# Video, images and image sequences

Whenever you import video, individual image files or an image sequence, they are treated as a **Video asset**. This means the usage of these 3 types of video assets is more or less the same inside the software with minor differences.

## Video files

By video files we mean actual video files, not individual images or image sequences.

### **Supported Formats (Containers)**

Video file container contains data (video and audio). The data is encoded with one of the codecs in the next header, but the container doesn't necessarily determine which codec the data is encoded with. For example, .mov containers can contain videos encoded with H.264, NotchLC, or HAP codecs.

LightAct supports .**mp4** and .**mov** formats.

### **Supported Codecs**

Codec is a portmanteau of coder/decoder and describes the algorithm used to encode and decode video data (video and audio). LightAct, as a media server, can only decode the data, not encode it.

We categorize codecs in 2 groups: ones that are decoded on the CPU and the ones decoded on the GPU. The GPU group of codecs have usually a much better performance (measured as the maximum resolution at a given framerate) at the expense of much larger file sizes.

| CPU   | GPU             |
| ----- | --------------- |
| H.264 | NotchLC         |
|       | HAP, HAPa, HAPQ |

{% hint style="info" %}
**Good to know**: For best performance in terms of how many concurrent video files LightAct can play at the same time, we usually recommend HAP codec.
{% endhint %}

{% hint style="info" %}
**Good to know:** You may be able to play codecs not listed in the table if they’re exported in formats that are supported by LightAct. However, as these codecs aren’t fully supported, playback performance may be limited.
{% endhint %}

{% hint style="warning" %}
Please note, as LightAct focuses on the playback of high resolution content, we provide performance benchmarks only for HAP and NotchLC codecs. We are not focusing on performance optimisation of ProRes, H.264 or any other codecs and cannot provide any performance benchmarks.
{% endhint %}

## Images

LightAct supports .png, .jpg, .tga and .tiff image formats.

{% hint style="info" %}
**Good to know**: For best performance, we usually recommend .png or .tiff formats.
{% endhint %}

If LightAct detects a single image file, it will treat it as a video file with one frame.

### Image sequences

Playing image sequences is the same as playing video files, however the files need to be labeled in a specific way**:**

* The file extensions should be the same. You cannot mix frames encoded as a *png* or *jpg*, for example.
* The filenames (without the extension) should have the same name with an incrementing number at the end.

An example of a image sequence files properly named would be: *Frames0000.tif, Frames0001.tif, Frames0002.tif, Frames0003.tif, Frames0004.tif.*

{% hint style="warning" %}
Please note, that the incrementing numbers at the end should start with 0 and not with, for example, 10000.
{% endhint %}

{% hint style="info" %}
**Good to know**: If you want to use versioning, then the files should be labeled *000\_Counter000\_v1.tif*, *000\_Counter001\_v1.tif*, *000\_Counter003\_v1.tif.*..
{% endhint %}

<figure><img src="https://3312042618-files.gitbook.io/~/files/v0/b/gitbook-x-prod.appspot.com/o/spaces%2F9sVaJpWJhPbmscipukhh%2Fuploads%2FF9Msc6Q9eqX1VmeZBBQS%2Fimage.png?alt=media&#x26;token=30fb185f-4bb9-4622-9f83-2fea5cb75c23" alt=""><figcaption></figcaption></figure>

When LightAct detects an image sequence, it will place an image sequence icon next to it and in its properties allow you to choose the framerate with which you want to play this image sequence.

## Video playback

To learn how to play video assets, please refer to Video playback section:

{% content-ref url="../video-playback" %}
[video-playback](https://docs.lightact.com/video-playback)
{% endcontent-ref %}