Poor video Quality

[Bill]

I am having problems with the quality of the finished DVD after MM2
finishes saving it. I have no problem capturing from my analog source,
the editing goes well and in the Preview window the clips look very
sharp, as good as the original. The problem looks to be occurring when I
save to the computer. I am saving the file with the highest quality I
can, as a AVI file, it's very large. When I play the saved AVI file
using Windows Media Player I can see that there is a large loss of
quality. I still go ahead and do the burn to make sure that is what I
will get and that's what I get, poor video. Comparing my video quality
to the sample video’s Papa John has on his site, my video looks to be
about the quality of his High Quality 320x249 (900k) but it was saved at
the Highest Quality. What am I doing wrong?
I have not installed SP2 yet.

 

[John Kelly]

Hello there,

If there is a large loss of quality in the DV-AVI file created by movie maker
then you may have a codec problem.....here is my stock answer for these
occasions...


Hello there,

You sound as though you are suffering from a codec problem. There are two root
causes and below you will find the solution for each together with some notes
on other issues.

Option 1)

The one stop solution for that is a program called Rename Codecs and it is
available from my web site (Free). Make sure you check out the FAQ, on the
site, on what it does and how to run it (That will take about one minute of
your time!!) All the info you need is on the web site. The latest version is
1.51.

This reassuringly safe to use program requires no knowledge on your part about
what it is doing or how it is doing it or what it is doing it too!!! neither do
you need to know where any of these files are or whether it is safe to rename
them or not.....and best of all, ITS FREE !!!

Option 2)

If this does not solve your problem then try the following out...it has proved
to be a successful procedure for a variety of problems.

1) Download the full version of DirectX Ver 9.0c, Media Player 9 (10 if you
prefer), and Service Pack 2(SP2).

2) Reboot you computer and Install DirectX

3) Reboot again and install Windows Media Player

4) Reboot yet again and install Service Pack 2

5) Reboot one more time

Yes it sounds very tedious, but if you want to be certain all file locks are
removed so that the correct files can be installed this is the way you have to
go.

It is very important that you only download the full versions of these programs
and that you DO NOT attempt an install over the internet.

Other Notes
===========
Graphic Card Acceleration
-------------------------

There is advice floating around that you should disable the graphics
acceleration abilities of your graphics card if Movie Maker locks up or crashes
out. Doing this is roughly equivalent to taking out your current graphics card
and replacing it with an Etch-o-Sketch toy.

The Graphics card on the machine I edit on is a cut above the average, it has
DV In & Out as well as Video In & Out. It does all sorts of clever things and
it is extremely fast. Then the day came when I tried Movie Maker 2 for the
first time. It was a disaster. Knowing what the problem was I immediately
logged on to Microsoft and got the latest driver. There was no change with the
performance of the Graphics card with respect to Movie Maker. After a lot of
messing about I went to the cards manufacturer and downloaded there most recent
driver. I was convinced that the one from Microsoft was in some way defective.
It turned out that I was right but for the wrong reason.

The version of the driver from Microsoft was more recent than the one on my
system AND more recent than the one from the OEM.BUT, the OEM had made minor
changes to how the card worked and these were not taken into consideration by
the Microsoft update!!!

So, do not get the generic update from Microsoft until you have tried the
latest driver from the manufacturer of your card.

Registration
------------

There is in my view some very bad advice floating around that tells you to
unregister the offending codec. If you take this advise be warned that
unregistering any file and doing it wrong will more than likely stop the
program that file belongs to from working all together and may in an extreme
situation cause your entire XP system to fail. This is true whether you make a
mistake using the Registry editor or the registration program itself, one
mistake and you are potentially in deep trouble. Whatever you unregister in
this manner has to be restored and you should take note that the registration
of a codec can often involve more than one registry entry. If you are expert in
these matters you will have no problem.

I have also found that MP3, Mpeg and Jpeg files can cause problems, So...

Convert all MP3 to WAV or WMA

Convert all MPeg to AVI

Convert all Jpeg to BMP

Video Conversion
------------------------

For Video Conversion you should also check out the Knowledge Base Section of my
"Great Links > Knowledge Base" One of the website's in there called "Video
Help" has the best collection of useful information I have yet come across on
converting between the various formats together with links to the software
needed.

