I have an animation which I have finally put together in Ulead Video Studio 4.0. I want to render it with the best quality codec I can use. The specifics of my situation are as follows: I may need it to be broadcast ready, which I have never done. Also...are there any programs available that will allow me to burn it to a DVD format? My screen sizes are 720 x 486, which I understand to be standard broadcast size. Can anyone help this first timer out please?

Are you going for NTSC (US)? Is it for broadcast on TV? You can burn AVI files to DVD by using AVI2VCD to convert it and burn it to a standard CDRW, which will play in most stand alone DVD players. When you say Broadcast are you meaning Television? It get fairly complicated if you are. You should use broadcast safe colors, it will need to be interlaced and a few other things to be truly broadcast ready.720x486 is the DV format, 640x480 is NTSC TV resolution. kaom

you can burn it using avi to vcd but your stuck at a certain resolution its 352*244 or somin similar to that you cant do the higher resolution, most professionals out put there video card to recording equipment to record the actual broadcast copy, unless you have equipment to burn a dvd

For TV or other commercial work you do not use a CODEC. You save the file out as an uncompressed AVI full frame 728 wide by 700 high. Interlaced NTSC format 29.7 fremes per second.

pnevi, I must debate you. NTSC TV format is kept to a 4x3 aspect ratio. 728x700 is not 4x3. 640x480 is. Standard DV format is 720x486. You are correct about keeping the file uncompressed though,at 29.97 fps. 728x700 would be almost square, which TV is not. 640x480 is the resolution you render at for television.It must be a 4x3 aspect ratio, or it would be squashed when shown on a screen of monitor. kaom

Sorry North American Standard. 720 Wide 486 High NTSC format D1 Un compressed AVI.

NTSC D1 29.7 fps 720 X 486 NTSC D2 29.7 fps 752 X 480 HDTV 29.7 fps 1280 X 720 HDTV 29.7 fps 1920 X 1080

Unless you have Component video, Digital Video, SVHS gear and can make your own HQ tape, then send the uncompressed file to the production facility and have them encode it for you.

HDTV has aan aspect ratio of 5.33x3 which is equal to 16x9. HDTV is 1,125 lines per inch, standard TV is 525 lines per inch. NTSC standards=640x480 resolution=4x3 aspect ratio, which equals out to 307,200 pixels. NTSC RGB color= Red-30%,Green-59%,Blue-11%. 525 lines per inch. 30 frames per second. Interlaced=Odd numbered lines first from left to right and top to bottom=1 field, 60 fields per second. PAL standards=720x576 resolution=approxiamte 4x3 aspect ratio containing 349,920 pixels. YUV color Digital Video(DV)=720x486,4.5 minutes per GB at 3.6Mbps when cpature through firewire card. NTSC stands for National Television Systems Committee, est 1952. This information came from the Television Production Handbook.

Gee all of this great information. This thread should be saved as a FAQ somewhere so it can be refferenced in the future easily. Good additional info Kaom

kaom: Any links to info on broadcast safe colors? Any utilities that can convert to that pallet?

seedpress, I would check Adobe's website under Premiere info, I know it's in there somewhere. Or look up the NTSC on the net, just go to any search engine and you'll find a link. Good luck, I'll look around a bit. kaom