Getting good quality in production

Tomer

Newbie Joined: Aug 05, 2011 02:19 Messages: 5 Offline

Solved by

Aug 05, 2011 02:26

Hi all,

I have a problem, in the past i have been using windows movie maker version 6.0 for my movies, it was very much lacking in controls, but was fast, I decided i wanted to try something e professional, so i decided to try out Powerdirector.
i do find that it has much better control over everything, however, i have one very big problem with it what ever i do, i dont get good quality once i encode, with WMM all i used to do was use their default option called "best quality for viewing on this computer" which would output the most unwanted .wmv file however it's quality compared to the original clips i used in the editing was practically loss less. one more step with format factory outputted me with mpeg4 or avi files with small size and great quality. but in cyberlink, no matter what i try i keep getting monster size files (minimum 4 GB) and shit quality. what can i do except save as a 60GB file? i am sure i am overlooking something.

your help will be very much appreciated
Tomer.

Kevin R.

Contributor Location: Deep in the Heart of Texas Joined: Aug 17, 2010 15:58 Messages: 320 Offline

Aug 05, 2011 10:14

It all depends on the format you want your movies in and what you plan to do with them. If it's just for youtube type stuff then wmv. files are fine, but if you are wanting good quality for DVD's etc. then I suggest a better format like mpeg-2 or 4.

Cheers,
Kevin. Saving the world, one goofy video and meme at a time.

Tomer

Newbie Joined: Aug 05, 2011 02:19 Messages: 5 Offline

Aug 05, 2011 10:58

Yes but they both produce pretty lowsy quality, and i dont understand why.

Kevin R.

Contributor Location: Deep in the Heart of Texas Joined: Aug 17, 2010 15:58 Messages: 320 Offline

Aug 05, 2011 14:25

It must be your source video then, because I get great results. Saving the world, one goofy video and meme at a time.

Tomer

Newbie Joined: Aug 05, 2011 02:19 Messages: 5 Offline

Aug 06, 2011 04:23

what i get is loss of quality, is there no option to just determine the codec used for encoding + bit rate + deinterlace/interlacing options + etc... ? so i can simply customise as i want ?

Carl312

Senior Contributor Location: Texas, USA Joined: Mar 16, 2010 20:11 Messages: 9090 Offline

Aug 06, 2011 08:51

Tomer,

It is possible to make custom WMV profiles.

Default profiles for Powerdirector 8,
Windows Media Video 9 HD High Quality (makes a 1440x1080)
or
Windows Media 9 HD Standard Quality (makes a 1280x720)

You select that in the profile type dropdown.

This message was edited 2 times. Last update was at Aug 06. 2011 09:03

Carl312: Windows 10 64-bit 8 GB RAM,AMD Phenom II X4 965 3.4 GHz,ATI Radeon HD 5770 1GB,240GB SSD,two 1TB HDs.

Tomer

Newbie Joined: Aug 05, 2011 02:19 Messages: 5 Offline

Aug 06, 2011 10:31

is there a custom setting or some plugin i can use to decide for myself customably what resolution i want exactly and how the encode will work (1 pass vs multiple) what codec etc ? because like this it is all predetrmined presets, and though i have seen that i can customise them, when i do that the quality of the output goes down drastically compared to the precompiled files ?

Carl312

Senior Contributor Location: Texas, USA Joined: Mar 16, 2010 20:11 Messages: 9090 Offline

Aug 06, 2011 11:19

View this tutorial:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vw2RlzIt9EM

Carl312: Windows 10 64-bit 8 GB RAM,AMD Phenom II X4 965 3.4 GHz,ATI Radeon HD 5770 1GB,240GB SSD,two 1TB HDs.

Tomer

Newbie Joined: Aug 05, 2011 02:19 Messages: 5 Offline

Aug 07, 2011 13:23

Thanks,
this did the trick

Bill Yonescu

Newbie Location: Palm City, Florida Joined: Nov 09, 2008 16:56 Messages: 29 Offline

Aug 07, 2011 16:53

Quote: View this tutorial:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vw2RlzIt9EM

Could someone aim me to the program that opens these .prx files???

Thank you

Bill

Carl312

Senior Contributor Location: Texas, USA Joined: Mar 16, 2010 20:11 Messages: 9090 Offline

Aug 07, 2011 18:03

Edit:
The tool is called Windows Media Encoder 9

It used to be a download from Microsoft.com

That tool has been replaced with another tool.
http://www.microsoft.com/expression/products/Encoder4_Overview.aspx

Windows Media Encoder 9 is still availble from various download sites.

