| Target | When to use | Advantages | Compatibility | |--------|-------------|------------|---------------| | H.264 (libx264) | Broad device support, moderate file size | Fast encode, mature ecosystem | ✅ Almost all devices | | H.265 / HEVC (libx265) | You need ≈50 % size reduction for the same quality | Better compression, 10‑bit support | ✅ Modern smartphones, PCs, recent TVs | | AV1 (libaom / libsvtav1) | Future‑proof, best compression at the cost of encode time | Smallest size, open‑source | ❓ Limited hardware decoding (still rolling out) | | VP9 (libvpx‑vp9) | Web‑centric, Google ecosystem | Good compression, royalty‑free | ✅ Chrome, Android, some TVs |