Saving 720x480 files

[Pete]

Maybe vcdhelp isn't the place for this question, but you all seem to know more about encoding than anywhere else I've tried to find answers. If it's not...sorry. I want to archive my footage (mostly 15-60 sec. clips) to a CD. But to save it for later use, I cannot lose the quality. I would like to be able to save in a QT format. I know this can be done-stock footage companies (like Artbeats) do it, why can't I? None of the encoders I have tried will let me save a QT movie with the 720x480 format, and I can't reach the lossles or near lossless quality. Please help. Thanks!

[You_Are_Alive]

Artbeats achieves this cause they use the Sorenson Pro codec. And that needs to be bought sepearately, I think, so that you can use it with Quicktime Pro. You get excellent quality with low data rate.

Another option, to keep the great quality is to encode Movie to DV. The downside, it takes extremely long, and uses large data rate. You may get away with it if your clips are not that long and you have a fast computer. Downside, when you run it from Cd, you may experience jerky playback. Note: You will need QT Pro, not the free version to export your movies.

[Pete]

I have bought the Sorenson Pro 3 and have the QT Pro. The highest resolution I can get on the Sorenson is 640x480, unless I'm missing something. I've changed the settings, but my output video goes back to the 640 resolution, won't stay at 720. I have e-mailed the Sorenson people about this, but haven't gotten a response. Hoping someone here might know. But I do appreciate the response.

[You_Are_Alive]

Thats very strange, that doesn't happen to me, and I have Standard Sorenson 3 . Maybe you just overlooked something. You said you changed the settings, which ones. After importing the 720 x 480 and exporting with Sorenson, don't forget to go to Video Size, change to custom, the put in 720 x 480. This works, for sure. Unless somehow they srewed up the Pro version, but highly unlikely.

[Pete]

I swear I've done that. I type in 720x480 and it shows it on the output settings screen. But when I compress and look up the properties of the new movie it shows 640x480. I even imported it back into my editing program and it shows the same thing, 640x480.

[Pete]

I talked with Sorenson today, and sure enough, they say that 720x480 can't be done. For that resolution and to get lossless or near lossless video they say the only software that will do the job is Cleaner. That may be, but it sure is expensive. Anyone have ANY ideas?

[vhelp]

Pete,

I have one. I think. Since you say these clips are 15-60 seconds
worth, then why not just keep them in their native AVI format???
Are they just TOOOO big, per handful of files???
.
.
and then later, you can re-encode them via Qlink or whatever codec
your heart desires. You may find that you want to encode to some
other format, and if you stick to Qtime, you may loose the ability
to encode (w/ better quality) other than w/ Qtime, and as a result,
will not have the quality via AVI file to make these later encodes.

Am I making any sense??

-vhlep