Adobe Premier; compress raw video first?

[aaroninwv]

Hi, I want to make some videos using World of Warcraft in-game footage. I used Fraps to record the raw video. I plan on using Adobe Premier to edit, add music, etc. Somewhere in this process I need to compress the huge raw video files down with divx/xvid. My question is, should I wait until after editing in Premier to compress the raw video? Will pre-compressed video cause any problems in Premier, does the video have to be compressed again after Premier? I really don't know much about Premier (I don't have it yet). But the raw video is filling up my HD, and I need to know if I should go ahead and compress it, or wait.

Thanks!

[Mug Funky]

unless you're using an I-frame only codec (DV, MJPEG, Huffyuv, etc), then definitely don't compress first, as nonlinear editing demands fast seek-times, and the long distances between keyframes that xvid/divx require will make editing the biggest pain you've ever had on a computer (unless you stay on it so long you get deep vein thrombosis). i'd simply edit it uncompressed, and export it as xvid/divx/whatever when you're done.

also, Premiere is the most annoying NLE i've ever used, so maybe before you waste a lot of money getting it, you should look into another program (i hear good things about Vegas Video, but alas, i haven't the money to get it). every time i edit something in premiere, i come away wanting to cry, or punch people, or both. i swear, you'll need years of therapy to get over premiere. it's adequate at best, but depending on your needs that may be enough.

[aaroninwv]

Encode afterwards, ok. You know, I really don't know how I'm going to encode the video. I guess Gordian Knott probably isn't the best choice. What would you recommend for converting raw video into divx/xvid? VirtualDub?

Also, I'll try out Video Vegas, thanks for the warning on Premiere.

[Mug Funky]

if you're using vegas/premiere, then there'll be Video for Windows codecs available when you export your project. i'd suggest doing the video from there. audio can be a little trickier, as VfW offers pretty crap options, and Quicktime is usually worse. maybe export it as a wav file and encode to lossy somewhere else (foobar2000 and BeSweet are good options).

probably best to do the video encode at very high quality so you can go to DVD later (it's always cool to have this option), meaning you'll want maybe xvid at constant quant 2, and resolution should be 720x576 or higher (720x480 for NTSC land). this way you can do a quick job of exporting to MPEG-2 without having to keep massive files on your hard disk indefinitely. of course, if it's possible to keep these files (DVD burner anybody?) then do so.