Huffyuv problems

[hmpf]

Having given up on achieving any really precise result in Windows Movie Maker (it keeps subtly de-synching my finished vid when I render it), I am now trying to get started working with Premiere Pro 6.0. Premiere doesn't like my source avi files, so I asked around a bit and people told me to use VirtualDub to convert my source to an avi that would be usable by Premiere, and to use Huffyuv to encode/compress/? (arrgh, I need to learn vidding terminology!) Now, I've played around a bit with the program and the codec, and so far I have two problems:

1.) The file size is *huge*. For a clip of around 1500 frames it can be between 500 and 700 MB. This could turn into a big problem for me soon, as my hard drive really isn't that big. I have around 18 GB free space at the moment, could possibly expand that to around, hm, 30 GB.

2.) The clips play very jerkily, as if a lot of frames are being dropped.

Anyone know what to do?

Comments

Re: Jerky playback

[chasarumba.livejournal.com]

If you find a codec alternative, you won't need to bother with this...but I would try importing a jerky clip into Premiere and rendering it out in decent quality Windows Media -- if the clip plays smoothly once rendered, you'll know it was just a playback issue and not any actual problem with the clip itself. Huffy is primarily an editing codec and not designed for playback...my laptop had similar specs to your computer and it definitely dropped frames if I tried to just play a clip.

Re your comment below, the reason to edit in very high quality is so that you can eventually produce a variety of different renders (in my case, both DVD and online distribution versions)...edit at full quality, compress at the end. This became important to me over time -- I definitely didn't worry about it much with my first couple of vids or I would have been too frustrated to continue.

Re: Jerky playback

[hmpf.livejournal.com]

- Importing it into Premiere etc.: okay, will try. But if I want to work with the clips it won't do to have jerky clips, because I won't be able to judge the timing before rendering the vid... or do you suggest rendering each clip in wmv *before* I start editing the vid?
Anyway - will play around with the clips in Premiere a bit...

- High quality clips and editing: I sort of get that; the thing is just that no matter what I do, I don't have more than 35 GB of free space, so I will *have* to compromise on quality (or buy a new hard drive, which, at the moment, is a *bit* more of a commitment to vidding than I am ready to make).