HD Video from VirtualDub to Premiere Pro for editing - What codec is best?

[gliebetronics]

Hi. I am working on a time lapse video project. I am capturing high res JPG pictures at 1280x720. I am using VirtualDub to import the stills and adjust the frame rate as appropriate for the time lapse. My problem is, how to get the video into Premiere Pro for editing. RAW AVI's are way too big to store and edit with at this resolution. I am thinking that the best option is to find some sort of HD DV codec to export as from VirtualDub and then import in Premiere Pro. Basically, creating the same format video that I would get from a real HD DV Camcorder, which is somewhat compressed and highly editable. I have successfully exported standard DV from VirtualDub and opened it in Premiere Pro, however Standard DV does not have a high enough resolution for my needs. I would do it all in Premiere Pro if I could but it does not have the ability to easily import 5000 still images as if they were a single video clip like VirtualDub does. I would appreciate any advice I can get or any alternative methods I could use to get the same results. Thanks in advance everybody!

[guns1inger]

Premiere Pro should be able to import a groups of stills as a video - this is how most CG effects are rendered. So long as your stills are consecutively numbered, there should be no issue. The older versions of Premiere could all do this.

[gliebetronics]

Hey, so it does. I never noticed that check box that says "Numbered Stills." I feel silly now. That seems to be working. I'll know more later when I work on my project further.
Thanks.

Still, if anybody has a good idea on what Codec is best to transport video from VirtualDub to Premiere, it may come in handy in the future for myself as well as others out there.

[guns1inger]

Lagarith or Huffyuv will do the least damage (they are both lossless), but at that resolution, they will be large files for any real length. For 5000 frames they won't be that big though.

[gliebetronics]

Thanks for the advice. I tried importing using both methods, Numbered Stills and exported Lagarith video from VirtualDub. They both yielded the same excellent results. I think the Numbered Stills method is best for this application, but the Lagarith codec will work wonders for getting hard to edit formats into Premiere, so long as VirtualDub will open them. I'd heard of Huffyuv before but not Lagarith. Lagarith seems to have real good compression for lossless. Also as a side note, I did figure out that Unchecking "Frame Blend" is a MUST with timelapse video in Premiere. Otherwise the moment you touch the clip to adjust the speed or anything, it will mutilate your frames by blending the each frame with its neighboring frames, resulting in a sort of blur instead of crisp movement.
Thanks again.

[vull]

hi
which is better then?
lagarith of huffyuv?
http://forum.videohelp.com/topic351134.html

i've used huffyuv a while back, but 1 dude said that there is something better out than huffyuv now. something faster? it might be lagarith then? he doesn't remember the name.

PS: why the fcuk are all the forums requiring registration???? FFS!
like i don't have anything better to do than to manage all the freakin forums accounts on the internet!!!
maybe it would be more sequre if i send my registration form by mail directly to the administrator??? with my picture=??
lets see how's that gonna keep the spammers away!
fuckin ridiculous... like why do i need to enter the validation code then=?? BIG F*** goes out to all of the people who ask registration to get free information on the internet!!!

[jagabo]

which is better then?
lagarith of huffyuv?

You decide:
HuffYUV: faster, less compression
Lagarith: slower, more compression