Creating AVI movies

This section describes how Cortona Movie Maker uses video codecs (compression/decompression) if you choose to save your movie as an AVI file. The AVI file format retains the highest quality and is editable by various video editing programs. The AVI file format is also a vendor neutral format that can be converted into vendor specific streaming media file formats. These features make AVI files the ideal format for your original high quality recordings.

Cortona Movie Maker gives you control over several codec settings. Files can be greatly reduced. However, do keep in mind the trade-off between file size and quality. The more you compress, the more you reduce quality. Generally AVI files are larger MPEG files. When making an AVI file, Cortona Movie Maker uses the compressor (codec) you may choose at the Format tab in the Options dialog (see Edit menu > Options).

Codecs in Windows are used to play compressed files by decompressing them in memory. Adding a specific codec lets Cortona Movie Maker create AVI files compressed in that file format. If the codec you want to use is not listed in the Options dialog at the Format tab, it was not installed by Windows, or Cortona Movie Maker cannot use it. Choose the compressor that is most suitable for your intended use. Depending on the codec being used you can adjust the percentage of quality or data rate with the slider. The higher the percentage you choose, the larger the resultant file.

The table lists the video codecs included with Windows and supported by Cortona Movie Maker: