VIRB Edit 3.4 introduced allowing the user to pick which encoder and decoder to use.
You can select this under Settings / General / Advanced.
Encoder (only affects export / sharing):
Media Foundation: Fast, lower quality. Cannot create videos bigger than 4GB on Windows 7, and cannot create videos larger than 1920x1080 or frame rates greater than 120fps. These constraints are caused by Microsoft, so they cannot be fixed by us.
Ffmpeg: Slow (extremely slow at higher quality settings), high quality. No file size or resolution constraints. Produces smaller files than Media Foundation.
Decoder (affects export/sharing and playback):
Media Foundation: (Fast over all performance, but low quality and can't read videos that are too big) Uses graphics hardware, but with lower quality (causes some color quality loss causing videos to look gray). Does not work with videos larger than 1080p. Uses lots of memory
Ffmpeg: (Very fast on PCs with decent CPUs) Higher quality with no resolution constraints. Uses less memory. CPU power is the limiting factor on speed. Fastest performance for PCs with newer CPUs, very very slow for machines with older or slower CPUs.
DXVA: (Really really fast on laptops / notebooks) Uses graphics hardware with comparable quality to ffmpeg. Extremely fast on laptops and other devices with integrated graphics hardware. Slower on machines with dedicated graphics cards. No constraints on resolution.
Summary
Over all, if you have a laptop, DXVA is likely your best option. For PC users, if you want high quality and don’t mind waiting, use Ffmpeg for everything. If you want your video faster, use Media Foundation for everything. Using the Media Foundation decoder and Ffmpeg encoder is a good compromise between quality and speed.
