RGB Encoding
You do not have to encode into YCrCb, there are a number of codecs that support RGB directly.
It does lower the compression efficiency a little, but eliminates any concern that the YCrCb conversion is affecting the imagery.
| Codec Family | ffmpeg codec | Bit depth | pix_fmt | Web Support |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| h264 | libx264rgb | 8 | no | |
| HEVC/H265 | libx265 | 8 10 12 | rgb rgb-10 rgb-12 | All browsers |
| HEVC/H265 | hevc_videotoolbox | 8 10 | rgb rgb-10 rgb-12 | All browsers |
| VP9 | libvpx-vp9 | 8 10 12 | rgb rgb-10 rgb-12 | All Browsers |
| Mjpeg | mjpeg | 8 | yuv-4:2:2 yuv-4:4:4 | no |
| DNxHD | dnxhd | 8 10 | rgb | no |
| HTJ2K | 8 -> 16 | rgb | no |
H264 RGB Encoding
h264 does support RGB encoding, which may be preferable in some situations.
Using the encoder:
-c:v libx264rgb
Has no support in web browsers, but there is limited support in players such as RV. This is pretty obsolete, you can do something now similarly with libx264.
mjpeg RGB Encoding
For more details see: Mjpeg. This is an 8-bit only encode.
-c:v mjpeg -color_primaries bt709 -color_range pc -color_trc bt709 -colorspace rgb -pix_fmt rgb24 -q:v 2 -vf "scale=in_range=full:out_range=full"
VP9 RGB Encoding
VP9 has some excellent 10 and 12 bit RGB encodes.
Example encoding:
ffmpeg -r 24 -start_number 1 -i inputfile.%04d.png -frames:v 200 -c:v libvpx-vp9 \
-crf 22 -pix_fmt gbrp10le -quality good -row-mt 1 -speed 2 -vf "scale=in_range=full:out_range=full" \
-color_primaries bt709 -color_range pc -color_trc bt709 -colorspace rgb \
-y outputfile.mp4
RGB Comparisons
| label | Codec Params |
| 8_bit_libx264rgb | -c:v libx264rgb -color_primaries bt709 -color_range pc -color_trc bt709 -colorspace rgb -crf 18 -pix_fmt rgb24 -preset slow -vf “scale=in_range=full:out_range=full” -x264-params keyint=15:no-deblock=1 |
| 8bit_mjpeg | -c:v mjpeg -color_primaries bt709 -color_range pc -color_trc bt709 -colorspace rgb -pix_fmt rgb24 -q:v 2 -vf “scale=in_range=full:out_range=full” |
| vp9_10bit_rgb | -c:v libvpx-vp9 -color_primaries bt709 -color_range pc -color_trc bt709 -colorspace rgb -crf 22 -pix_fmt gbrp10le -quality good -row-mt 1 -speed 2 -vf “scale=in_range=full:out_range=full” |
| vp9_12bit_rgb | -c:v libvpx-vp9 -color_primaries bt709 -color_range pc -color_trc bt709 -colorspace rgb -crf 22 -pix_fmt gbrp12le -quality good -row-mt 1 -speed 2 -vf “scale=in_range=full:out_range=full” |
| vp9_8bit_rgb | -c:v libvpx-vp9 -color_primaries bt709 -color_range pc -color_trc bt709 -colorspace rgb -crf 22 -pix_fmt gbrp -quality good -vf “scale=in_range=full:out_range |
 This is showing different rgb encoding against file size. |
 This is showing different rgb encoding against encoding time |
 This is showing different rgb encoding against mean VMAF |
For more details see: