VS x3: Setting Project Properties

[mitchell65]

In the blurb on VS x3 it states that:
Quote: The project settings in the Project Properties dialog box determine the appearance and quality of a project when it is previewed on-screen.
In Project Properties the only choice is PAL DVD and NTSC DVD. The maximum frame size is 720 x 576 but there does not appear to be a way of setting the Prject properties to my requirement of HD 1440 x 1080. Is this a restriction in the TBYB version? Is it possible that one of the beta testers could look at their beta version for me please? On the same theme of previewing the option for "Preview in high Quality" seems to have been dropped in the X3 version!

[Trevor Andrew]

Hi John

Just installed the Trial X3
Yes John that is what I get when viewing the project properties.
The program should represent the full version, so what you see here is what you will get.

[Ron P.]

In reference to the High-Quality Playback, this has been removed. It is not an available option in VS X3. I posed this question to Jan Piros, who is in charge of the VS program now. His response was that they have made the rendering engine better now, so they no longer needed that... WRONG!!

Don't worry about setting the project settings in VS. It's more of what you feed into it, is what it will allow. So if you are wanting to up-scale, that is going to be somewhat difficult. Check to see if the Proxy is on or off. It is on by default. So inserting a HD file will cause a proxy to be generated, and that is what the project settings will reflect.

[Ken Berry]

Unfortunately, it seems that the Beta version had a sunset clause written into it, and I and the other two Admin people (Steve and Ron) no longer have access to it. I personally refuse to download the trial version -- yet another huge download I can do without. Plus the apparently limitations of the trial version you and others are complaining about...

That being said, the Project Properties have been the same in all versions of VS with which I have worked, and that includes those which were produced in the high definition world: VS 10+, VS11+/11.5+ and X2. There never appear to have been project properties for high definition video, whether it be HDV or AVCHD.

As Ron has said, however, that is largely irrelevant to anything. It has been a long time since I have bother about Project Properties. They are largely irrelevant if you are a relatively experienced editor. They only served the function of getting things pretty right for novices and relative novices who only wanted to have things fairly automatic at the Share stage.

I personally never worry about what the Project Properties say, simply because I know that when I get to Share, I will choose the output settings I want -- which could of course be the Project Properties, but these days seldom are. Instead, I simply choose Share > and then usually have developed my own template for output (so Share > and choose my template); or else with HDV/AVCHD, these days I jump straight from the editing module to the burning/authoring module, and set my output properties in the second icon in the bottom left of screen.

You can worry about Project Properties till you are blue in the face, but in fact it is only if you ever choose Share > Same as Project Properties, that you really have to worry about them...

[mitchell65]

Thank you for the replies. Ken, I agree with you that the project properties are largely irrelevent but as I found in the X3 blurb this:
The project settings in the Project Properties dialog box determine the appearance and quality of a project when it is previewed on-screen and the fact that the HQ Playback option is no longer available I thought perhaps the Project properties had taken on a whole new meaning. Perhaps not then

[Trevor Andrew]

Project Properties

I insert a HD video file 1920 x 1280
I create a title.
I wish to take a snapshot of the video and title, I can do this by switching to Project Playback and selecting Edit--Take a Snapshot.
Being widescreen the image I get is the project size, 1024 x 576.

Now the quality of this image is not gonna be as good as the original.
Yep I can take it in clip mode but this does not include the timelines content

With earlier versions I could get an image of 1920 x 1280

[mitchell65]

Hi Trevor
First, did you mean 1920 x 1080?
In VS x3 if I take a snapshot without a title then I get a bmp of 1920 x 1080. If I take a snapsot with a title then I get as you say 1024 x 576. Its the same if I put a 1920 x 1080 clip in the overlay track and leave it as the default size in the centre I get an image size of 1024 x 576. Seems like VS reduces the size of a multiple image snaphot! BTW I can't get a still image on VS x2 that shows the title on the clip, even though I can see the title in the preview window it does not show on the BMP. In VS x2 you need to select the clip for the Save as still image option to show and if you select both the Video clip and the title the Save to still image option does not show. That's on my version anyway!

[Trevor Andrew]

Hi John

Yep I meant 1920 x 1080

When you use the clip mode, VS takes the sizes from the actual video files size, the file on the hard drive.
You only get the frame details and size from that file.

When you use project mode the image is created using the project properties frame size. 720 x 576 16:9 will give 1024 x 576px image size (for Pal)
The details will include what you see in the preview screen, including any titles, transitions. What you see is what you get.

If you were able to edit the project properties (X3) to 1920 x 1080 then the image will use those sizes.
Creating an image to the same quality as the video.