XAVC H.264

Xavc & H.264

• Xavc is the 5.2 level of H.264 codec that has an intraframe compression. 

• XAVC can support 4K resolution, and up to 60fps

• XAVC has the wrapper of .MXF

• A newer consumer version of xavc has been developed by sony called XAVC S which uses the wrapper of .Mp4

On the Sony X200 camera the choice of video format can be XAVC or Mpeg2, 
Under the XAVC setting you can choose between Intraframe (I) and Interframe (L) these will be different levels of H.264 codec. Intraframe being Level 5.2.

H.264 is a lossy compression codec that uses interframe compression (with exception of level 5.2)  useing Groups Of Pictures (GOP's) as you can see on the comparison below between ProRes (Lossless) and H.264 (Lossy) the vast difference in quality.

See previous blog entry of containers 'wrappers and codecs' and  'Intraframe vs interframe' compression.