Image Size
----------------
There is a lot of very bad advice being given out on Aspect Ratios in relation
to still images. The short version of the advice you actually need is this.

16:9
-----
If you want a 16:9 ratio final product (video) you should crop your image to
the ratio of 16:9. In addition (talking in terms of PAL) you should use your
favourite image editor to resize the image so that is 576 pixels tall...the
width takes care of itself if you cropped it to 16:9.

4:3
---
If you want a 4:3 picture (older style TV screen) then crop it to that ratio,
then resize the image so that its height is......576 (Pal mewasurement), again
the width takes care of itself.

Weird Sizes
-----------------
Under no circumstances should you EVER create or resize an image so thats its
dimensions are something like 800 x 600....if you do you will get a slightly
blured image...and no amount of tinkering around the edges will ever put it
right. See the FAQ on Movie Maker and Ratio on my website for a more detailed
example of why that image will blur.

---
All material gained from other sources is duly acknowledged. No Value is
obtained by publishing in any format other peoples work
Just glad I don't live in Croydon, UK
\|||/
(o o)
----------ooO-(_)-Ooo-------------
All material gained from other sources is duly acknowledged. No Value is
obtained by publishing in any format other peoples work

 

[Bill]

Thanks John, that looks like a lot of good info. I have already printed
it out. What is the web site for the Rename Codec

 

[John Kelly]

Hello there,

My site has Rename Codecs

--
Best Wishes.....John Kelly
www.the-kellys.org
www.the-kellys.co.uk
Just glad I don't live in Croydon, UK
\|||/
(o o)
----------ooO-(_)-Ooo-------------
All material gained from other sources is duly acknowledged. No Value is
obtained by publishing in any format other peoples work

 

[Bill]

John, I must be having a senior moment. When I click on your URL I get
to a Kellys site but the only place I click there is link to a software
site. What am I doing wrong???
Bill

 

[John Kelly]

Hello again,

I should also point out that if you have SP" installed on your system you can
go to the "Advanced" tab in options and turn off some or all of the Codecs that
way...but from experience, it does not solve everyone's problem and in at least
two cases did not even display all of the known rogue Codecs that were known to
be on the systems.......

--
Best Wishes.....John Kelly
www.the-kellys.org
www.the-kellys.co.uk
Just glad I don't live in Croydon, UK
\|||/
(o o)
----------ooO-(_)-Ooo-------------
All material gained from other sources is duly acknowledged. No Value is
obtained by publishing in any format other peoples work

 

[John Kelly]

John, I must be having a senior moment. When I click on your URL I get
to a Kellys site but the only place I click there is link to a software
site. What am I doing wrong???
Bill

Erm....hold on
--
Best Wishes.....John Kelly
www.the-kellys.org
www.the-kellys.co.uk
Just glad I don't live in Croydon, UK
\|||/
(o o)
----------ooO-(_)-Ooo-------------
All material gained from other sources is duly acknowledged. No Value is
obtained by publishing in any format other peoples work

 

[John Kelly]

Hello again,

I can see that someone who's IP address starts with 68.96.------ has been on
the site just a few minutes back, but the returned system code is 14, and I
have never seen a code less than 3 digits !!! Does your IP. address start as
outlined above???

--
Best Wishes.....John Kelly
www.the-kellys.org
www.the-kellys.co.uk
Just glad I don't live in Croydon, UK
\|||/
(o o)
----------ooO-(_)-Ooo-------------
All material gained from other sources is duly acknowledged. No Value is
obtained by publishing in any format other peoples work

 

[Bill]

Sorry John I don't know yet and I have to leave, but I will get back to.
Must be about bed time over there, it's almost 3 in the afternoon here.
Bill

 

[John Kelly]

Hello again,

There is clearly something wrong at my Host server in L.A. it now reports
that I am using Netscape (spit)

I am having trouble getting the web pages up...they are taking a very long
time...so perhaps there is a general problem with my host. There are 7 users on
my site at this time which is a drop in the ocean when compared to the amount
of bandwidth I have..perhaps give it a while and try again

