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What should my output file be?

Hey everyone, this is my second thread lol and im still a n0ob at this so i got a question about what my output file should be. I know the best quality is mpg so what specs should i have for that like screensize and audio etc. Also if i were to make a lower quality like wmv or avi what should i have with those? The only movie i've edited with software is Ulead Video Studio 9 and i found the way they make the output files confusing, the mpg's are weird and out of shape and are extremely large. I'm going to practice with Adobe Premier as soon as my next film is made. Thanks.

- Mikke
 
First off, your source file should be an AVI. From there, there's many differing software titles to convert it to for distribution.

Use Quicktime for Sorenson MOV, MPEG4 and H.264 files.
Use MainConcept for MPEG1 or MPEG2. <-- The BEST encoder!
There's Real and Microsoft's WMV formats. Non standard, but popular.

You really want to find out what your audience for distribution is. Download? DVD? CD?
 
ok thanks a lot, but if i make it an avi, what would the quality be like? like if the avi is bad qualtity and i make it into a mpeg, would the picture quality get better?
 
mikke1556 said:
ok thanks a lot, but if i make it an avi, what would the quality be like? like if the avi is bad qualtity and i make it into a mpeg, would the picture quality get better?
The quality of any video is dependent of the quality of the source. if you have a lousy-looking AVI, then any distribution format will look equally bad or worse.
 
The ideal situation is to immediately convert all of your footage to an uncompressed AVI before you edit. Once edited and rendered, convert to Quicktime Mpeg-4, Sorenson, etc. or WMV, or for DVD to Mpeg-2.

Everything else is a comprimise and a step down. Like you could edit with the files in DV avi's or Divx avi's or something but it will degrade your final picture. Especially if you are then converting it for web delivery like WMV or Quicktime.
 
I know the best quality is mpg

Actually, it's not. :)

The "best" quality you can achieve is exporting the edited file as the exact same settings as the original import.

For example, if you import a DV stream from your camcorder you would want to export it back to tape. (You can also save it as a file on your harddrive instead... takes up a lot of space, though) 13gigs/hour means you could get roughly a 20 minute (maximum) edited film onto a single DVD.

Obviously we are used to having up to 2-hour movies on a single DVD... that's possible with compression to mpg2. However any kind of compression requires a sacrifice in quality, somewhere along the way. Your mpg2 DVD will never be as high quality as the original source.

_______

Mpg can still give a pretty good image, mind you. It also has the benefit of being almost entirely universally recognisable by any computer system, unlike proprietary formats like Microsoft Media or Quicktime.

Like everyone else already said... the minute you start making changes (size, dimensions, colour depth, CoDecs, whatever) you'll be losing something. Sometimes it has to be done though... especially when wanting to easily have it viewed over the 'net.

:)
 
I think I remember reading this so correct me if I'm wrong but the cables you use to get your movie on your hard drive matters too. Firewire versus Composite video cables for instance. Is that right?
 
Yes.

Using FireWire is effectively a file-transfer.

Composite cables transfer analogue video signals, that must be captured somehow. (Capture card, fancy video cards, converters, whatever). You lose a lot of data like that.
 
I'm confused as to how you export the edited file as the exact same settings as the original import from a nle system. When ever I try to export the footage to a dvd authoring program I always thought you had to compress the footage.
 
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