exporting to avi causing quality loss

[DedCat]

When I export my timeline to an avi movie, there is an overall quality loss, about equal to 1 generation loss dubbing analog tapes. I noticed this when a client asked me to make revisions several times. each time i finished I saved only the finished avi, to save disk space. I would edit from that file, and then re-export the new file. After about 3 times the loss was apparant, especially compared to the new footage I had added.
Is this a setting problem, and if so, someone please help!

my current solution is to export timeline to tape, and then recapture as mpg2 for dvd.

 

[WizyWyg]

Simple basically, what codec/compression are you using?

You alwasy do edits to the original project and not the "end created" avi's.

Compression on compression on compression, will make your video look like doo-doo after a while.

If your original digital footage is uncompressed, edit using those footages or at least render out an AVI that is uncompressed. No quality loss there.