Which QT codec for best quality

Question

I have just finished a FCP 5 project that is less than 1 hour and would like to convert it to a QT mov to show from my laptop through a projector on a big screen. Do I use the H264 at the highest quality settings or do I use the DV/DVCPRO-NTSC best quality settings. Or, is there another QT codec that I can use to achieve the highest quality. This a SD video project not an HD. Thanks for any suggestions.
Dual 2GHz PowerPC G5   Mac OS X (10.4.9)   QT Pro 7.1.6

Answer 1

The resolution is hardly the main variable for file size vs. the bitrate. I find that 320X clips will upscale quite well from good quality source material at a high enough bitrate. You ignore the data rate and do 640X at 200 kbps it will look crummy regardless of the great size you chose.
Actually the advice I gave him to try a test clip at a few variations is the best to follow. Avoids under or over compressing the original.
Apple agrees with me as well:
Data Rate (bit rate): In general, the higher the data rate, the better the quality, but the bigger the file. In most cases, you’ll want to set a data rate based on the way your movie will be viewed. For example, for streaming to 384K broadband connections, you need to limit the data rate to around 350-360 kilobits per second to leave room for network traffic. If the file will be downloaded for playback, the data rate can be much higher (the higher the data rate, however, the longer a slow-connection user has longer to wait before playback begins). In addition, remember in this dialog you’re setting the video data rate. You also need to leave some room for audio.
For H.264, here are some general guidelines:
* For a frame size of 1920 x 1080 (full high definition), choose a data rate of 7,000-8,000 Kbps.
* For a frame size of 1280 x 720 (commonly-used high definition), choose a data rate of 5,000-6,000 Kbps.
* For a frame size of 640 x 480 (standard definition), choose a data rate of 1,000-2,000 Kbps.
* For a frame size of 320 x 240 (Internet-size content), choose a data rate of 300-500 Kbps.
* For a frame size of 176 x 144 (3G), choose a data rate of 50-60 Kbps for 10-15 fps content, or up to 150-200 Kbps for 24-30 fps content.
As mentioned in the 3G example, it’s important to keep in mind that the data rate of a movie is also affected by other compression options you set, such as the frame rate. So the higher your frame rate, the higher your data rate needs to be.