How to retain quality

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I am using Windows media encoder to do a screen capture for a tutorial.

I import the file into windows movie maker, add sounde etc.

When I save the movie, the quality is greatly reduced. Is there a way I can
prevent this. How can I retain the original quality?

Thanks
 
The original screen capture is 1024x768. When saving to the hard drive for
playback I only get the option for 720 x 480. I encoded at a 1.99Mbps.

Maybe I need to do the screen capture at 720 x 480 ??????
 
it'll depend on how you plan to play and distribute the tutorial... if on a
DVD then it'll need to adhere to the MPEG-2 standard of 720x480. If you do
computer viewing, you can use a custom profile for a higher resolution.

See the Saving Movies > Custom WMV Profiles page of my website.
 
Hello,
For the purposes of 1:1 mapping and therefore no likelyhood of fuzziness
due to reszing then yes.....if the demo/tutorial is always going to be on a
computer screen you are going to have to decide which size is going to be
the best and create the original video at that resolution.

Its not clear from what you have said so far what your method of
presenting this is going to be.....Is it a DVD for playback on TV? or, is it
an AVI file (or WMV) for playback on a computer screen. AVI for playback on
a computer will preserve more quality but only a little more than DVD for
playback on a computer

In the days when 800 x 500 was the recognised normal resolution I had to
prepare a whole bunch of tutorials at 640 x 480...DVD's were not an option
then. it was limited to 640 x 480 because most of the screen projectors
worked at that resolution.

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

No, I am not an Instant Expert, and thats no Lie.
 
Thanks,

I'll give these suggestions a try. The files are just going to run locally
on the intranet, and will be less than 2 minutes long. So the size is not a
big issue They are just quick tips n tricks type things. And since it seems
people don't like to read instructions or handouts, a little video will be
the best way.
 
Oh yes, been there, got the T-Shirt etc...well, if its for Intranet and if
its being served from a central point your only real consideration is
bandwidth. If its not being served from a central point but delivered to and
remains on each appropriate terminal then Bandwidth is not much of an issue
either.

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

Will all Instant Experts please go to room 101 Technology Information Today
 
Well it is going to be from a central point, but I anticipate minimal use,
and few simultaneous connections. We are a not too large of an organization
and have gigabit connections. But If I see a noticible bottleneck, I'll just
put the vids on CD's and let people use those instead.
 
When you do screen capture using WME the video is saved using an optimized
screen codec which results in very sharp image quality and a very small file
size.

The size and quality benefit of this codec is lost when you process the
movie through Windows Movie Maker, which cannot save its output using the
screen codec.

For maintaining the quality I would suggest you keep the video in its
original format. Record your voice during screen capture if possible.
Otherwise if you must do some cutting etc, use the Windows Media File Editor
tool that comes with WME to prepare your video content. This keeps the video
in its original format and quality. Then record your vocie in a seperate
session of WME or Movie maker (while playing this video for que in media
player). Now you have audio for your final output. Use WME again to join the
video and audio in another session.

Hope this is helpul.
 
I used a custom profile to match the settings of the video from the screen
capture 1024 x 768, and it still comes out looking just about the same. I've
tried chaning the other settings as well. I must be doing something wrong.
 
Yes! I will try that. That seems to be what is happening. Every time I
import into moviemaker from a screen capture, I lose the quality.

Thanks.
 
Hello,

Yeah that would work. Its a pity I don't have them at hand, I used to
have several tutorials on my website regarding the workings of a couple of
programs I wrote. To create the tutorial I captured the "window" of the
program using Windows Media Encoder. Afterwards I edited the files in movie
maker. The quality of the output video was exactly the same as watching the
program itself.

I wanted to make them a little smaller and discovered that the text (in
the program) became very badly distorted to the point of only just being
able to read it...we are talking anout a reduction in size of around 10%.
Movie Maker had made a terrible mess of it. I decided to try another program
I have called MovieDV and that made a much better file which was still not
perfect but many times better than what Movie Maker had done to it.

If I remember right I altered the codec in Media Encoder and the result
was a more useable file....the computer that has that data is presently in
pieces (I recently built a new one and pinched the hard drives from the
older one) I dont have the program on this machine...it did not take much
effort to make the changes and from the sound of it you will be able to do
it easily (charge for that is 2 Grovel Points)

A Gigabit connection !!! I doubt if you will have any problems with data
rate then.

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

What do you call a number of Instant Experts in the same place? I don't
know, but if they are all purched on a telephone wire don't walk under it.
 
The poor text quality is exactly what I ran into. It was barely readable,
which doesn't do much good, if you are talking about captions etc.
 
Oh, thats a problem then. Other than messing with the codecs to be used in
the capture I cant offer any more advice. There is a truly excelent website
called videohelp.com They have a section devoted to conversion which I often
suggest to others. There are many more other sections which I have never
really explored, but if they are as good as the convert section you will
find loads of help. The site has discussion documents on loads of issues. I
would go and check that site fuly before deciding on a final course of
action. They mave already dealt with your issue and have a solution.

Best6 Wishes.....John Kelly
www.the-kellys.org

Honest, I am not an Instant Expert...and thats no Lie
 
PapaJohn
I am using Moviemaker to create a presentation using title slides, still
JPEG images and short movie clips as well as msuic overlay. When I export the
final prject to save on the computer or to a cd the quality is very poor. The
save is only 8-10minutes and there does not appear to be a way of increasing
the quality of the saved presentation.
 
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