Editing question... output format
 

Hello,
so finally got to the end of this beautiful process, and now, I need to export the files.
I read that a good option is mpeg 2, so I'll keep that as one, but is it the best option?
I need to put the videos on dvds that will be played without my assistance so everything needs to run smoothly and they need to be light enough not to have problems, while still keeping a full hd level of quality.
Ideas, thoughts?

P.S. More to Edius users. To be able to export in dv avi, which is what I used to export in, do I need an edius plugin or a codec on my pc? Because now dv appears underneath avi, but it has no possibilities in it.
Thanks for the help

If the files are going to put on DVDs to play in a real DVD player, then Mpeg2 is a necessity. DVD players don't understand anything else. If these files are for computer playback, then you have many more (and better) options.

And don't export in DV, that's a terrible option.

They are for playback on another computer.
What are some better options?

My top choice would be Mpeg4. It's excellent if you use a good encoder. For PC use (harder for Mac) my next choice would be Windows Media. MotionJpeg would be another codec I'd use since nearly ANY machine with quicktime would play it. If this is going out for both Macs and PCs to play, then doing either mpeg4 or Flash are your best bets as they are universal.

-P

Thank you Perrone!
it's for pc, so I'll probably use windows media or mpeg4 (which I'm not positive Edius has in its options). I've used windows media to make small ready to play files, and so far it has given me no problem, but I didn't know it works for maximum quality as well. Thank you again

I have to make WMV files for certain clients and have found that I can actually get acceptable quality if I crank the data rate way up.

What is "way up"? And what tool are you using?

h.264 would be another good option..

how long is the clip(s) you need to export? With all the codecs you'll have some control over how high you set the quality..
For full HD if the filesize isnt a problem i like to encode around 5000kbps (not sure about other people..)

I think it ends up something like 40MB per minute of video (1920x1080 hd)

Good luck!

For playback on a PC, WMV is your safest bet. It doesn't offer quite the quality/bitrate you can get with H264 compression (especially if you have a good H264 encoder, a potent computer, and know how to tweak encoding settings), but WMV is supported on virtually every PC out there, and is certainly a better choice than MPEG-2, for playback on a PC. MPEG-2 cannot offer the quality/bitrate that WMV can, and there are still a few PCs here and there that don't have software for MPEG-2 playback installed.

When you tried to encode as DV, was your project setting something other than SD? If you are editing on an HD timeline, you won't have the option in Edius. You can take HD source footage and drop it on an SD timeline, and encode as DV, but the downscaling is not very good. You are much better off downscaling with Virtual Dub or AVISynth, both of which are freeware, but very excellent and powerful tools (and something I wouldn't want to be without).

Of course, this is debatable. Few people are using the real WMV encoders and it makes a difference. Just like it does for H264.

if your on mac, exporting using the apple tv compressor preset is best. prefect for vimeo, and distribution on different computers because of the manageable file size well still looking pretty good.

I always just use H246 and tell them they need the latest version of Quicktime to view it. Haven't had a problem yet.

Some confusion here. H.264 is MPEG-4 H.264/MPEG-4 AVC - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
MPEG4 is the best solution for high quality with modest file size for playback on a computer. For the same bit-rate it has 2-4 times better resolution/quality than MPEG2. It will play in QuickTime Player, WMP, VLC, Flash Player etc,

If you are on a Mac the Elgato Turbo.264 HD USB gizmo does the conversion in hardware & about real time so is far & away the fastest way of creating H.264. The quality is very decent too.

i thought so too till i gave my friends their wedding video and found out much later they werent able to watch it (and he works in IT!).. i think it only works for people who have itunes/ipod software installed.

No matter how many times you say it... people won't get it. They'll insist one is better than the other.