Best Video for Projection Screen

Mobster · Post by **Mobster** » Mon Jul 02, 2007 2:46 am

Ok, I am a newbie to these forums and video for that matter. So please be patient

I am using Media Studio Pro 8

I'm running Windows XP Home
Service pack 2
Pentium 4 2.4GHz
992MB of Ram
Screen Resolution 1024x768

I don't have any issues editing video as the similarities of editing frames in Media pro remind me of Flash (Easy to understand). What I seem to be struggling with is, importing and exporting saved video files. In short, I need to create a video for a short story to be projected through a screen projector. (These specs I don't have)

It needs to be saved as Windows Media Format (Or something that can be played in Windows Media) any other suggestions would be helpful...

When I import video what is the best format to use? AVI? MPEG?

I would like to use wide screen aspect ratio (16.9)

The problem:

I captured the video from a Mini DV and have tried both Windows Movie Maker and Media Pro.

Using the same files, I edited the movie in both WMM and Media Pro and exported a file from both. The end result was a much clearer video coming from Windows Movie Maker when played in full screen through Windows Media Player.

This leads me to believe somewhere in my output settings of Media Pro, I'm missing something that's rendering the video wrong and very pixelated when played in full screen mode.

Without picking my brain to badly here with tech questions... What in your opinion would be the best settings for both "Capture" and "Create Video File" in Media Pro to get a decent quality video for a projection screen rendering?

Thanks for any help in advance.

IronS · Post by **IronS** » Mon Jul 02, 2007 6:52 pm

Hello and welcome to you Mobster,

For best quality you should capture and create video file in DV format (DV video encoder type 1) via Firewire.
The output video wil have the same quality as the material original on tape.

Good luck,
Regards,
Erik

troppo · Post by **troppo** » Tue Jul 03, 2007 2:34 am

Hey Mobster,
Try a short avi clip and experiment with different output settings.
Make sure your screen size is set to whatever region coding you use (PAL or NTSC, or 720x576, 720x480 respectively)
When starting your project make sure you select widescreen (16:9) on the project settings, and also on the output. Be wary however, if you have standard 4:3 footage it will 'stretch' to fit the aspect.
And when outputting to .avi make sure it's DV encoding for best quality.
Outputting to a projector is neither here nor there, it's just the display, although it is probably capable of higher resolutions than a tv.
Have fun!!

sjj1805 · Post by **sjj1805** » Tue Jul 03, 2007 2:48 am

Windows Media Player will play DV (avi).
Your Camcorder Records in DV (avi)

It therefore follows that best quality is maintained by sticking to DV (avi) throughout - obviously you need to transfer the video from the camcorder to the hard drive by way of an IEEE1394 - firewire cable.

Gra · Post by **Gra** » Tue Jul 03, 2007 9:26 am

Hi Mobster
Hi and welcome to the fun world of video editing!

You might check a few basics and make sure your MSP settings are for PAL (Europe) or NSTC (USA) and that Video Capture is set correctly (normally to DV1 - which will save as AVI). Check your project settings in Video Editor are the same as well - such as DV encoder is DV1 and FPS are the same, etc.

Your final video should really be the same regardless of making the mpeg in WMM or MSP8. First is it an identical video you have output from WMM and MSP or did you do some editing to the base clip on each of the two programmes? That could account for some differences when you played the final WMM or MSP results. Have you tried viewing your project on another player, such as Realplayer or Quicktime to see if its a player setting that needs adjustment?

Are you editing on a PC or a laptop and connecting up to the projector direct or is your project output on a DVD? If I'm playing direct from PC or laptop I always save my projects as AVI.

enzo-ita · Post by **enzo-ita** » Tue Jul 03, 2007 3:15 pm

Hi,
I am new to this forum.
I noticed this thread and want to add more question.
I have a HDV 1080i camcorder.
I am not sure which setting to be used to import with media studio 8 neither if use mpeg or avi.
The aim is to import HD and create HD video.
I tryed but the result is not good.
I first made the mistake to deinterlace and came out in fethering.
Than I did it without deinterlace and it was better but nothing compared to viewing the video directly trough the HDMI plug with the camcorder connected to the the full HD tv set I own.

Is it possible to edit and render maintaining the full HD quality?

Another question concern the software. It is keen to crash very often. What can I try to avoid these crashes?
The PC I use has 2 Gb of ram, pentium 4 3,2 ghz lot od hd space, Ati radeon pro 1600 vidfo card with latest drivers installed.

Thanks a lot for your answers.

ciao form Italy

enzo

Mobster · Post by **Mobster** » Wed Jul 04, 2007 4:25 am

Well... I'm overwhelmed with the fine answers here. Thank you for taking the time to help me.

I am in fact using firewire to transfer the video. With the DV Capture and DV output, everything seems to look fine. However, changing the format to 16.9 did put the stretch on the video so I started over in 4.3. Also, AVI plays just fine in WMP as far as I can tell.

I have a few more questions:

I have been looking for documentation explaining the Smart Proxy feature and I can't seem to locate the information I'm looking for. For some reason beyond my knowledge, I can't figure out why after every edit, Media Studio creates a file before I can preview. This has become quite a pain when trying to edit the video. Is this what smart proxy does? Do I need smart proxy to edit DV?

Thanks again!

sjj1805 · Post by **sjj1805** » Wed Jul 04, 2007 4:56 am

It is in the built in help file.

Enabling Smart Proxy
Proxy files are lower resolution working copies of video files. They are reduced in resolution or compression bit rate for only one reason - to speed up editing of HDV and other large video source files. Proxy files are source-dependent rather than project-dependent. In other words, proxy files can be shared among different projects.

When you edit and preview your project in Instant Play mode, proxy files will be used as substitutes for their large video source counterparts. Whereas when you preview your project in high-quality playback mode or when you render a video file, the original video source files will be used. (See "Previewing your work" to know more on playback modes).

To enable the creation of proxy files, click in the Timeline Toolbar, or go to File: Preferences - Smart Proxy, then select the Enable video proxy option. In the Smart Proxy tab of the Preferences dialog box, you can set the condition when proxy files need to be generated and choose a proxy file format. For more details on the settings, see "Preferences".

Once video proxy is enabled, proxy files will automatically be created and used in your project whenever you insert video files into the Timeline.