bit/48khz. (idk if it's real or not, but It does make a difference from other codecs)"
#38
aptX
4.0
(1)
"For low delay, use aptx low latency, for high quality, use LDAC."
#39
Apple ProRes Proxy
4.0
(1)
"Re-encode your high-res files to 720p using Apple ProRes Proxy."
#40
Hiby
4.0
(1)
"The hiby might improve your experience. It will do tidal and bluetooth."
#41
Streamer
4.0
(1)
"I can also confirm that Streamer does support AV1."
#42
libx264
4.0
(1)
"Libx264 and libx265 can do lossless"
#43
HTJ2K
4.0
(1)
"Htj2k (high throughput jpeg 2000)"
#44
Prores
4.0
(1)
"Its 99% lossless math lossless, the difference between prores 422hq and prores 4444 is very minimal, with only meaningful difference being 4444 supports higher bitdepth"
#45
x265
4.0
(1)
"If you want perceptually lossless for UHD HDR and it’s just for playback I’d probably use x265 since it’s what I’m familiar with."
#46
J2K
4.0
(1)
"J2k is the answer, but it’s slow."
#47
aptX HD
4.0
(1)
"If you can use these, use them over anything else. If not, aptX HD should be better."
#48
FFmpeg
4.0
(1)
"Ffmpeg encodes to hap and prores."
#49
AM6B+
4.0
(1)
"Am6b+ plays all of this np and plays all dv formats, the shield doesnt play all dv formats."
#50
MagicYUV
4.0
(1)
"Not free but pretty cheap and I use it myself: https://www.magicyuv.com/"
#51
ProRes 422
4.0
(1)
"Consider ProRes proxy for a proxy workflow or prores 422 if you want optimised media."
#52
Shutter Encoder
4.0
(1)
"You probably want Shutter Encoder - much more capable FFmpeg frontend than Handbrake."
#53
XAVC HS
4.0
(1)
"XAVC HS will save you more space and according to Sony give better Quality compared to XAVC S."
#54
Metal Gear Solid 4
1.5
(2)
"MGS4 for Rose."
"MGS4 is by far the worst, simply because you can’t see Snake."
#55
SBC
3.0
(1)
"SBC on certain Android devices have a more noticeable difference between LDAC and other codecs."
#56
SBC-XQ
3.0
(1)
"And if that's not available, SBC-XQ *then* AAC."
#57
ProRes Proxy
3.0
(1)
"If you only want intermittent proxies to use for timeline work and revert back to Braw for final export, ProRes proxy (Mac) or DNxHR LB."
#58
Metal Gear Solid
2.0
(1)
"Imo its pretty much 1>2>>3>>>>>4."
#59
Insta360
1.0
(1)
"Everything seemed fine until I transferred the footage to my Windows 10 PC... and none of the videos work!"
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