Distort clip quality diminished?

stannmaple · Post by **stannmaple** » Wed Sep 05, 2007 5:03 am

Hi. I'm using video studio 10+
I wanted to move a video down on the screen a bit. I did not resize it at all, but I noticed when I rendered it, the quality had decreased. Not significantly, but definitely noticeably. So, I thought maybe it was just the fact that I rendered it, so I took the same clip WITHOUT distorting it (moving it down) and rendered it with the same compression. This time it looked great. Is there a quality setting on this or am I doing something wrong? Thanks
Dann

heinz-oz · Post by **heinz-oz** » Wed Sep 05, 2007 5:50 am

Pardon my ignorance but how does one move video down on the screen, with or without distortion? The video is always going to fill the screen unless you use a moving path which means a resize and subsequent render. Every render is going to diminish the quality.

Post by **Ken Berry** » Wed Sep 05, 2007 8:40 am

If you put your video in an overlay track, that is the only way of which I am aware by which you can vary the size or position on screen of a video...

But what are the properties of the original video which caused it to look strangely placed on the screen in the first place?

stannmaple · Post by **stannmaple** » Wed Sep 05, 2007 2:46 pm

Interesting....
Perhaps I don't know what I'm doing. I got the result I wanted, but the quality was diminished. It was not on the overlay track, it was on the main track. The video is letterboxed, but fills the top portion of the screen. I wanted it to be standard letterboxed where the black bars were even on the top and bottom, so I moved the video down (selected clip on time line, went to attributes, selected "distort clip" and pulled it down in the window) Like I said, it's exactly the result I was looking for as far as position, but quality was affected. So, it sounds like there is a better way to do this? I'm ready to hear it. And Thank you for the responses.
Dann

Trevor Andrew · Post by **Trevor Andrew** » Wed Sep 05, 2007 2:57 pm

Ken Berry wrote:If you put your video in an overlay track, that is the only way of which I am aware by which you can vary the size or position on screen of a video...

But what are the properties of the original video which caused it to look strangely placed on the screen in the first place?

Hi Ken

With a video file in the main top timeline,
Select ¡¥Attribute Tab¡¦

Select ¡¥Distort¡¦

Trevor Andrew · Post by **Trevor Andrew** » Wed Sep 05, 2007 3:04 pm

Hi

It seems as though you are probably using 16:9 widescreen.
But without the video properties we have little to go on.

Can you answer Ken¡¦s earlier question

But what are the properties of the original video which caused it to look strangely placed on the screen in the first place?

Right click the video file in the timeline or library and select properties. What are they?

Now select File---Project Properties ---what are those

Read my guide a look at widescreen 16:9 from the link below

stannmaple · Post by **stannmaple** » Wed Sep 05, 2007 3:21 pm

Oh yes... I see the question now. Sorry I overlooked that.
It is a 4:3 video, the project is a 4:3 project. The video area itself is "widescreen" but the video FILE is 4:3 meaning it is letterboxed within 4:3 (black lines on top and bottom). I hope that makes sense. And It is from a VHD video disk from Japan. It originally had subtitles which is why the "widescreen" was at the TOP of the 4:3 frame (rather than in the middle), to make room for subtitles in the taller black space in the bottom. I've stripped the subtitles and want to center it. I did this by the method I explained above.
Thank you for the 16:9 guide. I've actually read that earlier and it was a big help, but I seemed to have the same problem with quality (maybe because I was actually "blowing up" the frame to 16:9?) so I was trying to have a 4:3 aspect ratio just with black bars across the top and bottom. Yes, ideally, I'd like to convert it to 16:9, but I don't want to lose quality. Thanks again for all the help. I hope I gave enough info and I look forward to the reply.

Post by **Ken Berry** » Wed Sep 05, 2007 11:38 pm

Trevor -- thanks for the explanation. I have never had to use that command for the main track so I guess I was just unaware of it. Thought it only applied to overlay tracks, where I *have* used it...!

stannmaple · Post by **stannmaple** » Thu Sep 06, 2007 12:12 am

Any thoughts on the situation? Did I explain it so it makes sense?
Dann

Trevor Andrew · Post by **Trevor Andrew** » Thu Sep 06, 2007 10:26 am

Hi

I would have thought that moving the frame down to the centre would not change the quality that much.

