IMHO the best way to render animations is to render them as a series of separate images (select "Image Files" in the render settings movie tab - lossless formats preferred, don't do jpg, but bmp or tiff), and combine them in a video editor.

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Usually I'm wrong. But to be effective and efficient, I don't need to be correct or accurate.

visit www.aRtBeeWeb.nl (works) or Missing Manuals (tutorials & reviews) - both need an update though