H.264 or animation codec?

[reelmike]

Ok, a question for all of you pros. Excuse my lack of knowledge in this area. When should I compress with the animation codec and when should I compress with the
H.264 codec.

I have a 5 minute piece that will be played on DVD & eventually the web. I exported it lossless (animation codec) and it is like 5 gigs. Then, I wanted to see what the H.264 codec would look like, so I compressed it as H.264. My file is now like 200 mb AND it looks fantastic!

Is H.264 acceptable for broadcast quality? Is it just for the web? Should I always submit a lossless uncompressed file if working with a station?


Any ideas, thoughts and suggestion would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks

Michael

 

[Policar]

Animation is old, inefficient, unable to be played back in real time, but lossless.

h264 is state of the art, incredibly efficient, can be played back in real time on most machines, but is lossy. It's great for web distribution but since it's lossy, it's not good for broadcast or as an intermediate. It's great as the final product, but it means another lost generation if it's not.

Call the station up and see what format they want. That's the only way to know. It probably won't be animation or h264, but you can convert from animation and go from there.