Lossless codec?

I'm a bit confused on how to begin with a lossless codec. I was recommended to use one so I can export peices of my project then re-import them without losing quality. But all that I know about codecs is that I download them, and they help me use certain file types.
How do i specify to premeire that I would like to use a lossless codec once I have downloaded it?
Also does anyone reccomend a certain type of lossless codec, and is there a danger of it messing up my other codecs? This is why I haven't touched it so far.

Jeff,
If starting with footage that is already highly compressed (most camera formats today), something like Lagarith might be overkill, creating unnecessarily large files.
I agree with Jim Simon. When one already has a heavily-compressed file, the LAST thing that they would want is more compression. That is the ideal time to use lossless, regardless of file size.
As an example from a slightly different dicipline, if I was handed a JPEG Still Image, the last thing that I wanted to use as an intermediate was another JPEG. It was TIFF, or more often, PSD.
Why take heavily-compressed material, and then apply ANY lossey compression to that? You have already lost part of the collected data, so why lose more? That is a prime time to NOT compress with a lossey CODEC again.
I disagree here.
Hunt

Similar Messages

Color Space Question... using Lagarith Lossless Codec.

Hi all,
I use the Lagarith Lossless Codec for all my source editing files importing into Premiere Pro and for exporting to my encoder I use.
My question is this. I found that most of my sources are in YUV color space, so when I prep them for editing using VirtualDub, etc... I export them to Lagarith Lossless Codec in the YUY2 color space setting. The size difference between using RGB and YUY2 is enough to make me want to just use YUY2. So when editing those prepped files in YUY2 in Premiere Pro and them exporting the in the same YUY2 color space configuration, does it degrade in quality at all? I heard somewhere that Premiere Pro ONLY edits in RGB color space. So am I really messing up here or is it safe to do what I am doing?
Thanks in advance!

Premiere Pro will keep the color space of the original media. And many of the effects can now also operate in YUV space (They are marked by the YUV icon.) However, any effects you use that are not marked with that icon will force an RGB conversion.

Using lossless codec with air tunes / airport express

i recently installed an airport express so that i can listen to my itunes library on my stereo. i have connected the airport to my stereo using a toslink cable. most of my library is encoded at 192kbs or 128 kbs aac files. i was hoping that if i encoded music using the lossless codec that i would be able to match the sound i get from my cd player through the stereo. my early tests have not worked well. if i compare a song in my itues encoded at 128, 192, 256 and lossless they all sound basically the same when played through my stereo using airport express. none of them sound as good as the same song played through my stereo from the cd player. the cd player is hooked up via a digital coax and both the cd player and the airport express are programmed identically in the stereo (using the stereo uplink sample). my asumption was that since both sources are digital (assuming that itunes to express to toslink remains digital) and that from what i have read the lossless codec is indistinguishable from a cd in playback that the two would sound the same. however the cd sounds much louder and fuller.has anyone had a sucessfull experience where the airport express has matched a cd in playback quality? any thoughts / suggestion? thanks.
ian

hi james. my understanding is that i am feeding a digital signal from itunes to ax to my stereo and that because i am using a toslink optical connection from the ax to my stereo the signal remains digital until the stereo's internal dac converts it. this is essentially the same process that is happening with the cd player. the digital coax feeds a digital signal to the stereo where the stereo's internal dac converts the signal. so the question becomes why with a lossless codec would there be any difference in sound quality if the digital signal is being processed exactly the same way in the stereo? my only answer is that i am not receiving a pure digital feed from the itunes to ax to stereo path. somewhere it is being stepped on. any thoughts?
ian

AME codec problem - CamStudio Lossless codec

Hi,
I've been using CamStudio to record my work for ages using lossless codec and then downgrage perfect original to needed formats via AME CS3. This version seemed to understand that there are other codecs installed on my system. But with greater versions of AME: CS4 and CS5, Adobe "upgraded" the product so it no longer sees the codecs. What was that for? It's really making me crazy because I have tons of material I can't encode anymore. If there was at least a way to get good old AME CS3.
Is there any way to make AME see installed codecs?
Thanks

Thank you Jeff, that makes sense.
Unfortunately, the codec I need is only available as 32 bit version so I'll need to find some other encoder.

