When video is compressed by a software codec these artifacts appear as garbled and noisy patches along contours in the image, making video appear fuzzy and disjointed. Video with rich colors, such as cartoons, will help determine the color reproduction capabilities of the codec. If captured video looks washed out and dull, then the capture device or software is not of very good quality. Color bleeding is another way to determine if the color reproduction capabilities of the codec are high quality. Bleeding occurs when the color in one area blends into another area rather than leaving a solid, defined boundary.
Color bleeding is characteristic of video captured with a software codec.
Similar to high contrast shots, processing fast-moving images can be taxing on a software codec and may cause poor quality output or dropped frames, resulting in choppy playback and distorted image quality. Since audio and video are recorded onto separate tracks, the codec may have problems keeping the audio and video in sync. During playback this would result in words being spoken before or after the mouth moves.