# Choosing an encoder

Choosing the right video encoder can improve the quality of the movies you create.

For the best tradeoff in quality, frame-rate and file size, we suggest using the ProRes 422 encoder if it is available. Otherwise, use Photo JPEG.

H.264 encoding is hardware-accelerated when possible, and will be extremely performant - but with some loss of image quality.

If you need to record an alpha channel, choose ProRes 4444.

The Hap family of codecs is available, but compressing Hap files in realtime (especially at large resolutions) is demanding, and may result in dropped frames.

Reducing the framerate and/or dimensions of the recording can help prevent stutter due to dropped frames.