Sequence Settings for "Apple Lossless" codec !?!?

Help,
I am editing a project and the material was delivered to me in the "Apple Lossless, stereo, 44100 khz DV, 720x480 (640x480), millions
Is there a Sequence settings I can use to edit this without having to render it in the timeline ?!?
Many thanks,
David Berry

o maybe FCP is only able to work in certain formats without having to compress ?o maybe FCP is only able to work in certain formats without having to compress ?
All the formats in the EASY SETUP are what it works with basically. But you can create custom setups..but they will NOT be realtime. That is what that trick is all about. If that trick doesn't work, then it is a format that FCP isn't gonna work with without recompressing. But audio still needs to be 48Khz 16-bit aiff files.
There are other NLEs out there that do this...Vegas, SpeedRazor...you can look into using them if you are constantly going to be dealing with odd codecs.
Shane

Lossless codec in imovie 09

Hi,
I have created several slideshows in imovie 09, which I now want to burn in a DVD to be viewed on a plasma TV.
There is an obvious problem in this process and the key word is de-interlacing.
Photo slideshows are progressive in nature. DVDs are intrelaced. Plasma TV's progressive as well. It's silly, but it has to be a dvd, because it's a present and it can't come with a BD player or a media player or put on youtube.
To ad to this comes compressing and re-compressing (jpeg,mov,dvd)
So, I am only trying to get the best possible results, which I know won't be perfect.
(Sorry for the long intro but it helps sometimes)
01.So, what codec can I use in imovie for lossless quality?
02.What is the best codec in imovie for images and slideshows
03.Is there a way to keep the video progressive? (I tryed exporting as DV progressive but it keeps coming with errors and just won't export)
thank you in advance

I would not mess around with deinterlacing; TVs today can deinterlace perfectly well themselves. You may cause more problems by trying to deinterlace with the software. Unless there are problems, a progressive image can be put onto an interlaced medium (as you correctly pointed out that DVDs are always interlaced) and the disc should be flagged automatically to be displayed as progressive, if you have a progressive scan DVD player. And if your DVD player is not progressive, then any TV today will display properly anyway.
So just be sure to export to a progressive format. Try Photo Jpeg and see if there are any problems when viewed *on an actual TV*.
And of course, this process is not "lossless" with respect to your photos. As you know, video is very low resolution compared to photos. But people are used to TVs, and usually do not notice how low-definition pictures are, as long as they are viewed on an actual TV.
I don't think DV can ever be progressive, by I am not sure.

Lossless Codec Export

Hi everyone,
I'm having problem getting my head round codecs!
I always export from AE and take my scenes to FinalCutPro for the edit.
What's the highest quality file I can take to FCP?
Is uncompressed the best option?
There are two options in the codec drop down menu for Uncompressed.
Uncompressed YUV10bit
Uncompressed YUV8bit
What's the difference and which should I use?!
When I add to render queue it automatically sets the codec to lossless. but if you click it and go to codec menu, there is no lossless
option in the codec drop down?! Is this the same as the animation codec?
Arggg!
I just want to know whats the best codec for the maximum quality export to take to FCP for the last edit.
I appreciate any help.
Thankss

The "Lossless" preset on Mac uses Quicktime Animation since lossless merely means visually lossless and does not preclude binary compression. For sending your stuff to FCP it mostly comes down to what your project settings are. Yes, Apple Uncompressed is okay, but many times you may still want to use ProRes or the conventional Animation or PNG CoDecs to save disk space and keep file sizes small. There's really no "one size fits all". Especially when your footage started out as compressed and may already have gone through heavy conversion and processing by mangling it in AE there may be other things to consider and contribute much more to retaining quality like just using "fat" uncompressed files...
Mylenium

Best visually lossless codec for cartoon prerenders with alpha

Hey guys. I've done a lot of research on this but still cannot find a satisfying solution.
I have hundreds of comps that I would like to prerender and re-use on a regular basis. These comps are simple solid colors, cartoons, for character animation. They contain LOTS of blank space, with the image only comprising a small part of the frame. This is necessary to line everything up in the end. I need to be able to decode these prerenders on Mac and Windows, but it is OK if they can only be encoded on Mac. I need it to be a fast codec for decoding, but I do not care how long it takes to encode them. I don't care what the container is, but Quicktime seems like the best container that AE supports.
After doing lots of tests, the only reasonable formats I could find were:
ProRes 4444
Animation
I have tried DnxHD, PNG (Quicktime), PNG (Image sequence), and all the other ProRes variants (with a separate movie for alpha). DnxHD doesn't work because it only works at fixed sizes and maxes out at 1920x1080. All the other ProRes variants don't work because they don't have alpha, and when I use a separate ProRes render for Alpha, there's artifacts on the edges. PNG in quicktime is far too slow to decode, and the files are bigger than Animation. Using image sequences is a pain to maintain and seems to be slower as well. I wish I could try out codecs like HuffYuv and Lagarith, but they are not supported on Mac.
ProRes 4x4 would be perfect, but I have no need for 16-bit color. Animation is the fastest codec, but produces files that are too big. At 75% quality, it produces files smaller than ProRes, but introduces some artifacts.
Wondering if there is an 8-bit codec with alpha that anyone would recommend for this.
Also, I am wondering if using a single, very long Quicktime file is faster for AE to use than lots of shorter Quicktime files.
Thanks,
Bryan

I think I found that PNG was kindof slow to render. I will give it another look.
The duration of the file question is really just about how AE manages its memory. Whether having a single file is better or many files. For game development, I am used to generating single spritesheets which contain all image data, rather than many small files. I am wondering if something similar is true with AE. I am basically trying to optimize our workflow as much as possible for maximum AE performance.
In the case of using one quicktime, it would be duplicated many times in AE, and time-remapped to break it apart into layers. Or it would simply already be broken apart as separate files. All files would be used all the time, as they are all the elements of a character's head rig (eyes, eyebrows, mouth, etc). In case you are wondering, the reason I want to prerender them is because they contain a lot of CPU-intensive effects (Mesh Warp, etc). These head rigs really slow down our workflow and also cause frequent crashes.

4 GB file size bug and No Audio on render output with Lossless Ut codec and Lagarith ?

System :
Win7 x64
NTFS Raid 0 Drive
SpeedGrade 2014.0.1
******BUG******
Cannot render correctly using Ut lossless codec or Lagarith. Probably due to 4 GB size limit bug.
Steps to reproduce bug:
A single PAL 25 fps ProRes 1920x1080 clip, 4 minutes long which contains 200 cut/scene changes.
Split using scene changes detect.
Choose "split clip"
Applied looks (most of the time, i just use default cinematic 2 with a little bit adjustment)
Render using lossless codec above.
Results:
Rendering using small duration (10 seconds) on both Ut and Lagarith, there are no sound produced, although the video render correctly.
Render the whole clip (4 minutes)
On Ut : The result render is messed up, the clip were overlap, or sometimes it's just resulting a garbage video (blank screen with no sound)
On Lagarith : Unplayable video (crash to playback/open either in media player or in Adobe Media Encoder)
Expected results:
The video render result from lagarith and Ut "stuck" on 4 GB file size.
The problem was not occurred if using different codec (Animation lossless), even can produced 18 GB of clip which can playback fine and with audio.
Note :
I also have report the bug (?) in feature/bug report Adobe web page.
The current workaround is render using Animation (but i don't like it, the size were too big, i cannot export my long project using this codec)
Message was edited by: bill gates
Reason : Adding info

>Multiplexing: None
I think that means you get separate video and sound files (but, I don't do BluRay, so could be wrong)

No settings for Apple Lossless Audio Codec found in Compressor

For archiving reasons I have to convert many audio files to Apple Lossless (ALAC). So I thought it would be easy using Compressor 4 and and a suitable droplet. I was astonished that here are only settings for the following audio formats: AAC, AC3, AIFF, CAF, MP3 and WAV.
No Apple Lossless Codec in the settings?
Does anyone know how to create ALAC files

