Can't get clear enough images when posting to Youtube

[McMP]

Greetings,

I am a complete newbie to StudioVideo. I just purchased x6. I'm wondering if what I'm trying to do it even possible and thought perhaps someone could tell me if I'm wasting my time and if not, perhaps nudge me in the right direction. Here's what I'm trying to do...

I am a composer and I want to create "score perusal" videos of my music which I will upload to YouTube and embed on my website. I compose using a software notation program called Finale. There are two "views" in Finale:
1. Page view: the score looks just like an actual score with pages numbers, the notes, words, etc. showing one page at a time
2. Scroll view where the score is laid out horizontally.

In either view, I can "play" the score while a green line follows the music, turning pages (in page view) or scrolling horizontally (in scroll view). I can also "print" the pages as PDFs (but not as images).

Here's what I've tried in VSx6:
1. Using Screen Capture, I recorded the score as it scrolled across the screen. I put that Screen Capture in the video track and then imported the audio into the music track and synced it up. In VSx6 when I played it back using "project," the score looks bad (fuzzy). If I play back only the scrolling score (iow, no audio) it looks good (not razor sharp but legible), however, it can't afford to lose any sharpness or it will become too fuzzy. I have read on this forum that I should ignore such the quality before the movie is created (rendered?) and that all be well when saved as a movie. Hmm...
2. From Finale I exported each page as a PDF (that my only choice). Concerted the PDFs to .png files. I tried normal and high quality. The higher quality (larger) the png file, the worse it looked in VS. Using a movie template, I put the .png files in as "pictures" (pages) and then, again, I synced the music.

I've tried saving the above in about every format available but seem clear enough, especially once they get uploaded to youtube.

I know there are many parameters, but perhaps a suggestion for a few of them would get me moving in the right direction. The two most important things are size, that is, I want the score to go from top to bottom of the frame since the notes are small, and of course, clarity... crisp as possible.

-Do I want 60p/50 editing checked under "Settings"? I can't see what it does.
-I assume I want 4:3 ratio since these are portrait pages?? (If I have 16:9 unchecked, does that mean 4:3 becomes the default?)
-In screen capture, does a higher quality monitor make a clearer picture, or does it not matter?
-In YouTube I note that one has to click the gear and then select 1080p. If Auto is set then it seems to play at 720p? I've only come close to what I need by setting it to 1080p but I fear many will not even know that setting is there.

As I type I realize there may be too much I haven't told you. (Not that the above isn't more than anyone should have to read! )

I wasn't sure if links were allowed but it they are, I can post a few to show you what I'm trying to do. Bottom, line, is it possible to get a clear enough image on YouTube or is this just not doable?

I haven't tried printing (in ink) the score then scanning the pages and loading them into a movie. Is that a better option perhaps? Any thoughts are appreciated!

Don

[BrianCee]

I have used the following method to get PDF files into a viewable video by using the following procedure :-

Open the PDF file in your pdf reader and fill the screen from side to side with the image of the page - the bigger the better.

Use Windows Snipping tool to capture an image of the whole amount of the document you can see onscreen - you can save this direct as a .png image.

I have just captured part of page 221 from the VS User guide - it looks like this :-

Please click on the image to enlarge it - the image viewer on these forums is not among the best - but if you click on it it opens in a browser page and shows a true image - use the browser 'back' function to return to the forum.

Click on the image to enlarge it.

You will almost certainly need to capture more than one image of each page to keep individual 'text' large and readable - but if you want good quality it is necessary

Now put the .png image into an overlay track in VS - I say overlay track because it is easier to alter the image size there and fill the screen.

when I do that my preview screen looks like this :-

Click on the image to enlarge it

I then use the inbuilt VideoStudio option of "Share >> Upload to Web >> Youtube >> mpeg4 (4:3)" to create the file - I then cancel the automatic upload and go to Youtube and upload from that end.

[lata]

Hi

and a few observations
If you choose 50/60 frame editing the frame aspect will use 16:9 ratio
I do not think you need 50/60fps, given there is no movement within the video, for NTSC 29fps will be suitable, besides Upload to Web feature uses 29fps.

Brian’s screen looks like widescreen so I assume 16:9, as he has used part of a portrait page seems to work well, I am sure Brian will comment. Good idea Brian.