--
Best Wishes.....John Kelly
www.the-kellys.org
www.the-kellys.co.uk
Just glad I don't live in Croydon, UK
\|||/
(o o)
----------ooO-(_)-Ooo-------------
All material gained from other sources is duly acknowledged. No Value is
obtained by publishing in any format other peoples work

 

[John Kelly]

Hello Bill,

Yes just on my way up the apple and pairs...catch you later

--
Best Wishes.....John Kelly
www.the-kellys.org
www.the-kellys.co.uk
Just glad I don't live in Croydon, UK
\|||/
(o o)
----------ooO-(_)-Ooo-------------
All material gained from other sources is duly acknowledged. No Value is
obtained by publishing in any format other peoples work

 

[Bill]

I believe my IP starts with 192. I will keep trying and thanks for the
help, hope I can resolve the quality problem as the way it is now does
not give me much enthusiasm for continuing on with anymore videos.

Bill

 

[John Kelly]

Hello Bill,

I think 192 is reserved for Cable Modems and Routers, but I am not certain of
that. If I am wrong, then there was no indication of you ever reaching my web
site. There are two reasons for that 1) You entered the wrong address and 2)
Your web browser has been hijacked and 3) My web address has been hijacked

No 3. happened to a friemd of mine....somehow instructions were speard across
the DNS servers that caused his address to point to a new location. He got it
sorted and it caused him a lot of aggrevation doing it. I have had No2 happen
to me....it was in the days before I wised up about "Popups" I had a job
getting rid of it...in the end I was not satisfied that I trully had and
reformatted..

As far as the web site goes...I can access it and quite a lot of others have
through the night....BUT, there is something wrong because a lot of them seem
to have to try twice to get on, the first attempt returns an HTTP code thats
only two digits....I have not seen that before so will do some checking.

In the meantime if you fail to get on again, would you be good enogh to let me
know and what error code you get if any.

--
Best Wishes.....John Kelly
www.the-kellys.org
www.the-kellys.co.uk
Just glad I don't live in Croydon, UK
\|||/
(o o)
----------ooO-(_)-Ooo-------------
All material gained from other sources is duly acknowledged. No Value is
obtained by publishing in any format other peoples work

 

[Bill]

John,

I am on a cable modem with a router so I guess that's were I get the 192
address. When I click on your url I do go to a web site that says Kellys
but the only link that is clickable on the site is for a software site,
Pixelan. Any clues, is it me?

Bill

 

[John Kelly]

Hello there,

Yes that my site.

You should have a menu system down the left hand side

--
Best Wishes.....John Kelly
www.the-kellys.org
www.the-kellys.co.uk
Just glad I don't live in Croydon, UK
\|||/
(o o)
----------ooO-(_)-Ooo-------------
All material gained from other sources is duly acknowledged. No Value is
obtained by publishing in any format other peoples work

 

[John Kelly]

Hello again,

I can confirm that your I.P. starts 68.96....its the same as the one last
night. I have checked the access log and find this entry which is completly
normal

68.96.###.### - - [06/Oct/2004:07:39:06 -0700] "GET /menu.htm HTTP/1.1" 200
16190 "http://www.the-kellys.org/" "Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1;
en-US; rv:1.7.2) Gecko/20040804 Netscape/7.2 (ax)"

It says you downloaded the menue into a Netscape browser. ... and that might be
your problem...the web site is written specifically for Internet
Explorer.....You may be able to solve it by turning on any options in
Netscape...I can't advise which ones...I know very little about
Netscape....other than I hear it is now owned by AOL.

Hope that helps a little. I have to go out now and wont be available for at
least an hour
--
Best Wishes.....John Kelly
www.the-kellys.org
www.the-kellys.co.uk
Just glad I don't live in Croydon, UK
\|||/
(o o)
----------ooO-(_)-Ooo-------------
All material gained from other sources is duly acknowledged. No Value is
obtained by publishing in any format other peoples work

 

[Bill]

I think I have it resolved, I use Firefox as a browser, there is no menu
down the left side. Tried Netscape which I use to use, no menu. Tried
IE which I try not to use becuase of all the security problems and there
was the menu. Now I wii start exploring your web site if I could only
remember what I was looking for <g>. Thanks for the help John.

