Fuzzy screen captures

[pky]

I am trying include screen shots from a software application in my video.
I have tried saving the screen shot as an image and even a video. No matter what I do, it plays back fuzzy and blurred in Videostudio. What am I doing wrong.

[Ron P.]

Welcome to the forums,

You apparently are doing something wrong. However base on the information provided, I don't have a clue...

You're trying to include screenshots..How did you capture the screenshots? Did you use the Print-Screen (Prt scr key on your keyboard) then paste it into an image editor? Are you using a screen capture program, if so what program? What size are the screen shots (ppi), and format (JPEG, GIF, PNG, TIFF, Bitmap)?

So far I can just guess that they are fuzzy (pixelated) and blurred due to the images being too small for your project size.

[pky]

I've tried Printscreen and SnagIt. BMP. JPG, PGN and even AVI. My project size is 720 X 480. Any help you can provide would be most appreciated. On my PC, the lowest res I can get is 800 X600 if indeed I need to change my monitor resolution. Or should I be resizing my image to 720 X 480.

Thanks

[railroadguy]

Take a look at http://ribbonrail.com/Videos/pop_screen.jpg (You may have to scroll as my scree is set to 1680 x 1050)

This is a screen shot of VS10+ I did here using Irfanview http://www.irfanview.com/

It's free, does a great job of screen capture as well as quick and dirty image correction. I use this a lot in place of firing up Photoshop for quick resizing.

Bringing this into VS10, it looks fine.

[Ron P.]

To use an image in VS, it should at least be the size of your project video, which in your case is 720 x 480. Always capture at the best resolution possible AND if possible in a lossless format such as BITMAP.

Does the application you are capturing images from, allow higher monitor resolutions? When I do tutorials, especially Ulead applications, I use the minimum Ulead apps require, which is 1024 x 768. I capture the screen shots at that resolution. Then with the screen capture program I use, (Debugmode's Wink), I may resize the whole thing down 20% from that, so that it will fit in most screens, and still maintain good quality. My projects are intended for internet, where as it seems yours are headed for DVD. If your DVD is intended for television, then the max resolution for SD-DVD is 720 x 480.

Try to capture at as close to the resolution of your intended product, in a format that is not going to suffer quality hits when it is encoded.

[sjj1805]

I have posted hundreds of screen shots throughout the forum.
What I do is very simple. Hit the [PrtSc] key which is found just to the right of the function keys on your qwerty keyboard.

Then open your favourite image editor such as photoimpact, photoshop or just good old Microsoft paint.

Now you can use the paste function and poof - there is your screen shot.
Now use the various crop and resize tools to tidy it all up.
Save in whatever format is required for the job in hand.

Generally speaking GIF for drawn images, JPG for Photographs (with exceptions)