DNxHD

DNxHD is a family of high-definition intra-frame video codecs developed by Avid Technology for professional post-production and broadcast workflows. It is designed to provide high-quality editing performance by encoding every frame independently, enabling fast scrubbing, editing, and color grading without reliance on long-GOP structures used by some other formats.

DNxHD typically uses 4:2:2 chroma subsampling and supports 8- or 10-bit color depth. It is offered in multiple data-rate profiles that span from lower data rates suitable for offline editing to higher rates intended for on-line finishing. Although optimized for HD, DNxHD is commonly used with 1080p content and is packaged in wrappers such as QuickTime (.mov) or MXF to fit into various production pipelines.

DNxHD is widely supported across major nonlinear editors and post-production tools, including Avid Media Composer, Adobe Premiere Pro, DaVinci Resolve, and Apple Final Cut Pro X. It is valued as a storage-efficient, reliable intermediary format for HD workflows, providing consistent quality and predictable performance in editing and effects work.

DNxHD was introduced by Avid in the late 2000s as part of the DNxHD family. It established itself as a widely adopted standard for HD post-production workflows and has since been complemented by DNxHR for higher resolutions and broader bit-depth options. Despite newer formats, DNxHD remains in use in many HD pipelines for its editing-friendly characteristics.