Data compression types

Another important aspect about a CODEC is the type of compression it applies to data. There are two types of compression available:

• Lossy compression: Here we have a process that tries to exclude unnecessary data to save on file size. As a result, files are usually smaller.
• Lossless compression: Some compression types will try to shrink data with no data loss, resulting in larger files but with all data intact.

Which one is the compression from an H.264 file? It uses lossy compression, the same that you will also find in a JPEG image file.

That means you must avoid processing the video data as much as possible because, every time you treat the data, your CODEC will try to exclude something to shrink down your file.