Thomas A. wrote:
This setting generates a QuickTime file with the extension .mov
Of course it does. Why would that be a problem? "Apple Lossless" is not a file format, it's a codec.
OK, if I change the extension manually to m4a it seems to be an ALAC file, but I am not sure if it a "correct" one in regard to the specifications.
There is no "ALAC" file format specification. What are you going to use the files for?
ALAC isn't specified at all. The audio codec is called "Apple Lossless", and it is a set of algorithms to encode audio data, and a specification for a bitstream of audio data encoded such. It can be put in various containers, the most common being MPEG-4 and Apple Quicktime, but nothing will stop you from using AVI, .mkv, .ogg or anything else as the container format.
If you're unhappy with Compressor, which only seems to offer the QuickTime container format for Apple Lossless-encoded audio, there might be other tools that will transfer it into another container while leaving the actual encoded data untouched.
Since the Apple Lossless codec is now free, mencoder might work, even for the encoding itself. I haven't checked MPEG Streamclip, Handbrake, VLC or others, which might also offer such options.
Quick tests didn't yield any success, but that doesn't mean it shouldn't work.
An alternative for lessless encoding is the "FLAC" (free lossless audio codec), which is usually stored in an ogg container file. I don't think Compressor offers that, although VLC does.
It seems that the exact thing you want is not readily available (i. e. mpeg-4 audio-only with Apple Lossless audio codec.)
Bernd

Is there a way to access more of my codecs to render with in AE 4.1 ?

Hi all,
I'm a new user using an old version of AE 4.1 on Windows 7.
Is there a way to access more of my available codecs to render with in AE 4.1 ?
When I go to export as an AVI file in AE 4.1 I only have the CINEPAK, DV-PAL, DV/DVCPRO-NTSC and DVCPRO-PAL codecs available as choices, and then NONE for uncompressed output.
Yet when I render to AVI in Adobe Premiere I have the CAMSTUDIO LOSSLESS, CINEPAK, HUFFYUV, INTEL IYUV, LAGARITH LOSSLESS, MICROSOFT RLE, MICROSOFT VIDEO 1, MSU SCREEN CAPTURE LOSSLESS, x264VFW-H.264/MPEG-4 AVC and the XVID MPEG-4 codecs all available to render with. I usually use the XVID MPEG-4 codec to render with for best quality for file size, or the LAGARITH LOSSLESS codec to render with if I need to plug a file back in to Premiere since Premiere has limited AVI file codec import capabilities.
Why aren't the rest of my codecs available to render with in AE 4.1 ?
The problems are (as seen in the screenshots below)...
1) The CINEPAK codec renders the correct file format size and aspect-ratio that my project is (1280x720) but outputs an AVI file that can not be imported in to Premiere and can not be converted by two different converters.
2) The NONE-UNCOMPRESSED option renders the correct size format file but outputs an AVI file so large (over 6 gigs) that it can not be use practically in Premiere and it will not even play in a video player.
3) The DV-PAL, DV/DVCPRO-NTSC and DVCPRO-PAL codecs render in incorrect aspect ratio and format sizes (770x576) regardless of which aspect ratio is selected (as seen at the bottom of the screenshot below), resizing my project size and they will not import in to Premiere... these can be converted to an H.264 AVI file in one of my converters that Premeire will then import, but they are still the wrong size and they loose sharpness if they are resized (stretched) during conversion.
Please see the screenshots below for clarification.
Thanks for any input,
digi

Wow, thanks again Andrew. That works.
All my codecs showing up via Composition/Make Movie. Its weird, when I tried using the H.264 codec (Premiere likes H.264 and Lagarith Lossless), the H.264 rendered a strange 800 and something by 720 size instead of the selected and displayed 1280x720 format that the project is in and speced in the Render interface.
But when I used the Lagarith Lossless codec, I get the right size and everything looks good at 1280x720.
Before you wrote back, I was able to convert one of the 770x576 size DV-PAL files to H.264 via the Freemake converter, and then that imported in to my Premiere file... but that is a moot point now that I can get the correct size file with the Lagarith codec.
I would have been able to use the converted 770x576 (properties says 720x576, but it measures out at 770x576) DV-PAL files for this project with the digital clock and get it to import in to Premiere correctly... since I could just place the clock face when blackscreened in my 1280x720 Premiere project, but now I can use the full size Lagarith rendered file for this and other projects from AE that require the full frame of composition.
Thanks so much... your the most efficient forum guy I've ever had answer a question... no restating or misunderstanding... just pure useful answers.
Thanks a trillion,
digi

Working with many different formats/codecs/frame rates within one Sequence.

