Video-editing help/advice

[-=KA=- Lifter]

I'm not sure if this is the right place for this, but here goes...

I'm trying to make a video out of short clips from DOD. I read somewhere that it's better to take demos, and then record them with Fraps. So I did that, I now have a bunch of avi. files that I recorded from my steam .dem files.

Here's the part I can't figure out. When I go to piece the clips together with windows movie-maker, they become very pixelated when I put them on the storyboard. The videos themselves aren't damaged, they look fine when I play them normally. My guess is there's some conflict with the windows movie-maker software.

Any ideas or advice would be appreciated. Thank you

 

[GreenMonkey]

well, number 1 - windows movie maker onyl makes mpg does it not? From my experiance you have ot make large files and set the file to the highest setting to get it to come out slightly okish. Converting a file from avi to mpg i believe also always ends with moderate loss.

However, are you judging by the preview windows or have you made final products? because the prview is of course just that.

 

[-=KA=- Lifter]

Well, the thing is - I've made a short video before with window movie maker. I never had this problem -and I was working with avi. files.

Here's what I do, I open up a video file in the "collections" area. I can play the video from there - it appears in the window, and it looks great, nothing wrong. Then if I drag it down onto the storyboard where I can actually do any editing, the video suddenly loses it's quality - and appears blurry and pixelated. I don't see any reason why it should be doing this, I know there's nothing wrong with the video file itself. It has to be some problem with windows movie maker, or it's conflicting with something else. That's my guess.

I'm considering another option, maybe trying out a completely different video-editing program.

 

[GreenMonkey]

so wait - you can use the preview windows of movie maker to watch the movie before you drag it and it looks different after you put it in its place?

The only thing that comes to mind is if you accidentally had some video mode enables beforehand like the pixilisational fade in or somehtng of that type - that is rather confeusing but there must be a setting , perhaps an advanced setting that you have to set for the overall video prefernces for quality before / durring creation? that doesnt sound liek it makes sence but i'm trying to brain storm. I'm only used movie maker like twice, both times were for still picture slideshows.

 

[-=KA=- Lifter]

Yeah, I thought it could've been a setting too. But I looked all through the menus, and didn't come up with anything. I've tried for searching for the problem on google, but still haven't found a solution. I think I'll try something else, thanks Green.

 

[MrWolf]

Sounds like it could be a video driver issue. Make sure they are up-to-date and make sure you have the latest version of Movie Maker and make sure you have the latest Windows Updates.

You can see my movie collection here: http://mrwolf710.shackspace.com/

 

[GreenMonkey]

as much as i hate sony - you might try sony vegas

 

[MrWolf]

Dude, Vegas is like 3 or 4 hundred bucks?!?!

Also, Lifter, have you tried going ahead and creating your movie and seeing how the quality looks then? Movie Maker compresses the heck out of your original clips WHILE you are working on them so that it doesn't bring your system to it's knees. When you go to save the movie it uses the original higher res clips and applies all your changes and splices and effects and stuff. So what you see in preview might be very different from the finished product.

 

[GreenMonkey]

thats basically what I thought / said earlier. And who cares how much it costs - it has a 30 day trial and 30 days is plenty to solve this problem..... who said anything about a long term solution?