Bill

 

[John Kelly]

Hello there,

How odd, you must miss out on a huge amount of stuff if Firefox wont
display Java Script (Thats what the menu is made with) Java is generally
considered to be one of the safer and more robust languages. A funny story,
there is a chap who does not know how to run Outlook Express but claims that
he is fully security conscious.....until I sent him an email that contained
active text...as soon as he opened the message it took him to my
website......he reads all emails in the Rich Format mode meaning any
doctored email can cause him massive trouble........mind you, there are some
like that in here One day we had an "expert" in here who tried to
convince me that the MIME transport protocol for code that requires more
than 7 bits was in fact a form of HTML display system...it takes all sorts!!

If you get stuck or can not solve your problem do please come back and
say so

Best Wishes.....John Kelly
www.the-kellys.org
www.the-kellys.co.uk

I think I have it resolved, I use Firefox as a browser, there is no menu
down the left side. Tried Netscape which I use to use, no menu. Tried IE
which I try not to use becuase of all the security problems and there was
the menu. Now I wii start exploring your web site if I could only remember
what I was looking for <g>. Thanks for the help John.

Bill

Hello again,

I can confirm that your I.P. starts 68.96....its the same as the one last
night. I have checked the access log and find this entry which is
completly
normal

68.96.###.### - - [06/Oct/2004:07:39:06 -0700] "GET /menu.htm HTTP/1.1"
200
16190 "http://www.the-kellys.org/" "Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT
5.1;
en-US; rv:1.7.2) Gecko/20040804 Netscape/7.2 (ax)"

It says you downloaded the menue into a Netscape browser. ... and that
might be
your problem...the web site is written specifically for Internet
Explorer.....You may be able to solve it by turning on any options in
Netscape...I can't advise which ones...I know very little about
Netscape....other than I hear it is now owned by AOL.

Hope that helps a little. I have to go out now and wont be available for
at
least an hour

 

[Bill]

John,
I checked my Firefox and Java and Java script were both enabled. Firefox
also has something called Javascript console and when I checked your url
with it I got these two errors. I am way in over my head here so it's
just info that showed up in the console. Maybe it means something to you:

Bill

Error: document.layers has no properties

Source file: http://www.the-kellys.org/menu.htm
line 357


Error:www is not defined

Source file: javascript:www.the-kellys.org
line 1

 

[John Kelly]

Hello Bill,

Thanks for sending me these error codes....I have a guru that I can ask about
these, he knows more than I will ever know...but here are my thoughts for now.

Error: document.layers has no properties

Source file: http://www.the-kellys.org/menu.htm
line 357

Thats strange. line 357 reads....

layer = document.layers[top_layer];

The property is of course top_layer

And it means that the layer appears as the upper most layer (On top of
everything else) and I believe its a built in constant in Java.

Error:www is not defined

Source file: javascript:www.the-kellys.org
line 1

This one has me stumped, I don't know what it is refering too. It seems to be
saying that the variable www that has a property the-kellys.org is not defined.
I should add that I did not write the code, its auto generated by the program I
use to create my website...which makes it all the more puzzling jbut I do know
that there is no value called www. Therefore and because its a trait in all
programming languages I have ever used...it means that an error occured before
that line which because of the resulting syntax error the runtime modules read
it as if the error occured prior to line 1 !!! so something is well and truly
screwed up because there is nothing before line 1

I do know that some I.E. code will not work in Netscape and I guess that this
applies to your browser as well. I have put together a basic browser in Pascal
to see what happens using a few pre built components from Fastnet (they are a
bit old now) and from Borland and the page loads OK here...but that does not
mean all that much.

It probably sounds a bit harsh...I suspect that if I could change that code so
that it would work for you I think there would be a good chance it would stop
working for every one else. As everyone else (approx 95%) uses I.E. I am not
going to try. Hope you understand.

--
Best Wishes.....John Kelly
www.the-kellys.org
www.the-kellys.co.uk
Just glad I don't live in Croydon, UK
\|||/
(o o)
----------ooO-(_)-Ooo-------------
All material gained from other sources is duly acknowledged. No Value is
obtained by publishing in any format other peoples work