Please explain project properties to me (VS9)

[Philm5d]

I am shooting 4K video producing 3840 x 2160 frame size and producing .MOV files.
At the start of a project under Settings- Project Properties - there is "Project Format" which includes a number of options - DV/AVI, HDV, DVD, AVCHD, BLU RAY, MOBILE, ON-LINE. Do I assume this is the option for final use of the project? I want either to burn to blu ray disc OR be able to store on external media such as usb stick AND PLAY BACK IN FULL 4K resolution.
Under "existing project properties" I made a custom 4K setting for my frame size/rate,ratio etc. but what project format do I select please?

OK now there's also a MOVIE PROFILE MANAGER tab (how does that differ from the above???) again with FORMAT options, AVI, MPEG 2, AVC.H264, MPEG-4, WMV, MOV, and a Profile Tab which allows me to select the custom settings I made earlier. Talk about confusing. Please can someone explain in a lucid and calm way how this all works. Also regarding video training is there any really good training film(s) available online or otherwise. Thanks to any responders.

[lata]

Hi Philm5d

Ok i will get things started

All video files are made up of certain attributes, frame size, frame rates, data rates, etc.
Project Properties set the timelines to display video in a particular way, by setting project properties to match the video file then we are certain that the timelines will display the video correctly.
The frame rate is particular important, if a video uses 50p / 60p yet the project is set to 25 / 30 fps then only half of the frames will be displayed. You probably will not notice the difference in timeline playback but could eventually affect the output file.
So we recommend that project properties match the video files properties, Video Studio will do that when Show Messages ….. is selected via Preferences.

Share - Create a video file.
The share option allows us to choose several formats depending on what we are about to create, for Bluray AVCHD can be used , for SD DVD Mpeg2 would be used.
Internet playback Mpeg4, mov, wmv are available, there is also a Customise option allowing us to create our own.

Each of the formats have several default templates, (hit the down arrow) clearly Corel cannot provide all as the list would be endless, but the “+” option allows us to create our own template.
You mention Movie Profile Manager, well that does the same job as the “+” allowing us to create a template which will show in the templates list.

Finally at the top is a greyed out panel “Same as Project Settings” also available is “Same as First Video Clip” you may find these useful when rendering the project to use the same properties as your video.

To sum up you should set your project properties to match the video file being used.
If you have to convert the originals to create an output file then try to use the same as originals, not always possible.

[Ken Berry]

Finally at the top is a greyed out panel “Same as Project Settings” also available is “Same as First Video Clip” you may find these useful when rendering the project to use the same properties as your video.

Just to clarify this point, by "at the top" lata meant at the top of the Share page, where you are deciding what to do with your project. If you are wanting to create a file to store and play back from an external USB drive, as you suggest you intend to do as one option, then if you have matched the Project Properties to those of your video clips (using "Show message..." in Preferences), you can simply choose "Same As Project Settings" and this will render your project into a new video with exactly the same settings as the original.

My only worry here in your specific case is that you say you are producing .mov files from your 4K projects. Is there any specific reason why you are doing this? You didn't say what exact video format your original 4K clips have. Are they .mov or .mp4 or even .mts?

If they are .mov, then I am not sure "Show message" works with mov clips, so the above would not work for you. I am also not sure that a .mov clip stored on a USB stick drive would be recognised by the HDTV or Blu-Ray player you plug it into for playback. I just don't know. Maybe someone else does. But if your 4K is either .mp4 or .mts, then using "Same As Project Settings" will produce a new .mp4 or .mts and these will definitely both play back if stored on an external USB drive.

They will also work if want to use them for down-conversion into either of the formats used for Blu-Ray discs, which can be either AVCHD -- as lata suggested -- or also BD compatible high def transport stream mpeg-2. Both of these, when converted, use the .m2ts extension on the BD disc. However, in the case of making a BD disc, you could also first insert a .mov file, though this would convert during the burning process to .m2ts.