[MPlayer-users] Re: Video Codec Question

[Jonathan Rogers]

Andrew J. Yeckel wrote:
> I am looking for a _lossless_ video codec.  What's available?  I am
> working on a visual effects project, and need to transfer video clips from
> one system to another, in order to perform different effects on them.  
> The instructor-recommended way of doing this is to export as a series of
> still TIFF images.  This works, but is a hasel to deal with such a large
> number of files.  The TIFFs end up at about 1Mb each, so it's also a lot
> of data.  I can also export as a series of PNGs, which end up at about 1/2
> the size, but unfortunately the programs I'm using don't export the alpha
> channel when exporting PNGs.  So my question is: are there any lossless
> video codecs out there, which support alpha, and which ones have the best
> compression?  For the time being, I'm using the DVCAM/PRODV-NTSC codec
> within a QuickTime container, but I'm wondering if there's anything
> better.  (My videos are 720x480 @ 29.97fps, if it matters.)

I don't have any experience with MNG, so just take this as a 
brainstorm type of suggestion. How about MNG? It can contain PNG, 
which has alpha channel. The downside is probably a lack of 
application support, though several applications are mentioned, 
including GIMP.

<URL:http://www.libpng.org/pub/mng/>

Jonathan Rogers