I would expect a quality loss if you were to stretch the 4:3 to 16:9 enough to get rid of the black bars.

You say you have removed the subtitles, did this involve rendering the video?

You may be best to do the one render. It is not recommended to render mpeg files over and over again.

Ok

Move the frame to the centre then use a ¡¥colour clip¡¦ to overlay the subtitles.
Render to ¡¥same as first clip¡¦.

You do not say what the properties of the video file are, except they are 4:3.
File ¡V preferences¡XTick show messages when¡K¡K¡K..
Start a new project
Insert the video¡Xselect ¡¥details¡¦
Copy and paste the right info window to the forum.

daniel · Post by **daniel** » Thu Sep 06, 2007 12:41 pm

I never saw a quality difference and use distort a lot including irregular shaping, so I thought of a re-render vs. smart rendering question but...

Anyway, if you just want to move a little, why not use the pan/zoom filter and keep 100%, static, then move the video a little with the crosshair.
This filter does wonders with panning since it merely shifts the points, so you have a chance not to notice artefacts?

It's a suggestion, I didn't try a comparative study...

stannmaple · Post by **stannmaple** » Thu Sep 06, 2007 1:29 pm

Oh Sorry. I thought you just wanted the properties for the aspect ratio. It seems I may be getting somewhere though. The properties are:
MPEG files
24 bits, 720 x 480, 29.97 fps
Lower Field First
(DVD-NTSC), 4:3
Video data rate: Variable (Max. 8000 kbps)
LPCM Audio, 48000 Hz, Stereo
for the project and
Microsoft AVI files
24 bits, 720 x 480, 4:3, 29.97 fps
Lower Field First
Panasonic DV CODEC -- type 2
PCM, 48.000 kHz, 16 Bit, Stereo
for the video.
It asks when I insert it if I want to change the project settings to match the video settings to perform "smart render." Perhaps this is what I'm doing wrong? Should I change the properties of the project? If not, I will try the other solutions listed here as well. Thanks again for the help
Dann

stannmaple · Post by **stannmaple** » Thu Sep 06, 2007 1:33 pm

Oh, and to answer the other questions, no the subtitles being stripped were not part of this project. They are already gone on the existing video. I was only using that to explain why I have the situation I do. Thanks. LIke I said, ideally I'd like to make it a 16:9 video, but there is no way to do this without quality loss as far as I know correct? So, my second choice is 4:3 letterboxed with good quality. Thanks
Dann

Trevor Andrew · Post by **Trevor Andrew** » Thu Sep 06, 2007 7:06 pm

Hi Dann

As your video properties are Avi files, I assume you selected DV as the capture format, is this correct.?
If yes then this is good and is probably the best capture quality you will get. (13 Gb per hour)
Although I would use Type 1 not 2. (select the 'options' in capture)

It is best to change your project properties to match your video files properties.
OK
Lets change it to 16:9.
Start a new project and insert the video,(the captured Avi) select yes to the change properties

You will have to edit the project properties, (file--project properties) change only the aspect ratio to 16:9

Use the distort or overlay track, stretch the video to fit the frame. (right click the video in the preview window for options)
It may be best to change the background color, this will allow you to identify the frame.

Render the video to ¡¥same as project properties¡¦
This will use the capture properties with 16:9 aspect.

The quality should be acceptable

Now you will have to render the new Avi file to Mpeg 2 to burn a dvd.

If you have further editing, do it to the new Avi then render to Mpeg
I would use Make Movie Manager to create a template

stannmaple · Post by **stannmaple** » Thu Sep 06, 2007 7:29 pm

Excellent! I will try it out and see how it turns out. One thing though, in the past when I render to MPEG2, for some reason I get error messages in DVD workshop. So, I've just been taking the DV footage into DVD workshop and letting it do it's own encoding which seems to work, but it takes forever. Any idea what I'm doing wrong there? Thanks
Dann

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Distort clip quality diminished?

Distort clip quality diminished?

hmmm....