H.264 and HEVC

These four formats are for delivery. H.264 is the file everything takes, HEVC is smaller, HEVC 10-bit keeps a deep source’s gradients, and HEVC with Alpha keeps a transparent canvas.

Where: Export sheet ▸ Format
Agent tools: export

Format	File	Picture	Keeps transparency	In an HDR project	Rate at 1080p, 30 fps with Format default
H.264 (MP4)	`.mp4`	8-bit	No	Writes the SDR version	About 8.7 Mbps
HEVC (MP4)	`.mp4`	8-bit	No	Writes the SDR version	About 4.4 Mbps
HEVC 10-bit (MP4)	`.mp4`	10-bit	No	Writes HDR	About 4.4 Mbps
HEVC with Alpha (MOV)	`.mov`	8-bit	Yes	Writes the SDR version	About 4.4 Mbps

All four share these:

A keyframe at least every 2 seconds, so the file scrubs and re-cuts well.
AAC sound, stereo at 48 kHz, at 192 kbps unless a Quality tier says otherwise.
Even dimensions. An odd width or height is written one pixel smaller. See Export size.
Chapters from your chapter markers.
Fast start on the three MP4s.

H.264 (MP4)

This is the default, the first row of the Format: popup, so ⌘E writes it unless you’ve chosen otherwise. Every player and upload form takes it.

It writes 8-bit video in the High profile, with the level chosen automatically. With Format default, the rate follows the frame at 0.14 bits per pixel per frame, held between 1 and 200 Mbps.

H.264 has no alpha channel, so a transparent canvas is flattened onto black.

HEVC (MP4)

HEVC gives you the same picture at a lower rate than H.264, though not everything accepts it yet. It uses the Mac’s hardware encoder.

It writes 8-bit video in the Main profile, even from a 10-bit source. With Format default, the rate is 0.07 bits per pixel per frame, held between 1 and 200 Mbps. The Quality tiers ask for 60 % of H.264’s rate.

HEVC 10-bit (MP4)

HEVC 10-bit writes HEVC’s Main 10 profile from the 16-bit frames Frame Job draws, so a 10-bit source keeps its gradients in a delivery file. Its rates are HEVC’s.

It’s one of the six formats that can carry HDR. In an HDR project it writes HLG unless you change Dynamic Range:, and no Dolby Vision is added to the file. See Export HDR.

HEVC with Alpha (MOV)

This is a small delivery movie that keeps a transparent canvas, for laying over another background. It’s the transparent movie for Safari. For a web page in Chrome or Firefox, see VP9 with Alpha (WebM), and for a master, ProRes 4444 (MOV).

It’s a .mov because this codec can’t be written into an .mp4.
The picture and its alpha are both 8-bit, and the colour is straight, not multiplied by the transparency. Transparent pixels beside the picture take its colour, so compression doesn’t darken the edges.
It takes HEVC’s rates and Quality tiers, and the footnote ends in alpha.
Fast start is off.

Every row in the Size: popup has the canvas’s shape, so those are all fine. A Custom… size of a different shape won’t export, because padding it would lose the alpha. The readout names the canvas’s size, and Export… and Add to Queue grey out. A size within a pixel of the canvas’s shape, or in the same proportions at any scale, is fine.

Fast start

MP4 and M4A files are written with their index at the front, so a player can start before the whole file has downloaded. There’s no control for this in the sheet.

Fast start is on for MP4 and M4A, and off for MOV, WAV, AIFF, GIF and APNG. A WebM’s index is at the front anyway.

Good to know

H.264, HEVC and HEVC with Alpha are all 8-bit, so in an HDR project they write the project’s SDR version and Dynamic Range: stays greyed out on SDR version. To deliver HDR in this family, use HEVC 10-bit.

With an agent

export names these formats h264, hevc, hevc_10bit and hevc_alpha. It sets rates as numbers rather than tiers. See Export: start, then poll.