Good Afternoon,
As an editor for an ad agency I am being tasked with cutting a demo reel together. Nothing too difficult.
The reel is to include video footage of past projects, going back a couple years or so. The footage that I will be given will undoubtably be in a variety of formats, codecs, frame sizes, frame rates, etc (all SD, though). Delivery is SD DVD.
My question is this:
What is the best way to set up my timeline for a barrage of clips with differing specs?
Do I encode all the media assets FIRST to conform to my Sequence Settings? Or do I just deal with the large amounts of timeline rendering as I work with different formats and codecs? Or do I....?
I am running FCP 5.1.4, so I don't have the Open Timeline feature going for me.
I appreciate any advice and tips you can offer!
Thanks!

Your final format is NTSC SD DVD, so you're going to have to go to 720x480 at some point. This is what I would upscale to. Make sure your "client" knows that the 320x240 wmv's may not look to good in the final production.
Personally I use MPEG Streamclip (an excellent FREE application that's part of many a pro's arsenal) for this kind of conversion and/or upscaling. It's not particularly intuitive (especially for upscaling) so read the manual.
You may need to get hold of Flip4Mac or Episode for the wmv conversions.
I would tend to convert to a lossless codec like Apple Uncompressed or Animation. You could try going to NTSC-DV but you're going to lose some quality initially and again when you do the final mpeg2 compression.
Experiment.

Output codec

using premiere pro 6 what would be an equivalent output codec as Pro res 442? I want to output my video with a similar quality codec.

Stan, what is the ultimate purpose of the export? To be edited in another program? Graded?
You could export it to a visually lossless codec like Lagarith but the files would be HUGE!! Which might be fine if you are handing off a hard drive.
Or you could merely export it to something of the same approximate quality of the original footage. That might be less of a problem for you.
My choice for such things has always been to use the Cineform codec. It is a very high quality codec that uses a different method of compression than any of the other codecs. But the more info you provide, the more we could help you narrow it down.

Video Codec: "None"

When exporting to a lossless file, "None" is selected under Codec. Is there actually 'no' codec used for this export setting, or is it some kind of uncompressed lossless codec with no name? The file size is extremely huge.

thared33 wrote:
I was getting a 2GB file for a few seconds of video, and only a few MB for another lossless codec that I'm sure does use compression.
Correct. There's a way to check in AE if a losless codec changed the footage during rendering: put the original footage in a comp, add the rendered footage and apply the Difference blen mode. The differences will appear.
But it really should be okay with a lossless codec. Think of zipping a long work processor document. The file size is smaller, but when you unzip it,you fully expect every letter, number and punctuation mark to be present an in the proper places. That's a lossles codec.

QT Movie or QT Reference File. Which is lossless?

Hi,
I have a project on a timeline that I want to export as lossless. It was shot and editied at 1440 x 1080i HDV.
Should I export it as a Quicktime File (Self Contained) or a QT Reference File?
Which will give me a Lossless file?
What settings should I use when I go to File ------ Export ------ Quicktime?
Current Settings?
Thanks in advance.
FCP 7
Mac Pro
Intel Xeon
10 GB RAM

Which will give me a Lossless file?
Neither. If the video was recorded in HDV, imported/captured as HDV, and edited as HDV, then the resulting QT file will also be HDV (unless you re-render it) which is not a "lossless" codec. A "standalone" file simply contains all data within your output file container. Instead, a "reference" file contains a combination of "pointers" to data that is contained in the raw captured file and rendered data created during your editing process. "References" file are much smaller and faster to write but require both the "reference" file and the "resource" file be available for use. (I.e., you cannot create a "reference" file and sent it to someone else as an independently playable file.)
If you are using the term "lossless" in the sense of "unmodified," then it makse no difference since the same data is "copied" or "resourced" to both types of file whether it is the raw source data or the rendered data created by your edits within the project.

Lossless codec?

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