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More about the Wave64 and Perfect Clarity Audio formats
The Wave64 (.w64) and Perfect Clarity Audio (.pca) formats are proprietary formats developed by Sony Media Software to work around some limitations inherent in other formats. Currently, neither is compatible with many other applications and may not be playable in other media players, but both are excellent choices for Sony Media Software projects.
•Wave64 files work around the maximum file size limitation inherent in the WAV format. The Wave64 format has no maximum file size and is useful in long format productions.
•Perfect Clarity Audio is a compressed format that is completely lossless. Unlike MP3 and other highly compressed formats which are lossy, 100% of the quality of your audio is maintained by using the PCA format.
More about video formats
When you create a final movie, you will find that there are dozens of formats to choose from, each having many customization options. The destination of your final movie is the most important factor in selecting a format. Movies created for broadcast television must be of the highest quality, but for many other destinations, such as a
VCR or television
If you are creating a movie that you want to send back out to a television, a VCR or a camcorder, there is only one choice: use the same settings as the original video.
There is no way to improve upon the quality of your original video (as far as compression is concerned). If you have captured your video at 640X480, at 24 fps in an MJPEG codec, then that is how you should set up your final movie. This is the only way to maintain 100% quality. For more information, see Working in DV format on page 234.
Computer
This can be the most complicated case because you have to decide exactly which computer it is going to be played back on, how fast it is, what software is installed, and how you are going to get it there (e.g., burn to a CD). Your biggest concern with creating a video file is compatibility. When you create a movie, you must select a specific codec to compress the video. That same codec must then be used to view the movie. This is not a problem if you are viewing the movie on your own computer, since the appropriate codec is already installed. To ensure that your audience has the appropriate software, you should use a fairly universal codec. Intel Indeo, Cinepak, and QuickTime (which is not a codec, but installs with a number of different codecs) are all widely available.
Internet
When video on the Internet is discussed, people almost always mean streaming. There are two streaming media formats that come with Vegas software: RealMedia and Windows Media Format. There is nothing particularly magical about streaming video, and the three rules of creating video files for the Internet are as follows: compress, compress, and compress. The smaller the file size the better, and this inevitably results in a loss of quality. There are two main places where you can save space: frame dimensions and frame rate. Typical Internet video files should be about 160X120 and should rarely exceed 320X240. This is not very big, and video with lots of detail does not translate well to this frame size. The frame rate should also be as low as possible, with 15 fps being a good maximum. Fast action, pans, and moving backgrounds (e.g., tree leaves or ocean waves) do not compress well. Streaming media files must be placed on a special Internet server in order to stream properly.
SAVING, RENDERING, AND PRINTING PROJECTS | CHP. 17 |