Best quality for saving in AVI format

meterman wrote on 8/13/2012, 7:10 AM
Hello,

I am new to video editing software. I went with Sony Vegas Movie Studio Platinum on a recommendation from a friend and so far it great. I am using a GoPro HD Hero2 camera to shoot from my car at a road course while hitting speeds up to 140mph.

I am shooting 1080P at 30fps and am saving to either my hard drive or uploading to YouTube.

My friend says the best format to save to is AVI and there are a lot of choices to use:

HD 1080-24p YUV
HD 1080-50i YUV
HD 1080-60i YUV
HD 720-50p YUV
HD 720-60p YUV

the HD 1080-60i YUV matched the settings I shot the video in the best but seemed to be a little choppy and not smooth during playback.

can anyone recommend what might be the be format to save in, including other formats than AVI?

thanks in advance.

Comments

musicvid10 wrote on 8/13/2012, 10:21 AM
There are some YUV interframe codecs that save in AVI. They are huge, slow, and are not optimized for playback. Usually used for intermediates, not delivery.

What will you be using your video for? In many cases, an AVC format similar to your source is preferable.
meterman wrote on 8/13/2012, 10:18 PM
mostly personal playback, but a lot for YouTube.
musicvid10 wrote on 8/13/2012, 11:43 PM
Your Gopro footage is AVC; saving as AVC for playback makes sense for a lot of good reasons.

Study my tutorial, starting with the "Good" method in Vegas first. Then, if you want to try a more complex method, go on to the "Better" method that uses an external encoder called Handbrake. Both these methods have been optimized for playback quality on your PC and Youtube.



Saying that AVI is "best" for everything is like saying a tour bus is best for driving, even if there is only one passenger.
;?)
Chienworks wrote on 8/14/2012, 6:04 AM
Two points:

1 - AVI is the best format to use.
2 - AVI is the worst format to use.

Both equally true statements, depending on several zillion factors.

Far, FAR more important than the file type is the bitrate used.