Here is one.
http://www.free-codecs.com/download/windows_media_encoder_9_series.htm

This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at Aug 08. 2011 13:44

Carl312: Windows 10 64-bit 8 GB RAM,AMD Phenom II X4 965 3.4 GHz,ATI Radeon HD 5770 1GB,240GB SSD,two 1TB HDs.

Bill Yonescu

Newbie Location: Palm City, Florida Joined: Nov 09, 2008 16:56 Messages: 29 Offline

Aug 07, 2011 18:31

Thank you very much.. I did track down that I needed Windows Media Encoder, download it and only got a help file...

I will use your link.

Again, thank you for your help.

Bill

Bill Yonescu

Newbie Location: Palm City, Florida Joined: Nov 09, 2008 16:56 Messages: 29 Offline

Aug 07, 2011 18:46

Hi Carl,

Thank again... It worked!!!

****** The YouTube video had a comment about once a new profile was generated and saved under a new profile name, PD did not show the new profile in the drop down list. A reply said that an alternate of some kind was given in a separate link that wasn't published in he reply. Does any of this make sense? Or should I just try a new profile?******

******
I asked tooooo fast. I tried it, edited an existing profile and named it similar to the rest..ie wmv 9 etc.. It did show up in my drop down list. Great to have this ability.

Big thanks,

Bill

This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at Aug 07. 2011 19:09

Carl312

Senior Contributor Location: Texas, USA Joined: Mar 16, 2010 20:11 Messages: 9090 Offline

Aug 07, 2011 21:08

Good to know it worked out for you. Carl312: Windows 10 64-bit 8 GB RAM,AMD Phenom II X4 965 3.4 GHz,ATI Radeon HD 5770 1GB,240GB SSD,two 1TB HDs.

Ludrick

Newbie Joined: Jul 14, 2009 18:04 Messages: 23 Offline

Aug 14, 2011 20:50

I have a question for Carl312. I'm using PD 6 still. I recently landed a job with a company called XOS Digital, they do High Sports recruitment videos for college sports recruiters. We as the camera operators have to film the footage, then upload them to their website server. The requirements they're looking for are: WMV(which I know how to do), 1 key frame every 1 second, 720X480 framesize, and needs to be 1500 KB/s bit rate. I've already downloaded Media Encoder 9 and the settings are set correctly, but how do I know if my WMV files produced in PD 6 are?

Carl312

Senior Contributor Location: Texas, USA Joined: Mar 16, 2010 20:11 Messages: 9090 Offline

Aug 14, 2011 21:37

but how do I know if my WMV files produced in PD 6 are?

You check the file properties with MediaInfo. MediaInfo is a free download and we editors in this forum use it a great deal.

Attached an example of the information of a wmv file displayed by MediaInfo.

Link to the video shown in the mediaInfo txt.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4P_wY29-pNI

Filename	Last_Video_of_Fence.wmv.txt	Download
Description	MediaInfo information
Filesize	3 Kbytes
Downloaded:	328 time(s)

This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at Aug 14. 2011 21:41

Carl312: Windows 10 64-bit 8 GB RAM,AMD Phenom II X4 965 3.4 GHz,ATI Radeon HD 5770 1GB,240GB SSD,two 1TB HDs.

Ludrick

Newbie Joined: Jul 14, 2009 18:04 Messages: 23 Offline

Aug 15, 2011 10:55

Okay, that still didn't quite answer my question. I guess what I mean is, using PD 6, how do I create the attributes discussed in my original question above? I looked at the video using PD 8, but I still couldn't quite tell how it was done. Please help me!

Ludrick

Newbie Joined: Jul 14, 2009 18:04 Messages: 23 Offline

Aug 15, 2011 11:40

And here's another question...so basically what the windows media encoder does is creates a new customized WMV file? If so, can it also be done in PD 6?

Ludrick

Newbie Joined: Jul 14, 2009 18:04 Messages: 23 Offline

Aug 15, 2011 13:44

I followed the steps in :http://www.youtube.com/user/PDtoots#p/u/20/vw2RlzIt9EM . I created, edited, and rename my new profile, but when I go to produce my WMV file, I don't see the new profile.

ynotfish

Senior Contributor Location: N.S.W. Australia Joined: May 08, 2009 02:06 Messages: 9977 Offline

Aug 15, 2011 17:38

Hi Ludrick -

I've never used PD6, so I don't honestly know whether it can be done.

Obviously, you must have located your Profiles folder - yes? You said you'd followed the steps but the profile didn't appear in PD's interface. Have I understood correctly?

I know that in PD8 & 9, profiles will not appear if you've used the wrong naming protocol.

Here's a slightly different method (just a variation) from the one in the PDtoots video http://www.youtube.com/user/ynotfish77#p/u/23/IIFemK-akHY - that may help overcome your problem.

Could you please post a screenshot of your profiles folder?

Cheers - Tony

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