Supported Avid DNxHD variants and formats

Recommended vs User Presets

MovieRecorder comes with 2 recommended AV Presets for DNxHD:

• DNxHD 120/145
• DNxHD 185/220

These are the most common "variants" as they are compatible with the most formats. But if you create a user preset, you will be able to choose among these as well:

• DNxHD 36/45
• DNxHD 85/100
• DNxHD 365/440

What does that number in the name refer to?

With Avid DNxHD, the numbers in the name refer to a bitrate. That bitrate will depend on the frame rate. Indeed the compression applied will set a specific size for one video frame, so the more frames per second, the higher the frame rate.

The numbers in the name refer to the bitrate for the 1080p25 (or 1080i50) and 1080p29.97 (or 1080i59.94) frames per second. As we do not know in the AVPreset with which frame rate this will be used, we had to use a name that would mean something in the PAL and NTSC worlds.

So for example the name "DNxHD 120/145" means that the encode will use:

• 120 Mbit per second in 1080p25 (or 1080i50)
• 145 Mbit per second in1080p29.97 (or 1080i59.94)

Check the table below for the bit rate of each variant depending on the source format.

Supported formats for each Variant

As said above, the "DNxHD 120/145" and "DNxHD 185/220" are the most common variants and support the most formats. Other variants will be limited in terms of supported formats.

Some codecs will only support 8bit, others only 10bit, and others both.

Also some codecs will encode in "Thiny Raster" (1440x1080 instead of 1920x1080 or 960x720 instead of 1280x720).

Note that when no bitrate is indicated, it means that the variant does not support that format.

You can read more about Avid DNxHD in the AVID White Paper attached to this article.