Most files that come back from a client, a platform or a broadcaster weren’t badly edited. They were exported with one wrong setting, usually a frame rate, a scan type or a codec the other side can’t open.
The export window has dozens of options, and very few of them matter on a normal job. The ones that do are worth getting right on purpose, once, and saving as presets.
This post covers both halves of the question: which format to use for each job, and the settings that decide whether the file plays and passes.
In short
- The codec compresses the picture and the container holds it, so a .mov can be ProRes or H.264.
- Keep a ProRes or DNxHR master, and make H.264 MP4 copies for review, the web and social media.
- For a platform upload, YouTube recommends 8 Mbps for 1080p and 35 to 45 Mbps for 4K at standard frame rates.
- Most rejections come from a few settings: frame rate, interlacing, color tags, audio format and scaling.
- Save one named preset per destination, so nobody rebuilds the settings from memory.
Codec and container are different things
The codec is how the picture is compressed. The container is the file it travels in. H.264, HEVC (H.265), ProRes and DNxHR are codecs. MP4, MOV and MXF are containers, and each one can hold several codecs plus the audio, timecode and metadata.
That’s why the file extension doesn’t tell you what’s inside. A .mov from the edit suite can be ProRes 422 HQ or an H.264 someone exported in a hurry, and the two behave nothing alike.
When a file won’t open or plays wrong, check the codec before anything else. MediaInfo is free and shows the codec, frame rate, scan type, color tags and audio format of any file.
Which format for which job
Pick the format by what happens to the file next. A file that will be edited again needs quality and easy decoding, and a file that people only watch needs to be small and play everywhere.
| Job | Codec | Container |
|---|---|---|
| Editing and grading | ProRes 422 or DNxHR | MOV or MXF |
| Master and archive | ProRes 422 HQ or 4444 | MOV |
| Review copy | H.264 | MP4 |
| Web and social | H.264 (HEVC for 4K/HDR) | MP4 |
| TV broadcast | What the spec sheet says | Often MXF |
ProRes and DNxHR compress each frame on its own, which keeps scrubbing fast and survives several generations of re-encoding. They’re big: Apple’s ProRes white paper puts ProRes 422 at 1920 x 1080 and 29.97 fps at about 147 megabits per second.
H.264 compresses across groups of frames, so the files are a fraction of the size and play on anything, but each new re-encode loses a little more.
HEVC gets similar quality at a lower bitrate and suits 4K and HDR, though it doesn’t play in every browser. AV1 is royalty-free and used by the big streaming services, which encode it themselves from your upload.
Use ProRes 4444 when the file needs transparency, like a lower third or a logo animation sent to another editor, or when it’ll be graded again.
Camera originals stay in their own format after the transcode, and our post on how long to keep raw footage covers the rest.
How much bitrate is enough
Bitrate is how much data each second of video gets. The right number depends on resolution, frame rate and how much the picture moves: a locked-off interview needs far less than handheld footage of a crowd.
When the destination re-encodes your file, the upload is their source, so give them room. These are YouTube’s recommendations for SDR uploads, checked in October 2026:
| Resolution | 24 to 30 fps | 48 to 60 fps |
|---|---|---|
| 720p | 5 Mbps | 7.5 Mbps |
| 1080p | 8 Mbps | 12 Mbps |
| 1440p | 16 Mbps | 24 Mbps |
| 2160p (4K) | 35 to 45 Mbps | 53 to 68 Mbps |
Treat these as recommended starting points for a platform upload. Going higher costs file size and upload time. For a file the viewer plays as is, like a video on the client’s website, the encode is the final picture, so balance size against quality and check the result on a phone.
Use variable bitrate (VBR) for files, with two passes when time allows: it gives more data to complex shots and less to static ones. Constant bitrate is for live streaming and for specs that ask for it.
The settings behind most rejected files
Check these before every export of a new kind. They cause most of the “the file is wrong” emails:
- Frame rate. Export at the sequence frame rate, which should be the delivery rate. Our post on choosing a frame rate explains what goes wrong when rates mix.
- Progressive scan. Web and social delivery is progressive, and YouTube asks for interlaced footage to be deinterlaced before upload, so 1080i60 goes up as 1080p30.
- Color tags. An SDR job exports as Rec.709 with tags that match, or the same file looks different in QuickTime and in the browser. Our post on reviewing color covers why.
- Audio format. AAC at 48 kHz for MP4 deliveries, PCM inside the master, and loudness measured against the destination, as our audio level standards explain.
- Resolution and scaling. Export at the resolution of the deliverable and never scale up a smaller source. The video resolution standards post lists the sizes.
- Fast start. YouTube asks for the moov atom at the front of the MP4, which lets playback start before the whole file arrives. Most encoders have a checkbox for it, often called web optimized or network optimization.
Save one preset per destination
A preset with a clear name beats a settings checklist. “WEB_1080p25_H264_16Mbps” and “MASTER_ProRes422HQ” leave nothing to remember, and a new freelancer exports the same file as the senior editor.
Keep a short sheet next to the presets with the codec, container, resolution, frame rate, bitrate, audio format and loudness of each destination. Date the sheet, because platforms change their recommendations, and update it when a client sends a new spec.
The files themselves get named by the file naming convention, so the destination is in the name too.
How this works in RecReview
Upload the H.264 MP4 for review. In RecReview it plays in the browser as soon as the upload finishes, while the streaming copy is prepared in the background.
Original in the player’s quality menu plays the file you uploaded, not the streaming copy, so the client judges your encode. If the browser can’t play the codec, like ProRes or HEVC in Chrome, the player falls back to the streaming copy instead of stopping on an error.
Each version shows the resolution and frame rate read from the file next to its length, so a review copy exported at the wrong settings stands out before the client opens it.
The file can be up to 2 GB on Creator, 5 GB on Pro and 10 GB on Studio, and our post on sending large video files covers masters above that.
The download hands back the exact file you uploaded, named with the task code and title. Each export you upload to the task becomes its next version, so the H.264 the client approved is the file they download.
