Hello there,
Talking of Movie Maker 2 here...not 1.
You usually capture in the DV-AVI format. That's the best you can get from a
Mini DV camera. TThe DV-AVI format is slightly compressed but all the same very
easy to edit in MM2.
To the DVD: The DV-AVI format is the most common format for importing to DVD
authoring programs, and its the best as well. The DVD authoring program, of
which there are many, converts the AVI file into a VOB file (Mpeg) and
dependent on that program you will also have the ability to add chapters and
various other features.
There are programs that can instead import WMV files instead of AVI. The price
you pay for the saving in space on the hard drive is quality. This because you
are taking a file that has been compressed (the wmv file) and the consequential
loss of quality, expand that file (frame) to its raw state and then compress
that file again adding more loss of quality. The overall loss of quality may
well be small...in a few test I did I noticed that red colour's suffered the
worst, whether its acceptable or not is going to be subjective.
In your case: I would imagine that the distortion is due to enlarging the file
a bit too much. Note: some very sophisticated programs can enlarge and NOT
cause those problems....the cost would of course be prohibitive.
There is a trick you can employ that would cause the resulting video to remain
at its original size....not using Movie Maker though. There is a program called
MovieXone...you can get the unrestricted version of it on computer magazines
(PC Utilities in the UK) it is one of the favorites that always seems to be
included. The Trick : Because MovieXone will let you use two video's at the
same time.....you can make the source for one of them a still image....the
image could just be a black bitmap or you could make it a picture frame.....you
overlay that with YOUR video making certain that you do not stretch it....you
output the result which would have the dimensions needed by a DVD program but
the result will be your smaller sized video displayed against the background of
your choice. There is a big bonus by doing it that way......the area around
your video that is not in motion will not be using the bandwidth up....so the
motion part of the video will not be compressed as much....giving a slightly
better quality....I discovered that when I tested out what (ahem) someone else
once said in here, and found that an MPeg file of a plain still image uses a
lot less space than a moving picture...its obvious really
Although this was not about MM 1, I hope it helped a little
--
Best Wishes.....John Kelly
www.the-kellys.org
www.the-kellys.co.uk
Check out free video hosting at
www.the-kellys.org
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