Some poor quality issues have been noticed when using the Anti Flickering Filter (Settings – Preferences - Edit Tab), Very subtle reduction in quality especially when zooming in to the image.

[BrianCee]

yes it does look 16:9 I think that is because I used the snipping tool to take a full screen copy of my laptop screen which is 16:9 but basically you could control the format at that point by how much of the page you copy. then you could use the mpeg4-HD option in the upload to youtube for better quality

[McMP]

Thanks very much for this info, BrianCee!! I believe I have done just as you said but I got very poor results. But.... There are so many settings I may well have them messed up.

Under Settings: Enable widescreen 16:9 is checked and 60p/50p is not checked. I attached some screen shots of my Preference Settings (not all, but the ones that I think matter in this case). I wasn't sure how to make them appear in my post. (I turned off anti-flckering as lata suggested.)

Performance Tab Settings

Edit Tab Settings

General Tab Settings

I used the snipping tool and "snipped" part of a PDF page and saved the snip as a .png. I placed it in the overlay track, I re-sized it by dragging the yellow handles (although it looked bad even before re-sizing). I loaded the audio track (in case this has any bearing on the result.) I "shared" to the web choosing YouTube>mpeg4>4:3 (My understanding is that YouTube now only uses 16:9 so I'm not sure why you chose 4:3, but I am a novice so I did it just as you said. ) After the video rendered, I stopped the upload and uploaded it manually to YouTube. Here's the link so that you can see the result. http://youtu.be/9uZPiaMyb5c

I hope I have some obvious setting that is off. If you need more settings that I didn't include I'm happy to provide them.

Thanks for your patience!
Don

[BrianCee]

I originally chose the 4:3 option because you said in your first post that was what you were using.

I cannot see anything wrong with your preferences - what are your project properties ?

I looked at your video and it is indeed a bit fuzzy - I turned my sample into a video and it looks like this :-
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FIbzEBf6JAo


Can you zip up the pdf and add it to your next post - then I can download - unzip and see what happens for me.

[McMP]

Here are my project properties.

proj props-2.PNG (2.85 KiB) Viewed 4408 times

In a board thread about blurry photos the recommendation was to resize the photos the same size as the desired output. So I resized the same photo twice, both times at 1920x1080, (a 16:9 size as I understand it) but the 1st is a bmp and the second a png. There was no appreciable difference between the two file types. I rendered and uploaded to YouTube. If you can get the 720HD in Youtube to work it looks fine but that is completely erratic (it takes it a while to switch and sometimes it doesn't switch to 720HD all). And since the normal setting is "Auto" it will never look right unless users know to switch the settings.... and most don't. Here's the sample (half way through it changes from the bmp to the png but they are basically the same) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mzyQw4Jo ... e=youtu.be Bottom line, it's not very clear.

I'm beginning to think that photos/images will not work. For whatever reason the quality isn't there and the program seems to be temperamental about images. And from what I've read, when you add transitions it can cause problems with photo clarity. (I wanted to do a kind of page turning thing)

On the other hand... I just did a screen capture and then uploaded it to YouTube. I chose 30fps and saved it as an mpeg4 16:9. (When I used share>Youtube the rendering crashed so I used "Create Video File".) If you change the settings to HD then it looks good. (Full screen of course) I just read that you can't force YT to show videos in HD but you can if you embed it elsewhere. So if I embed it in my website maybe I can make this work. Here a sample of the Screen Capture: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IEgfREMKpoo

If you see something significant in my Project Settings let me know.

Many thanks,
Don

[McMP]

Sorry, I now see what you wanted for Project Properties. Here they are:

THANKS!

[lata]

Hi

The snipping tool and/or screen capture will use the resolution of your monitor.
Your text should be full screen before snipping
After using the snipping tool what is the dimensions in pixels of the image.

You could of course fill the screen with text then hit PRT-SC button to save the text to the clipboard, paste to an image editor to create an image.

Resizing the image to a larger size is not gonna improve quality, just simply add duplicate pixels.
Snipping using an aspect ratio of 16:9 would remove the need to re-crop.

So again what is the dimensions of the original images immediately after snipping.?

[McMP]

Thanks for that info. I learned something yet again.

I am headed out of town for a week so I didn't want you all to think I was ignoring your help. I appreciate it very much and will get back at it when I return.

All best,
Don