Video quality is often a very misunderstood concept and some often repeated advice doesn't apply to modern use-cases. We've wrote this guide to tell you all about what we do at VEED to make sure your videos look and sound as good as possible.
Measuring video quality
Measuring video quality is most often done against a high-quality original.
Eg. a video straight from your phone against the same video exported from VEED without any changes.
The most commonly accepted metric is VMAF, which considers which types of video quality issues are more noticeable to the human eye. We use this metric internally in VEED to figure out the best way to export your videos.
An older, simpler, and less accurate metric is PSNR.
Notably, bitrate is not a measure of quality, even if often used as such. Different encoding settings, variable bitrate vs constant bitrate, and different codecs make a comparison by bitrate very misleading.
Constant vs Variable bitrate
When encoding videos, you can choose to encode them with a constant bitrate, meaning every second of the video gets the same amount of data allocated to it, or with a variable bitrate, meaning that you cleverly choose which part of the video gets more data.
Using variable bitrate, you can achieve smaller file sizes with a higher overall quality, as you're putting more effort into the parts that have the most movement and details.
Variable bitrate can sometimes be 20x smaller than constant bitrate, for example, with screen recordings or static scenes.
By default, most VEED export quality settings use variable bitrate, so the files you get are smaller and higher quality.
However, there are some presets that use a constant bitrate if you need them! For example, our YouTube set of presets uses a constant bitrate as that's the recommended setting by YouTube.
FAQ
What is the video format VEED uses?
VEED outputs h264 variable bitrate video in an mp4 format. This is the most widely supported format that just works everywhere. We export in the bt709 color space, which is the most commonly used color space on the web. Additionally, we use mostly GPU decoding and always GPU encoding while we are exporting your project.
What is the audio format VEED uses?
VEED outputs audio in AAC in the highest bitrate setting. AAC is a variable bitrate codec, but in this setting, it is perceptually loss-less. It's also the only codec that's widely supported inside mp4 files.
How does AAC compare to mp3?
mp3 can be either variable bitrate or constant bitrate, but most high-quality recordings usually use constant bitrate 320kbps mp3. AAC is always variable bitrate, but it's perceptually lossless, even when the resulting effective bitrate is lower than that of the original/equivalent mp3.
My audio/video is much smaller than what I uploaded, is it lower quality?
In general a smaller file doesn't necessarily mean that it's lower quality. There are a bunch of reasons why the downloaded file might be smaller without losing quality:
Better compression settings
Better codecs
Encoding in variable bitrate
Some elements you added to your video (eg a logo or subtitles) hide enough of the original video that it needs less data compared to the original. This also applies if you've cropped it.
We use very high-quality defaults and test relentlessly to make sure you don't lose video or audio quality. Check out our tips below on how to maximize the video quality you get. If, even after all those steps, you believe your video is lower quality than expected, please reach out, and we'll investigate!
The video in the editor looks much lower quality than what I uploaded
To make your editor experience fast and robust, we display a lower-quality preview inside the editor. Don't worry; for the final export, we're going to use the full-quality original file
Does VEED support HDR?
VEED supports uploading HDR videos, but it converts it to SDR and exports in SDR.
Tips for highest video quality exports
Upload the highest quality footage you have without converting it.
Make sure to select the right export preset for your target resolution.
For maximum quality, minimize the number of times you reprocess your video. Eg instead of re-uploading an exported video, try to use the existing project and make the necessary changes there.
Glossary
Bitrate - The number of bits per second in the video, usually expressed in Mbit/s. Basically, how much data is in the file for each second of video/audio.
Encoding - The process of turning a set of images and audio samples into a compressed format like mp4 or webm using codecs.
Codec - A format in which you encode or decode video or audio, usually to compress it. For example h264 or vp9 for video, mp3 or aac for audio.
Decoding - The process of decompressing encoded media into images and audio that can be displayed on your screen.
HDR - High dynamic range, HDR videos retain more details in the shadows and in the highlights, but are harder to process and have larger sizes.