Play-ability is the best ability for codecs; here’s where these four play.

H.264 Codec Backgrounder

This article on the Wowza website provides a quick overview of the H.264 codec: what it is, how it performs, what it costs, and what it’s good for. It concludes with a section on what you need to know to effectively deploy the H.264 codec, particularly within the Wowza Streaming Engine software and the Wowza Streaming Cloud service.

Play-ability is the best ability for codecs; here’s where these four play.

The article is the first in a five-part series that will cover H.264, VP9, HEVC, AV1, and VVC. There are four tables that detail compatibility, performance, royalty status, and suitability for tasks like live, transcoding, HDR.

About Jan Ozer

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I help companies train new technical hires in streaming media-related positions; I also help companies optimize their codec selections and encoding stacks and evaluate new encoders and codecs. I am a contributing editor to Streaming Media Magazine, writing about codecs and encoding tools. I have written multiple authoritative books on video encoding, including Video Encoding by the Numbers: Eliminate the Guesswork from your Streaming Video (https://amzn.to/3kV6R1j) and Learn to Produce Video with FFmpeg: In Thirty Minutes or Less (https://amzn.to/3ZJih7e). I have multiple courses relating to streaming media production, all available at https://bit.ly/slc_courses. I currently work as www.netint.com as a Senior Director in Marketing.

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