Trying to make a low quality 1080p HD MP4 video

[dneale123]

Corel Video Studio X9 19.5.0.35 64 bit Ultimate, Windows 10 Pro 64 bit, i5-4570 + 8GB RAM, HP onboard graphics.

I often have to edit webinar videos, which are 1080p HD but with very low frame and bit rates (typically 5-15fps, 1000kbps) - usually to remove pauses, technical glitches and where faces obscure a presentation. Videos are long and can last over 1.5 hours. The audio tends to be high quality - typically 48000Hz/192kbps.

When I try to export as 1080p MP4, Video Studio doesn't allow me to go below 23fps/5000kbps so the resulting files are huge (often 2-3GB plus) and take hours to render. Because the video content is mostly static Powerpoint slides I don't need a high frame or bit rate and would like to export at a similar quality to the original. I can't use the same settings as the original because the original MP4 often has to be converted to AVI for Video Studio to recognise it.

Is there any way I can export using very low frame and bit rates?

TIA,

David.

[pepegota]

Try this excellent video converter-it's free. https://www.videotovideo.org/

[Ken Berry]

One other possible way... When you insert the video into the timeline, do you get a message asking if you want the Project Properties to match those of the video. (For this you need to have ticked the box in Preferences > General > Show Message when inserting first video into timeline.) If you do, then the Project Properties should have those low settings. And when you get to Share, you should select "Same As Project Settings" or "Same As First Video" at the very top of the Share section...

[asik1]

dneale123, your issue is because VS uses discreet templates for mp4's and some other formats.
It can be over ruled to almost any settings but it's beyond general user warranty.
Your second best option is to use Xvid codec in AVI or custom WMV profile I can write for you if you give me your exact requirements .

** extract this profile into
C:\Program Files\Corel\Corel VideoStudio X9\Ulead.dat\WMV_Profiles

[dneale123]

Thanks to everyone for their suggestions. I have likely constraints, though, that will mean that not all these options are feasible:
1. MP4 video is the preferred output format - yes, I could add a low-quality WMV profile but it would still need conversion afterwards. I'm trying to avoid having to do this but could as a last resort.
2. I can't usually use the 'same as original' option as the VS often refuses to import the original video (a separate topic on its own!) and I have to convert to AVI first.
So are we saying that there is no straightforward way to get VS to produce a low bit/frame rate MP4 video directly?

[asik1]

Can you upload for us a minute of your raw footage.

[lata]

Hi
I would suspect that your original video is using a highly compressed codec that Video Studio does not fully support as such cannot import and therefor cannot export either. 1000kbps is very low.
So you are left with the default templates and codecs that Video Studio uses.
If you need MP4 then Baseline at 4000 kbps will support 1920 x 1080
The lower codec H263 does not support 1920 x 1080.
I can only think that if you do need the video compressed so much you will have to use a video converter after editing and rendering to H264 using Video Studio. Even so I am not sure what the quality will be like.

As aski1 suggests a sample of the video would help, then we can see exactly just what you are facing

Post Updated
By the way, you mention Video Studio creating a large file, but what size file would you like to create?

[asik1]

Danela, if it's for youtube than wmv is just fine,
but if it's for other distributions than indeed the "i-apples" wont play it.

[dneale123]

Thanks for the suggestions.

I think I've found a workaround that I can use. It's a bit of a fudge but seems to have the desired effect:

I've taken one of the original format MP4 videos that I can import directly (most of them I couldn't but one or two work), cropped it so that it effectively becomes a plain black screen and shortened it so that it's only a few frames long. I then rendered it using the first frame settings for the project and that worked, giving me a fraction of a second of low-quality video.

Using the short low-quality video I've managed to make a template project that I can then append the desired video to. The result is a video of the low quality desired with a fraction of a second of black screen at the start which isn't intrusive.

I'll let you know how it goes...