If file size is no consideration, you can render uncompressed .avi or .mov files. If you're taking it into an intermediate application to add audio, titles or do any kind of editing or special effects, you can render as a sequence of still images. The benefit to that is that if something goes wrong and your machine crashes during the render it's a lot easier to pick up rendering at the last successfully rendered frame. I usually use the "Animation" compressor - which is the highest quality compressor. I sometimes use the DV codec when file size is an issue. Also, DVDs use uncompressed audio at a 48000 sample rate. Either 24 or 16 bit.

Before they made me they broke the mold!
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