Hello and thank-You replicand and cspear:

I'm looking for a very general non-technical answer. 

I'll try rephrasing ...

1. No, Poser 8 is only intended for small/medium resolution like the internet. 

2. Yes, Poser 8 Figures/Props have (within reason) the ability to equal in size, real people/objects shot in HD video, and not have their (Poser) bitmap components look pixelated. 

Today is the last day for me to return Poser 8, if I decide it is mismatched for my needs. 

I'm asking "in general use" because with my limited knowledge of Poser, Poser may have large sized content I'm not aware of. 

I'm getting the sense that Poser users are not having pixelation issues when creating large content that will be (eventually) used in broadcast Television or HD DVD.

example: large Poser characters rendered out, then composited with HD Video content (1920px by 1080px format size), then burned to HD DVD. 

cspear: Poser uses .jpg images at 72dpi to make up some of it's content. 

look in ... Poser 8 >Runtime >Textures >Animals >BearB1.jpg 

in the comment above yours, replicand refers to bitmapped textures and pixelation. 

image resolution is very meaningful to Poser. 

Thank-You, your input has been very helpful. 

M_L_R

Hi NoelCan: 

You wrote ... "And what has the last input have to do with rendering?" 

I don't know. I'm ignoring it. :) 
Earlier you wrote ... "All i need is something for mac..." 
I'm new to poser so I can't offer more information. 

I'm just going to get use to Poser and wait for their up-comming software fix. 

I have ordered Apple's new OS "Snow-Leopard".
I'm not going to install it for a month because rumor has it, Poser or Apple may need to fix compatibility problems (I'll see how other Poser/Snow-Leopard users are doing). 

My point being, in the future (one month) I feel the rendering issue will be improved.
On the 2nd post of this thread I attached condensed notes I copied from the Macintosh Poser 8 Manual that may be helpful.
I learned a lot from the reading process.
I previously moved render sliders that were greatly hindering my render.
At the time I did not understand the major affect of a small change.
It also mentions setting your number of Process Threads (if you haven't experimented with that). 
This may be off your topic so I'll stop now. Good-luck 
M_L_R

Hi TrekkieGrrrl: I appreciate your help. 

I made my description more exacting. 

What is the (all parts combined) approximate height resolution in pixels of a Figure like Poser 8's Alyson (not low res) at 100% scale, 0% Zoom and 72dpi ? 

This will give me a "measuring stick" so I can get a concept of true resolution of other objects (vase, telephone, mirror ...). 

I'm not concerned about how tall a Figure (like Poser 8's Alyson) appears in Poser.

I am concerned about actual Pixel measurements at 72dp. 

just in case ... I'm not concerned about rendering time at this point. 

I'm getting the sense that Poser users are not having pixelation issues when creating videos that will be as large as 1920px by 1080px. 

To be clear, I'm not talking about a Poser created video that is 853px by 480px and still looks good when stretched to a 1920px by 1080px monitor/tv. 

Thank-You, 

M_L_R

Unfortunately, I spent all my money on my computer (lol). Poser 8 was on sale. M_L_R

I consider the answer to be "Yes, (generally) Poser can create a video objects who's resolution can interact/compare  with the resolution of objects destined for HD broadcast tv". 

Maybe another angle for me to ask this question is: What is the height resolution in pixels of a Figure like Poser 8's Alyson (not low res) at 100% scale and 72dpi ? 
This will give me a "measuring stick". 
M_L_R

Thank-you cspear: 

I wasn't sure if I actually needed a program like Maya for large resolutions. 

Price-wise, Maya is overkill for my current needs. 

M_L_R

I know I can make Poser videos that will look good in large resolutions.
I'm wondering if is more common that most Characters and Props will not be over-scalled.
Some of the Props (cups, vase ...) look small.
Since I'm new to Poser, I'm having a hard time realizing the actual and potential sizes of objects.
Today is the last day for me to return Poser 8 if I decide it is mismatched for my needs.
My needs being, adding Poser background characters and objects to broadcast music videos involving (green-screened) real people and objects.
Thank-you, M_L_R

 Hi stepson: Thank-you for answering. What is the Resolution (in pixels) of the file you displayed on your tv ? Common HD resolutions are 1280px x 720px and 1920px x 1080px. Inside your video, was your character figure fairly large ? M_L_R

Hello raven:
ProRes4444 is an Apple/Mac based codec that supports alpha channels in animations. Poser is not premultiplying the Character's alpha during the QuickTime render. Little_Dragon is talking about Windows/MicroSoft codecs. 

Thank-you for your help. 

M_L_R 

P.S. - I tried using a transparent image as a background but that did not work.

Thank-You LostinSpaceman and darkasylum for your help. I successfully imported a video clip with a premultiplied alpha channel into Apple's Motion (via a .tiff "Make Movie...", FireFly render from Poser 8). 

Unfortunately, (among having to add extra steps) I'll have to re-apply the audio track since this method does not accommodate audio. 

I'm leaving my question open incase there is a more advantageous response but I suspect this is the best method for an Apple FinalCutStudio3 workflow (?). 

For Apple users ... I used QuickTimePro to turn Poser's .tiff image sequence into a movie then export as ProRes 4444. At this point the alpha looks messy (possibly because QuickTime uses Premultiplied-Black). When I brought the movie into Apple's Motion, I set it's alpha to Premultiplied-Color (Premultiplied-White also seemed to look good). 

Thanks again, M_L_R 

MacPro 2009, 2 x 2.93GHx 8-Core processors, 16GB of Ram (DDR3 1066 MHz), NVIDIA Quadro FX 4800 (1500MB 3D Graphics Card)