The Output Module is very efficient at producing frame-based visually lossless digital intermediates and production masters using many of the standard Mezzanine codecs. Most of these new formats are not compatible with the frame based rendering that the Output Module uses so you'll have to use the Media Encoder for them too. There are some new compression schemes that look like they may gain wide acceptance and deliver higher quality playback with lower demands on the CPU, but there are still compatibility issues. H.264 rendering in a Quicktime container is also no longer supported by Apple so that is why it was removed.

The Output Module (Render Cue) has never supported multipass rendering and unless it is redesigned from the ground up, it never will. Compression and color artifacts almost completely disappear. H.264 also works best when you use multipass rendering. Right now it is the standard for multi-platform delivery and is supported on virtually all current devices that will play a movie (video).

H.264 is a high-quality interframe MPEG compression scheme with a defined set of standards for frame size, frame rate, and audio format.

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