Adjust .wmv file display size?

weaver wrote on 10/2/2006, 1:44 PM
I am creating piano/keyboard instruction videos for web download purposes. I would like to minimize the .wmv file size and yet maximize the rendering resolution. When I capture the video image of my keyboard and my hands playing on it … the action is taking place within a very narrow thin strip of the total displayed image. The keyboard is long (88 keys) but takes up very little space in the "y " dimension of the video image. Is there any way to render the movie to display the full x dimension (with most of the 88 keys of a keyboard) … but to minimize the y dimension? The point is to reduce the .wmv file size as much as possible. This is kinda complicated to explain, but it seems to me I am rendering a lot of imaging that is not needed – and it would be great if I had the option of removing the top half of the video image in order to significantly reduce the file size. The result would be a video image that is the regular width …but very narrow in the vertical/y dimension.

Any suggestions?
Thanks
IW

Comments

Chienworks wrote on 10/2/2006, 4:25 PM
Something like this? http://www.chienworks.com/media/narrowstrip.wmv

Hmmm. I don't have Vegas Studio installed, so i'm giving you instructions from the full Vegas. This may work in Studio though. It wouldn't hurt to try it ...

Set your project properties (File / Properties) to the size you want. I used 640x160 in my example. Open up Pan/Crop for your video clip, right-mouse-button click on the frame and choose "match output". This will let you compose your project as a narrow strip.

When rendering, choose make movie on disk, select the file type and template you want, click custom (here's where Vegas Studio may differ ... it may not have custom options for all file types). Under the video tab choose "(Keep Original Size) for the image size. Alternatively choose "Custom" and type in width and height to mach the Pan/Crop settings you used. Now you can render to the custom frame size.
weaver wrote on 10/3/2006, 12:38 AM
Yes - yes - yes. Thanks for walking me through the details. I would never ever have figured that out. Wow. That is amazing.

I get the basic orientation I am looking for - so thanks very much.

Hopefully I am doing it right because I noticed something interesting with the preview window during this process. I may be doing the panning and cropping - or something in an odd way. When I adjust the size of the image - the preview window reflects the change like I would expect. I get a nice long letterbox type of image with my keyboard filling up the letterbox. However, when I go deep into the custom rendering options per your instructions and render the movie, I would expect the preview window to look exactly as it did during edit operations. Instead, while the preview window keeps the same letterbox size, a much smaller image of the keyboard (half the size?) is inside the preview window during the rendering. I am not sure what that means - if anything.

Thanks again.
IW
weaver wrote on 10/3/2006, 12:52 AM
I will have to experiment with it even more. I am able to get the letterbox type effect - but when I play it back in the windows media player, I get the letterbox type orientation which is great - but my keyboard doesn't fill it up. I get a small keyboard surrounded by alot of black. It is basically like what I saw happening with the preview window during the rendering. Something is not quite right.

With your example of the flowers, it fills up the window. Mine doesn't look as impressive!

I'll keep fiddling with it.

IW