If you are going to output to DV tape (and I'll assume you have the means to do so) you probably ought to be using a DV codec and be working at full screen (576 x 768 for PAL, and there's extra complication of non square pixels...). This leads to fairly big files (5mins = 1GB approx) and you'll probably only get playback on a computer at full res with a high end system . BUT I've output poser animations to DV tape and they look great. If you are going to do further effects work on the footage think about no compression or a lossless compression scheme and only compress the final product. A really good place for all things video compression related is http://www.icanstream.tv/CodecCentral/index.html Which tells you most of what you could need to know about compression and codecs. They're the makers of Media 100 and Media Cleaner Pro. There should be a PDF file on how to make great quicktime movies thats well worth a read regardless of what system you go with.