H.265 Raw - is it even possible?
- Thread starter roxics
- Start date
Cary Knoop
Veteran
In principle yes. Some codecs already are extended to carry raw data, for instance CineRAW and ProRes RAW.
Raw data is simply a raster of luminance values. A 4K Bayer frame consist of 2K of blue values, 2K of red values, and 2 * 2K of green values.
By the way H.265 is not "a very compressed codec", it's a codec with configurable compression levels.
If you want you can encode H.265 with a compression level that can recover the original source 100%.
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roxics
Veteran
Interesting. So in that case, when you say it's possible to do H.265 raw but that it's a variable compression that can recover the original source 100%, what level of compression are we talking about for the raw variant of this? Are we talking huge file sizes that negate the entire purpose of using H.265 to begin with or are we still talking generally small files sizes like most people use this codec to achieve? Much smaller than say ProRes Raw?
AndreeOnline
Veteran
I think the reason we associate h.265 with heavy compression is that that is what it excels at: its core strength is maintained image quality with ever lower bitrates compared to other compressed formats thanks to advanced algorithms.
The problem is that the higher up you go with the bitrates—that is: the better the quality you want—the smaller the advantage of h.265 becomes over, for instance, h.264. It's a game of diminishing returns.
The problem is that the higher up you go with the bitrates—that is: the better the quality you want—the smaller the advantage of h.265 becomes over, for instance, h.264. It's a game of diminishing returns.
roxics
Veteran
Right, so the question becomes, how high a bitrate are we talking about to achieve raw with H.265? Are we talking a little higher than the heavy compression of say 100Mbps for 4K we're used to seeing with that codec or are we talking ProRes Raw kind of bitrates which would defeat the purpose of having H.265 raw?
In other words, can we have our cake and eat it too?
In other words, can we have our cake and eat it too?
Cary Knoop
Veteran
That's rather speculative since there is no implementation.