Video encoding and decoding is generally under the same category - video processing.

That makes sense. I guess I've just not been at the level were people call it that so that is interesting.

Like, right now, or have used (pretty long list)? My favourite is still After Effects just because of how used to it I am, but I seriously do not feel like listing all the plugins and extra apps (probably any professional knows about mocha/syntheyes or nuke). That's my main, I've even learned to mostly skip premiere (still gotta use media encoder for obvious reasons). For 3d stuff and effects - Cinema 4D (FumeFX, xparticles, realflow, etc). Good enough, detective?

Doesn't take a detective to know that you know more than me. I'm at a much much smaller scale, mostly just Houdini at this point. My boss would laugh at me if I mentioned XEON for the office haha. Apologies for being so hostile.