Low quality video shares - need help

[ejg3]

When creating video files, I'm noticing that the quality of video in the final file is much less than the original file.

The original files are wmv files. They are sharp, smooth, etc.
640X480, 1900kbps data rate, 2060 kpbs total bit rate, 30 frames/second frame rate.

When I try to create a video file with identical or greater specifications, I get low quality (fuzzy, choppy, etc.).

I've tried them all: custom, dvd mpg, Wmv, Blue Ray, etc.

The one option I can't try (because it's grayed out for some reason) is the "Same as First Video Clip" option. Not sure why I can't.

I've tried it on my Video Studio 11 plus and a trial version of video Studio X3 - same results.

Any ideas?

[BrianCee]

Hi and welcome to the forums,

You have told us the properties of your original files - but not the properties of your output files - other than that they are not very good.

Could you put one of your output files in the timeline of VideoStudio - right click over it - choose 'properties' from the pop-up, then copy those properties and put them on here - then we may have some idea why they are so bad.

[ejg3]

Thanks for the response. To clarify, I imported video, spliced it up, and added some titles. I've tried outputting the finished product lots of different ways. By way of example...outputted 3 different ways....

#1
File format: Windows media video
file size: 367,713 KB
Data rate: 15146 kbps
Video: Windows Media Video 9
24 bits, 1440X1080, 29.970 frames/sec

#2
File format: NTSC DVD
File size: 272,578 KB
Duration: 281,181
MPEG-2 Video, Lower Field First
8,427 total frames
24 bits, 720 x 480, 4:3
29.970 frames/sec
Variable bit rate (Max. 8000 kbps)

#3
Microsoft AVI files - Open DML
File Size: 1,041,590 KB
29.970 frames/sec
3639.61 kbps
DV Video Encoder - type 2 compression
24 bits, 720 x 480, 4:3
8,423 frames

I've played the files on the computer as well as on a 52" LCD HD flat panel TV and I can't see much difference between these above. However, there is a lot of difference between them and the orginal file (much longer than the edited version):

Original file:
File format: Windows media video
file size: 938,838 KB
Duration: 3717,981 seconds
Data rate: 2031 kbps
Video: Windows Media Video 9
24 bits, 640 x 480, 30,000 frames/sec

[Ken Berry]

Firat, WMV is really meant to be a broadcast format i.e. for showing in final form, and not to be edited further. Good quality, yes, but highly compressed and highly complex... And conversions from it are usually difficult.

Now you are trying to change it into another format, all of which involves changing it in significant ways. If you think about it, with your first example, you are trying to convert it to high definition WMV specifications. But to do so you are in effect asking the conversion program to go from a frame size of 640 x 480 pixels to 1440 x 1080 pixels (plus using a bitrate which is five times higher than the original). Where do the extra pixels come from? The program has to invent them, and it does so by taking some of the existing pixels in your original video and just copies them and adds them in. Given that the HDV WMV frame size is more than double the size of your original, that is a lot of invented pixels, and it is inevitable that the end product is going to look a bit of a mess.

The same sort of thing applies to the other formats you have selected, though in both cases the number of invented pixels is far less so the effect would not be terribly bad, but bad nevertheless. However, those formats are much less compressed (and in the case of the DV/AVI, far less compressed) than your original video. Moreover, the algorithms used are totally different from WMV, so that the conversion process itself, plus the invented pixels, overall causes loss of quality.

Going from less compressed formats to more highly compressed ones (e.g. DV > mpeg-2 or mpeg-4 or WMV) will usually appear to preserve the quality of the original. But going in the opposite direction will rarely if ever do so.

[ejg3]

Thanks. That makes sense.