Ideal Resolution Settings.

[Ted.]

Hi, All,
I have been copying a number of pre-recorded video clips onto a DVD-R disc and playing them on my DVD recorder. As my Panasonic DMR-XW380 DVD recorder only plays DivX or XviD video files I have to convert the files I have to this format. We have a Sony Bravia 40" TV and I was wondering about the best settings I should use for the Frame Resolution and bitrate etc. When I render anything to DivX with VS I use a Frame Resolution of 720 x 576 and a bitrate of 56kbps and this seems to play okay in my setup. Do you think these settings could be improved?

[aljimenez]

When it comes to digital video that is compressed, things can always be improved. Of course the cost is larger files. Current best compressed video, IMHO, is AVCHD 1920x1080 at 60fps using as high bit rates as 50Mbps or even more. These super high quality videos require at least $1,000+ cameras, pretty fast SD-cards, fast pc's, fast media players and high quality TV's. Most of us currently settle for something less.

Your videos can indeed be improved, but your files will grow and only you can decide. Since you seem happy with your setup, why change? Al

[Ted.]

Hi there, aljimenez,

Thank you for your reply and comments.
Referring to my resolution settings: Although they are okay I was wondering about a lower setting to enable faster rendering and a smaller file size. What would be the minimum resolution and bitrate needed to display a full screen with reasonable quality for a 78 year old with average eyesight?

[aljimenez]

I misunderstood your earlier question as wanting higher quality

The answer to your real question, namely, how low can the quality be before you don't like it in your TV is too subjective for me to answer. You should experiment with lower resolution, lower frame rates (about 15fps is my view of lowest tolerable), and the bit rate you are using is pretty low already, but you may try lowering that to test. Your files will get significantly smaller by doing this... Al

[Ted.]

Hi, aljimenaz,

Thank you for all that. How about the width and height settings 720 x 576. How much reduction there before it gets noticeable?

[Ted.]

Hi, All,
Can someone please explain this:
Using VS Pro X2 with a resolution of 720 x 576, a bitrate of 1102kbps and an FPS rate of 25 FPS gives me an acceptable display on my TV. Using the same parameters with my Format Factory video converter I get a small display after converting some .flv files. (About a six inch gap all around the picture). However, using the "High Quality and Size" preset settings on Format Factory I get a full size picture. Their parameters: Resolution: 640 x 360, bitrate 862kbs and a FPS of 29.970. All lower settings, yet a bigger display, why is this?

[Clevo]

Hi, All,
Can someone please explain this:
Using VS Pro X2 with a resolution of 720 x 576, a bitrate of 1102kbps and an FPS rate of 25 FPS gives me an acceptable display on my TV. Using the same parameters with my Format Factory video converter I get a small display after converting some .flv files. (About a six inch gap all around the picture). However, using the "High Quality and Size" preset settings on Format Factory I get a full size picture. Their parameters: Resolution: 640 x 360, bitrate 862kbs and a FPS of 29.970. All lower settings, yet a bigger display, why is this?

are you playing these files through the Panasonic DVD player? I believe it upscales the images for big screen TV's

Just guessing here but I suspect the 640x360 frame size fits the screen better when being upscaled.

You might get a bigger display but with the Panasonic upscaling I would think the picture quality is inferior.

[Ted.]

Hi, Clevo,
Thank you for your reply.
I have a small picture on WMP as well as the Panasonic DVD player. I've checked the parameters with GSpot and duplicated them in a custom setting without success. The only setting I didn't change was the FPS rate, perhaps the answer lies there.

[lata]

Hi

Reading between the lines there seems to be lots of things going on here.

Can you give us full details of the original video files properties?
Right click the clip in the timeline and select properties, what are they?
Yes you say 720 x 576 x 25 fps but is that 4:3 or 16:9? It is of course Pal.

We need to know the aspect ratio of your original video files before we can give a frame size for Div X

Then you mention converting to 29.97 fps and that’s NTSC.

Now I’m assuming you are using DVD Mpeg2 type video files, although I am probably completely wrong

If you convert these to Flash FLV then deselect Non Square Pixel Rendering otherwise you may get a border around the Flv video. Again need to know the aspect ratio.


What is Format Factory, this is a Corel Video Studio forum and as such relates to Video Studio,
I have no idea of Format Factory

Then WMP has been mentioned, do you mean WMV type video files or simply referring to the media player?

[Ted.]

Hi there, Trevor,

Thank you for your reply and sorry for the confusion.
The parameters I stated work perfectly in a file rendered by VS Pro x2, but the same figures don't produce a good result using other file converters.
The files I'm converting are YouTube.flv and I'm converting them to avi (DivX or XviD) and are a mixture of 16:9 and 4:3. I just use WM Player to test the completed files.

[lata]

Hi Ted

First flash FLV type files are probably the smallest video files you can use, in terms of size and quality.
Don’t get me wrong Flash HD looks very good when viewed on the internet, but it is not intended to be converted to other formats.
'you can't make a silk purse out of a pigs ear', ...comes to mind.

Besides Video Studio can create Flash files but cannot edit them, so you are unable to add a flash video to the timeline.
As far as I can see the problem you are having has nothing to do with Video Studio.

Out of interest I converted a flash HD video to Div X using AVS Converter with surprisingly good results. The quality obviously depends on the original and the final render, but you don’t give any details. Either your original is so poorer a quality that it does not stand to be converted or your conversion settings are incorrect.
Internet video does not have to be 16:9 or 4:3 if it uses different sizes then converting to 16:9 will distort the original.

You should be able to import the Flash video to the VS library, right click and select properties, use the frame sizes shown on the attributes tab in your conversion where you should be able to access the DivX Codec Properties window, for 16:9 aspect I choose 720HD Profile

But as I say its not really a Video Studio issue

[Ted.]

Hi, Trevor,
Many thanks for your reply. As you say, it's not a VS problem, but your comments will be very helpful.

Kind Regards
Ted.
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