AVI vs WMV?

[Phoshizzlit]

I want to start making more AMVs and majority of the anime downloads out there are in the form of MKV. Since Sony Vegas doesn't support MKV I need to decide to either convert the files into AVI or WMV. I was wondering the pros and cons of which file and which one do most people use?

[post-it]

off subject: the files MKv and MP4 are "finishing" containers. They are
a big improvement over ASF, WMV and AVI's.

The Pro's are that AVI is preferred over WMV any-day! Avi's you can
edit. WMV's are "final encodes" and are not used in editing.

When you get to the part where you are ready to upload your AMV,
kindly check-out Zarx264gui section; it will help make your files easier
to upload and possibly even help shrink its size a little.

[Phoshizzlit]

Thank you very much~ =] I will definitely check out Zarx264gui's section afterwards.

[Phantasmagoriat]

The Technical Guide explains how there are various containers for videos, and there are two types of video formats that can go within those containers: 1.Those encoded with Editing-Friendly Codecs; and 2.Those encoded with Distribution Codecs. You will want to convert using an Editing-Friendly (Lossless) Codec. I recommend UtVideo within the .avi container. The files will be much larger, but the big advantages are faster seek-time and frame-accuracy within your editor (and ofc minimal quality loss)

To make the conversion, follow the guide above, but it's a hefty read, so I made a quick and dirty summary here:
http://www.animemusicvideos.org/forum/v ... 9#p1373940

After you are done editing your AMV, then you can compress using a Distribution Codec. (like x264 within .mp4/.mkv)

[Mister Hatt]

If it's MKV, it's AVC, and Vegas can load AVC perfectly well if you just remux, at least as far as I'm aware, and it'd be faster and less space-heavy than lossless. No idea why you guys have such a hardon for lagarith/utvideo/huffy/rawyuv/whateverelse. I guess UTVideo in AVI is your next best choice though.

[mirkosp]

Seeking P and B frames in NLE is a major PITA and sometimes cutting to them can fuck up pretty bad.
Having an intra only stream is just much safer and faster for editing.
Sure an intra-only lossy avc with proper settings will be awesome for editing, but it's easier to just tell them to go the utvideo route. AVC isn't quite thought out for editing as much as utvideo is anyway.

[Mister Hatt]

UTVideo isn't really thought out for editing as well either, compared to say, ProRes. Argument goes all three ways really. It comes down to preference, faggotry, time, and I guess the application you're using impacts as well.