MM poor quality

[Guest]

Hello I am having some problems with MM and its quality. I am using MM v 2.1

-I have all the video files taken from my canon compact digital camera on my
computer. They are in AVI format by default.

-When I view these files in windows media player they are perfect.

-When I import the clip and view it from the 'COLLECTION' window the quality
is fine.

-As soon as I drag it onto the TIMELINE the sound and video quality appears
reduced! I didnt do anything! For example the color of the video looks washed
out and the sound quality is poorer. The sound is kind of sharp and not the
normal full sound.

-This reduction in quality from my raw AVI files is noticable in both the
preview window AND my published video (even when I use the highest quality
output)

-yes, I have gone into the tools > options compatibility settings and
checked that intervideo DVD encoder is not checked, and I have tried turning
off all other checkboxes here too.

thanks very much for any advice! this is an urgent project for me!
Thanks!

 

[John Inzer]

Hello I am having some problems with MM and its quality. I am using
MM v 2.1

-I have all the video files taken from my canon compact digital
camera on my computer. They are in AVI format by default.

-When I view these files in windows media player they are perfect.

-When I import the clip and view it from the 'COLLECTION' window the
quality is fine.

-As soon as I drag it onto the TIMELINE the sound and video quality
appears reduced! I didnt do anything! For example the color of the
video looks washed out and the sound quality is poorer. The sound is
kind of sharp and not the normal full sound.

-This reduction in quality from my raw AVI files is noticable in both
the preview window AND my published video (even when I use the
highest quality output)

-yes, I have gone into the tools > options compatibility settings and
checked that intervideo DVD encoder is not checked, and I have tried
turning off all other checkboxes here too.

thanks very much for any advice! this is an urgent project for me!
Thanks!

================================
Files added to the Timeline are displayed
in a lower resolution...this is normal and would
be especially noticable in full screen view.
This has no affect on the resolution of the finished
project. The quality of the finished project is
determined by the way it is saved. Maybe you
would have better luck using a custom profile.

Maybe the following articles will offer some ideas:

Movie Maker 2 - Saving
Movies - Custom WMV Profiles
http://tinyurl.com/s2vgu

Creating Custom Profiles
for Windows Movie Maker 2
http://tinyurl.com/cuny7

Even more info
Windows Movie Maker
Custom Export Formats
http://tinyurl.com/dnylc

--

John Inzer
MS Picture It! -
Digital Image MVP

Digital Image
Highlights and FAQs
http://tinyurl.com/aczzp

Notice
This is not tech support
I am a volunteer

Solutions that work for
me may not work for you

Proceed at your own risk

 

[Guest]

fantastic reply, thank you.
I went through all those links and learnt how to create custom profiles.
Unfortunately nothing worked and I still have the same problem - the quality
of the output (particularly the audio) is much poorer than the source files.

I created custom profiles and used these, and I tried nearly every default
profile.

I downloaded a trial adobe elements and another free editing program and
they didnt have a problem with quality.

I really want to use Movie Maker however because it seems so easy to use!

Any other thoughts?
Cheers,
Richter

 

[John Inzer]

fantastic reply, thank you.
I went through all those links and learnt how to create custom
profiles. Unfortunately nothing worked and I still have the same
problem - the quality of the output (particularly the audio) is much
poorer than the source files.

I created custom profiles and used these, and I tried nearly every
default profile.

I downloaded a trial adobe elements and another free editing program
and they didnt have a problem with quality.

I really want to use Movie Maker however because it seems so easy to
use!

Any other thoughts?
Cheers,
Richter

===================================
Using a custom profile makes no difference?

Well...maybe saving as DV-AVI would make
a difference.

To save as an .avi movie file...
(and several other options)
Type...Ctrl+P to open the Save Movie Wizard /
Choose...My Computer /
Next /
Enter a Name and a Save Location /
Next /
Show More Choices /
Other Settings /
Open the drop window and choose...DV-AVI /
Next /
Wait while the movie is saved /
Finish...

--

John Inzer
MS Picture It! -
Digital Image MVP

Digital Image
Highlights and FAQs
http://tinyurl.com/aczzp

Notice
This is not tech support
I am a volunteer

Solutions that work for
me may not work for you

Proceed at your own risk

 

[Graham Hughes]

As it's a camera and not camcorder the file is a compressed avi, and these
are not generally compatible with movie maker, which is the reason for the
poor output.
http://www.myvideoproblems.com/Tutorials/MovieMaker/File_type_compatibility.htm

I suspect it is a MJPEG file, so for best results in MM use something like
super to convert the files to wmv for editing in MM. You can also find out
what file type it is either by looking in the manual or using something like
avidcodec to look at it for you.
http://www.myvideoproblems.com/WebPages/UsefulProgrammes.htm

There will always be generational losses though as these are not files
designed for editing, if you want to do serious editing on it, then change
to wmv in super, add to timeline in MM and save out as dv-avi, re-import
this file and edit.