.WMV seems sharper than .AVI

[brad]

Hi all,

I'm running Windows XP and MovieMaker 5.1. I just created a
slideshow of still .JPGs using MovieMaker (yeah, I know I could have
used PhotoStory but I wanted to use MM). Anyway, I had MovieMaker
save my slideshow-video two ways 1) as a DV-AVI and 2) as a 720x480
WMV file (2.1Mbps).

The .AVI file was much larger of course. But I noticed that when I
played back the videos in WindowsMediaPlayer11 that the .WMV actually
looked a bit sharper. So then I burned the videos with Nero into two
separate DVD's and played them on my TV (it's not an HD TV) and again
the DVD that was created from the .WMV file was noticeably sharper
than the DVD created from the .AVI file. It wasn't a huge difference,
but those still photos were maybe 20% sharper in the DVD that was
created from the .WMV as opposed to the one created from the .AVI.

I would have thought that instructing MovieMaker to save my video as
a .AVI would have produced the best quality, both in terms of how
WindowsMediaPlayer showed it and in terms of how the physical DVD
looked on my TV. But it didn't. Does this make sense?? From now on
I guess I should have MovieMaker save my videos as .WMV all the time
instead of AVI?

Thanks!
Brad

 

[Graham Hughes]

Depends on your source material.