Avi or mpeg?

[Jake]

What is better quality, avi or mpeg? Why I ask is that I have alamdv and the only way I can edit certain clips is by changing the format to avi or mpeg. Does anyone else have a better way of using alamdv without losing quality (i have a pinnacle dc10 card)

 

[Jake]

What is better quality, avi or mpeg? Why I ask is that I have alamdv and the only way I can edit certain clips is by changing the format to avi or mpeg. Does anyone else have a better way of using alamdv without losing quality (i have a pinnacle dc10 card)

 

[screenwriter_14]

True, AVI is uncompressed. NO loss is present.
I have a question. On the export opions for my project to finished file, quicktime has like a 13 gb filesize when avi is like 2gb(on my specific project). Does anyone know why quicktime renders the most storage, (ex. does it have better quality)?

 

[Richard Purves]

avi is NOT uncompressed!

MPEG (motion picture experts group) is a clearly defined standard for a fixed file format. It is quite a lossy standard (meaning you lose quality when you squish your video with it).

AVI, om the other hand is merely a file format. You can use different compressors for both video and audio with it, then mix and match between the two.

And here's the rub, some codec are better than others!

For example, if you use cinepak ... you'll end up with something that's huge and looks like an old BBC set from a 1960's Dr. Who episode.

Now, if you use DivX you'll end up with excellent quality reasonably sized video. Huffyuv is my personal working favourite since it IS lossless but the file sizes are huge!

http://www.divx.com/
http://math.berkeley.edu/~benrg/huffyuv.html
http://www.adamwilt.com/

 

[Richard Purves]

As for Quicktime, see what i've said about AVI.

Your problem is probably stemming from the fact you can change video codecs in Quicktime too.

QT usually defaults to "Animation", which looks nice but again is also huge! Try changing it to mpeg-4 if you're using qt6.

 

[screenwriter_14]

I don't think that avi is compresed at all.
First off, it is completely recognized by your camcorder, and when capturing, avi files are dumped on you hard drive. Secondly, when I goto exporting options for my movie, it labels avi as no compression, with others like mpeg as lossy, and tells you why.

 

[Richard Purves]

Okay okay, you've found the uncompressed full frames option. Wonderful. Now watch your disk space disappear.

As I said before, the AVI format is just a wrapper for a multitude of different compression formats: some of which are better than others. This applies to both video AND audio.

DV itself can be a part of AVI, hence the fact that when you use firewire and import your footage on a pc, it becomes an avi!

So, unless you've a lossless codec or have used the full frames option ... AVI is NOT lossless.