question on codecs

hi guys,

Some questions... What are the differences between animation, uncompressed, dv and "final cut movie file/current settings"? And why do the pictures look different between exporting "current settings" and animation? Also, when i exported a clip as uncompressed, it turned out my settings are at 400x300 (i'm in pal, so technically it should be 720x576, right?).

I would explain the ins and outs but unfortunately there are 100s of pages of explanation to answer it fully.

Read this for a basic understanding of what a CODEC (COmpressor-DECompressor, COder-DECoder, or COmpression/DECompression algorithm) is here: [en.wikipedia.org]

This for DV: [en.wikipedia.org]

This for Animation: [en.wikipedia.org]

This for a variety of video CODECs: [en.wikipedia.org]


Most Video CODECs do not have a specific pixel size but rather give you options to change it to your preference.

Audio CODECs too have various settings.

You need to check exactly what settings you require and set it up in before or during the menu stage of your export.


Ben



For instant answers to more than one hundred common FCP questions, check out the LAFCPUG FAQ Wiki here : [www.lafcpug.org]

Thanks... i already tried wikipedia and it did little to explain why a dvcpro50 footage would look different when i exported it as animation or when i exported it as dvcpro50 or current settings.

Basically, I tried exporting a short video clip in various codecs just to see which would look the best. I figure that 400x300 is a new way of saying "4:3" and exporting dvcpro50 via final cut quicktime conversion just ended up distorted the image slightly (and there was no alternate setting). Next to that, the footage looked much better in the higher resolution codecs than it does when i export in "current settings", so i'm figuring either exporting with animation or uncompressed footage changes the colour space or does some colour smoothing, or a generation loss occurs during export.