Another free clue, please

ian_malaga wrote on 12/20/2008, 12:09 PM
Hi all

I've finally got the aspect, cropping, etc sorted, I think, but i think the end result could be better.

As I wrote in another posting earlier, I am making a series of short movies (1.5 - 4 minutes) using material that I've captured in wmv from the 'net, or from the TV.

The TV stuff I have to expand to exclude an unsightly timestamp. The wmv capture stuff I have to contract to include the whole picture. Ok, I seem to have that bit sorted now (thanks again Ivan) but the quality of the rendered TV stuff leaves a fair amount to be desired.

I expand it 850 x 680 to get rid of the timestamp, render as mpg2, DVD PAL, best quality. While it is not quite like a moving Impressionist painting, it's not that far off. It is certainly only a fraction of the original quality. I don't expect perfection because it's lossy but I would have expected a *bit* better. In fact, the captured 320 x 240 gives me as good a result.

Any free clues for improving the end product, please?

[I wish I'd done Graphics instead of Databases at uni now! :)]

Cheers

Ian

Comments

Ivan Lietaert wrote on 12/20/2008, 1:16 PM
Hm... there's a proverb : "You can't make silk out of a pig's ear." Rerendering mpeg2 files is bound to degrade the quality. My advice: when capturing from Youtube, go for avi rather than wmv. I once had a whole classgroup of my students failing rendering a project, because Windows Movie Maker crashed while rendering. After replacing the wmv file by a newly captured avi file, the rendering was just fine. Yet, perhaps this was a Movie Maker problem only, which you will not encounter with Vegas.
Your mpeg2 files are another ball game.
1) You want to get rid of the ugly timestamp. So you cropped. That action has degraded the quality considerably. Find out why/how the timestamp got there. Although unlikely, you may be lucky and simply do away with it (if it is there like subtitles are) by deleting the timestamp (or not importing it)
2) Do not crop, but instead, in Vegas, put a better looking logo or some banner on top of it; or blur it away.
3) Mpeg2 recording does have several quality settings. Different brands use different codecs, which result in different qualities. There's no way to turn back time, but for the future, make sure you record in the highest quality/bitrate posssible.
ian_malaga wrote on 12/20/2008, 1:18 PM
Sorry to follow-up to my own post but I think I've found out why the quality is different, even if not how to improve it.

I was using pan/crop on the wmv files but using track motion editing for the TV stuff. Duh!

It's not as good as the original (by ~20% by user perception) but it's better.

Any clues to making things *wonderful* will still be gratefully received. :)

Cheers

Ian
ian_malaga wrote on 12/20/2008, 2:41 PM
Hi Ivan

Thanks, again, for your help.

> "You can't make silk out of a pig's ear." Rerendering mpeg2 files is bound to degrade the quality.

Yes, I realise that. *All* computing is a compromise.

> My advice: when capturing from Youtube, go for avi rather than wmv.

It wasn't youtube, it was native wmv, with no options. I might not have done 'graphics101' but I know that avi is a lot of raw bitmaps. :)

> because Windows Movie Maker crashed while rendering

I thought it crashed doing *anything*! It always seemed to do so for me. Mind you, I used to have Pinnacle [spit], but even MM was better at capture.

> Although unlikely, you may be lucky and simply do away with it (if it is there like subtitles are) by deleting the timestamp (or not importing it)

No, it's a 'straight from TV' capture to DVD on a DVD recorder.

> put a better looking logo or some banner on top of it; or blur it away.

I tried that as well on my earlier efforts, but they now include bits top and bottom, and it also makes it a bit obvious that it's a TV capture - and where from, if anyone is savvy enough to recognise it.

> make sure you record in the highest quality/bitrate posssible.

Of course, but I don't have too much control over that. I press the button that says 'Rec'. :) It's a DVD recorder attached to a TV that's attached to a Sky box. The native quality is good, the quality when uploaded onto my machine is good. It just looses more than I would expect it to, once rendered. But, it is not *too* bad now I've realised that I was using two different methods of editing ('crop and pan' & 'track motion' - see my in between post) to change the thing. It isn't 'wonderful' but it is just about acceptable. I have had better quality over the years from an ancient Sony camera.

I wondered if there were any 'magic settings' that I hadn't tried. seems not. Hey ho. :)

Thanks, I really appreciate your help.

Cheers

Ian
Terry Esslinger wrote on 12/20/2008, 7:49 PM
On your DVD recorder, even though it just has a "rec" button does it have a way of changiung the amount of time you can record. Like 1 hour or 2 hours? The way the recorder changes the amount of time you can record on the DVD is by changing the bit rate. So set the setting (if available) to the shortest length (i.e. 1/2 hour). It should record with a higher bit rate and at least start you out with a higher quality image.