Need help understanding pros and cons of different codecs

[shira]

I do video work creating DVD's for dancers of their performances, instruction, etc. I save the raw footage on my external hard drive in AVI format.

I need help understanding the pros and cons of the different codecs available on my machine for purposes of working with DVD-quality footage. In particular, which should I use when exporting video from Adobe Premiere Pro to my hard disk, knowing that it will be used as source video for authoring DVD's?


My top priority is video quality, but I also care about how much compression there is (ie, minimizing how much space is consumed on the hard disk), and I'd like to minimize the time it takes to export a media file to the avi. Are there other factors I should consider in deciding which codec to use?

For what it's worth, I'm running Premiere Pro CS4 on a Windows XP machine.

Here's what I've observed in my testing...

In order from smallest avi file (most compression) to largest avi file (least compression):

Microsoft Video 9
Indeo 5.10
Indeo 4.5
Cinepak Codec (AVI is more than triple the size of the Indeo codec)
Microsoft RLE (AVI is almost double the size of the one generated by the Cinepak)
Microsoft Video 1 (AVI is almost triple the size of the one generated by the Cinepak)

In order from shortest "export" time to longest export time for a test 13-second clip, with the codec set on maximum quality:

Microsoft Video 1
Microsoft Video 9
Microsoft RLE
Indeo 5.10
Cinepak
Indeo 4.5

I can't really tell from playing it back on my computer which gives the best final image quality. I definitely do NOT want a lossy format. Suggestions?

[edDV]

Start by telling us the camera format and camera model number.

DVD is MPeg2 by definition. See here.
https://www.videohelp.com/dvd


Unlikely you would use any of your listed codecs. They are obsolete or special purpose.

[shira]

Hi Ed! Yup, I know that DVD is natively MPEG2, but if I"m not mistaken, that's a lossy file format. I'm thinking that I should put all my clips in AVI format, which would then enable me to bring them into editing projects, sometimes pulling out brief segments and recombining to make longer sequences, without risking lossiness from multiple saves.

Camera varies - dancers sometimes give me their clips on memory cards, sometimes flash drives, sometimes DVD's. Ie, they engage whomever they want to for doing the videotaping, and then provide me with the raw footage using whatever media they or their camera person have available.

[redwudz]

HuffyUV or Lagarith are two lossless codecs if you don't mind large files.

[edDV]

You need a project plan. High end post houses would decompress everything or convert to a digital intermediate (e.g. Cineform) before import.

DV project format is often used for standard definition. Non-DV source gets one conversion in timeline workspace render.

HDV or XDCAM-EX (MPeg2) project format is often used for mixed format HD work. CS4 can do an AVCHD project setting but this isn't a good choice for mixed format.

Huffyuv can be used in place of Cineform.