[MPlayer-users] Video Codec Question

[Andrew J. Yeckel]

This question is not directly about mplayer/mencoder, but I am hoping that
someone here has the expertise to help me out.

I am looking for a _lossless_ video codec.  What's available?  I am
working on a visual effects project, and need to transfer video clips from
one system to another, in order to perform different effects on them.  
The instructor-recommended way of doing this is to export as a series of
still TIFF images.  This works, but is a hasel to deal with such a large
number of files.  The TIFFs end up at about 1Mb each, so it's also a lot
of data.  I can also export as a series of PNGs, which end up at about 1/2
the size, but unfortunately the programs I'm using don't export the alpha
channel when exporting PNGs.  So my question is: are there any lossless
video codecs out there, which support alpha, and which ones have the best
compression?  For the time being, I'm using the DVCAM/PRODV-NTSC codec
within a QuickTime container, but I'm wondering if there's anything
better.  (My videos are 720x480 @ 29.97fps, if it matters.)

Thanks,

Andrew

-- 
"Those who would sacrifice essential liberty for temporary safety
 deserve neither liberty nor safety."