CS4 exporting magic?

Question

I hope someone who knows a lot more than I do about codecs and compression can answer this question.  I imported footage from my Canon XLH1 (1440 x 1080), 29.97 fps, progressive mode, tape media, MPEG-2 compression on the tape with a 4:2:0 color space.  Without editing, I exported it as Microsoft AVI uncompressed onto a flash drive. The size of the file increased about 9 fold.  I sent it to a client.
The client blew the scene up to intercut it with movie film, and was very happy with the quality. I was overjoyed...it was like magic.  When he tried to do the same with a clone of the original footage (cloned to tape), it was lesser quality.  Now I am not a genius, but can do the math.  When the camcorder records to tape using MPEG2 and 4:2:0, there is compression; data is lost.  Just because I exported "uncompressed" from CS4, I would hardly expect data lost in taping to be found somewhere and put back!  But how else to explain the quality of the exported footage. Is there some alternate universe where lost pixels are stored along with single socks and ball point pen caps, waiting to be recalled?  Can someone explain this happy accident?

Answer 1

I would hardly expect data lost in taping to be found somewhere and put back!
That is actually precisely what happens.  In fact, it HAS to happen or you don't have an image.  There isn't a display in the world that can show you a compressed image.  They all have to be decompressed back to RGB in order to show you the picture.
The issue at hand is how closely the restored image is to the original.  Obviously, the more you throw out in compression, the more the decompression stage will have to "guess" at the missing data.  Those "guesses" are where artifacts, anomalies and other image degradations show up.  It is entirely possible that whatever method of decompression he used was creating inferior "guesses" compared to what Premiere was doing for the Uncompressed export.