Converting a file to 8bit color, what are my choices?

[Chainmax]

I'm trying to convert some clips to a format that only deals with 256 colors and was wondering what would be the way to do so with as little image quality loss as possible. These clips in questions are animations, but I'd like some advice on how to do this with live action footage or CG.

[Chainmax]

Anyone?

[Guest]

Google for "color reduction".

You didn't tell us the format, so we can't advise you about specific applications.

[smok3]

if you are talking about animated gifs you can use some sort of dithering and blow-up the size or just don't dither and have a decent size..., both choices are pretty bad, so actually i think you should reconsider if it is really what you want :)

[check]

When reducing the size for later recompression to a 256 colour codec, be aware that dithering produces a more complex, and therefore harder to compress file. From a compression standpoint, the best thing to do is to disable all dithering when reducing the colours.

[Chainmax]

Everyone: I am asking about Avisynth filters, sorry for not specifying it in the OP.

neuron2: the format would be lossless RGB Lagarith for later convertion to a series of PNGs followed by compression to DXA.