My question: How do I extract high quality footage from an MKV that is usable in Adobe After Effects and Premiere? Something that is high quality, but doesn't take up have my hard drive space for one average Avatar episode.
I'm running Windows 7 64-bit
More details:
Im trying to get video extracted from MKVs to use in AfterEffects. Ive been using Handbrake H.264 Codec Compression method, but apparently After Effects doesn't like that. When I loaded the compressed footage into After Effects, After Effects recognizes the footage and the size, but the duration only shows up as less then 1 second. When put into the timeline its translated into only 10frames. I requested help over at another forum, but a guy just implied that it was odd I was using Lossy compression instead of trying to retaining the lossless footage. I explained that "I'm using H.264 lossy compression methods because Im under the impression that its still high quality while saving on space." He hasn't replied or anything. Just kind of left me hanging thinking that lossless vs. lossy IS the key. So, I went the virtualdub method. I wanted to use Huffyuv, but either it wouldn't be listed in the 32-bit version of virtualdub under video>compression, or it would for the 64-bit version but the input/output panes would be grey/blank when importing footage. I even went ahead and tried saving in the 64-bit version using huffyuv despite not being able to see the footage, and sure enough, the resulting saved footage was grey/blank. SO, then I tried Lagarith Lossless. THIS is exactly why I was concerned about using lossless, because the resulting files are ginormous. Over 1 Gig for a 1min and 10 sec clip. After Effects was able to run, view, and edit this footage, but it was ridiculously slow and laggy.
Also, I promise, Ive tried to do my due diligence and read up on this topic from after dawn and videocopilot to Adobe itself, but all I find are guides that strongly encourage getting everything lined up and getting your footage prepared to be used in after effects. But nothing avctually indicates whats the best most practical format/codec to use for After Effects.
