Poor video quality from timeline

[Guest]

I use windows movie maker 2.1 on a computer running XP MCE 2005. i mainly
use imported video clips in my movies. when i play a clip from the
"collections" window, where it lists all the clips in the collection, the
playback in the preview window is fine. but when i actually add the clip to
the timeline, the preview video is much more pixelated, and writing which was
easily readible when the clip was played from collections is now completely
illegible. i have also noticed this pixelation with pictures i include in my
movies. help?

 

[Graham Hughes]

the preview window only displays a preview of the video when on the
timeline, it's best suited to dv-avi or wmv video files, what are your file
types?

--
Graham Hughes
MVP Digital Media
www.myvideoproblems.co.uk
www.dvds2treasure.com
www.simplydv.com

 

[Guest]

i use wmv files, but i also have the option to use avi files, if they perform
better.

 

[Guest]

Once you add the clip to the timeline, it is part of a new project. Some
editor software apps have the capability of rendering in the background for
preview
but using it is dependent on how much resources you have as far as memory,
disk space and pagefile settings in addition to CPU speeds. In effect the
'new project', as it were has to rerender before displaying to the preview
window or external full screen 2nd monitor. It can give the appearance you
describe, sort of like watching
a video or stereo audio file over a slow bandwidth internet connection. In
the case of the slow connection the pause is for buffering catchup, whereas
in the movie case from the hard drive, it is a pause due to rendering.
For what itis worth, hope this is a help !

 

[Guest]

thanks so much for the advice. it turns out you were right, i finished the
project i was working on and of course, the finished movie file looked
wonderful. i hope this clears things up for other newbies like me!

josh