I guess you don’t have Dynamic Link? If not then you’ll have to render the comp. It’s only going to lose quality if you choose a format that compresses the movie. Try something like a tiff or tga sequence or a Quicktime movie using the Animation codec at 100% quality (Lossless files can be very large with no obvious difference).
JD
John Dickinson
Motionworks
http://www.motionworks.com.au