H.264, also known as AVC or "Advanced Video Coding", is a standard for video compression. Compression is the process of reducing the data size of a video file so that it takes up less space on a memory card. They use this format to encode the image from their camera into a digital file. By effectively shrinking the data, longer videos can be recorded in high quality while seamlessly transmitting a live view from the camera to a controller or mobile phone. Videos in this format are widely compatible and can be played and edited seamlessly on most computers and smart devices.