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Avid Codec Guides

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Avid Codec Guide

Avid Media Composer and Symphony ship with a wide range of old and modern codecs. They can also be downloaded free of charge for systems without Avid products installed.

SD codecs

  • Avid DV – SD codec used when exporting DV material
  • Avid MPEG2 50 – SD codec for MPEG 30, 40 or 50 material
  • Avid Meridien Compressed – SD codec for compressed material
  • Avid Meridien Uncompressed – SD codec used for 1:1 OMF outputs

Meridien Compressed has various compression ratios ranging from 2:1 (36 Mbps) to 35:1 (12 Mbps).

SD / HD codecs

  • Avid 1:1x * – 8-bit lossless 4:2:2 codec that produces very large file sizes
  • Avid Packed – Essentially the same as 1:1x except it supports 10-bit media
  • Avid RGBPacked – RGB version of the Packed codec
  • Avid DV100 – HD codec used for exporting DV100 media

* x normally refers to 10-bit codecs but in the case of Avid 1:1x it was used to designate MXF during the transition away from OMF

DNxHD Codecs

DNxHD is the most likely codec to be used in Media Composer. Each variant is named according to bitrate and bit depth, so for example DNxHD 120 means it’s a 120 Mb/s 8-bit codec and DNxHD 185x means it’s a 185 Mb/s 10-bit codec (the x indicates 10-bit).

Offline Codecs

  • DNxHD 36
  • DNxHD 60
  • DNxHD 80
  • DNxHD 90

Medium Quality Codecs

  • DNxHD 100
  • DNxHD 115
  • DNxHD 120

Mastering Codecs

  • DNxHD 145
  • DNxHD 175
  • DNxHD 185
  • DNxHD 185x
  • DNxHD 220
  • DNxHD 220x
  • DNxHD 440
  • DNxHD 440x

Similar Bitrate Codecs

Try to choose a codec that matches the bitrate of your acquisition format. All codec bitrates are calculated at 23.98 fps.

  • DNxHD 36 – DV, IMX40, XDCAM EX, XDCAM HD
  • DNxHD 60 – DV50, IMX50, Apple Intermediate @ 1080, XDCAM HD422
  • DNxHD 100 – AVC Intra 100, Cineform 444 @ 720, Digibeta
  • DNxHD 115 – Cineform 422 @ 1080
  • DNxHD 120 – DVCPRO HD, Motion JPEG @ 1080
  • DNxHD 145 – HDCAM
  • DNxHD 220 – Sony SR Lite
  • DNxHD 440 – Uncompressed 422 10-bit @ 720, Sony SR SQ, HDCAM SR

Approximate ProRes equivalents

All codec bitrates are calculated at 1080p 23.98 fps.

  • ProRes Proxy – DNxHD 36
  • ProRes LT – DNxHD 80
  • ProRes 422 – DNxHD 115
  • ProRes HQ – DNxHD 175x
  • ProRes 4444 – DNxHD 440x (444) (although ProRes 444 is actually closer in bandwidth to DNxHD 220)
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