Which format is best?

[gfx_vietnam]

Hi all!

With Editing, a footage formated MOV or AVI, which format is best ?

[edDV]

Hi all!

With Editing, a footage formated MOV or AVI, which best ?

Mov has about 20 format variations, AVI has maybe 100. Be specific about your video format. Quicktime and AVI are just wrappers.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quicktime
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Audio_Video_Interleave

[gfx_vietnam]

Thank for edDV's reply!

I readed the link in wikipedia. But my query is which format is best for edit, creative visualeffect on footage...??????
Because, someone in my country like use AVI to edit, but some coded AVI can't import into AfterEffect. And, MOV have alpha channel, AVI not.
Now, i'll use mov to work.

What wrong?

[edDV]

Thank for edDV's reply!

I readed the link in wikipedia. But my query is which format is best for edit, creative visualeffect on footage...??????
Because, someone in my country like use AVI to edit, but some coded AVI can't import into AfterEffect. And, MOV have alpha channel, AVI not.
Now, i'll use mov to work.

What wrong?

Either can be best or worse. AVI or Quicktime are unrelated to video format.

Taking AVI for example,

Highest usable quality capture and edit is an AVI wrapper with uncompresssed 14bit RGB 4000x4000 but only the high end movie companies can afford ~28MB per frame or well over 2 GB per second but this is an "AVI".

TV standard def shows are edited with uncompressed 4:2:2 (aka SMPTE-259M) or 270Mb/s or ~30MB/s in an "AVI" wrapper.

DV format in an AVI wrapper is about 3.8MB per second

Dvix in an AVI wrapper can be far smaller but you don't want to edit in divx. You save Divx encoding for the last step.

Uncompressed or DV format are better for editing because they contain all the frames as data. Higher compressed formats use GOPs (groups of pictures) instead of individual frames and this greatly complicates editing.

[guns1inger]

Also, what sort of visual effects ? Mini-DV is simple to use and designed for editing, but is poor for text and motion graphics, and painful for chromakey work.

Uncompressed or losslessly compressed is better, however if it is coming from a consumer DV source then the compression has already done the damage when it comes to keying.

If you are generating 3D CG for compositing, again, uncompressed/lossless is best. All visual effects work requires re-encoding, and any lossy compression degrades over repeated encoding. A good DV encoder (Sony, for example) might last 6 or 7 generations before it becomes a problem. Microsoft's DV encoder will last around 3 before it becomes very noticeable. Mpeg-2 also falls apart after only a few generations.

[jagabo]

In case you're still isn't clear to you: asking "Which is better AVI or MOV?" is like asking which chocolate is better -- "chocolate in red heart shaped boxes or chocolate in white rectangular boxes?"

The container (AVI or MOV) does not determine the quality of what is inside.

[gfx_vietnam]

I think i understand. Thank all

The ability to contain abstract data references for the media data, and the separation of the media data from the media offsets and the track edit lists means that QuickTime is particularly suited for editing, as it is capable of importing and editing in place (without data copying). SOURCE: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quicktime

Are you argee?

[jagabo]

:idea: :idea: :oops:
I think i understand. Thank all :)

The ability to contain abstract data references for the media data, and the separation of the media data from the media offsets and the track edit lists means that QuickTime is particularly suited for editing, as it is capable of importing and editing in place (without data copying). SOURCE: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quicktime

Are you argee?

Only if your software supports it.

[edDV]

So does your question specifically relate to After Effects? Describe your workflow and main editing program. AVI can have an Alpha.

[gfx_vietnam]

@ edDV: yes, my mind is AE.

when use AE, with video MOV, I have no any problem when import, but with some video AVIs not that.

@ jagabo: I use Adobe Suite. Thank for your info!

[edDV]

Suggest you ask in the After Effects support forums under Adobe support, or in DMN forums -After Effects

[guns1inger]

You can always output to tga stills with alpha. Makes it easy to fix if the rendering gets interrupted or you need to change just a few frames.

[kimco52]

Maybe I have been lucky but I haven't had any avi from Premiere that I cannot move to After Effects and back and forth, preserving channels.