Good resolution for AVI?

[youdontseeme]

Hello. I currently have been converting captured camcorder clips (avis), into compressed avi. I've been using Adobe Premiere.

I've been compressing with MPEG4 Fast motion, and have had good results.

My problem occurs when choosing the appropriate resolution.
For some reason, Adobe exports the avi with higher resolution then the source. Which makes my video look choppy. So, I went and changed the resolution to 320x352 but the outputted avi's aspect was all off.

I have used 320x352 for other programs with success. I want to keep the resolution fairly low, increases clarity. Resolution in the 600s seems a little high for the quality of video I have, what resolution should I be using?

Thank you

[BJ_M]

"....(keeping) resolution fairly low, increases clarity" ?

keeping your resolution the same as your source would be best for clarity .. not making it smaller ..

i assume you are cap'ng DV through firewire ... thats 3.6meg/s data rate i think @ 720 x 480 (i dont use DV so not positive) .. you could save it in 1/2 D1 if you want it to take less room and still look pretty good ..

thats 352 x 480

352 x 240 is the SIF standard .. was that the other resolution you wanted to use?

[gll99]

Checked you profile but it's not filled in.

Don't know if you use pal or ntsc resolutions in case of need to convert to (s)vcd in future.

I am on NTSC

Standard low defaults are usually 320x240 (I don't use 160x120)

but if I think that I might convert to (s)vcd later then I use 352x240.

320x480 or 352x480 should not be used for avi but only if you intend to convert or are using a vertical resize filter to get a clearer 240.

When you resize to fullscreen if you use a bitrate of 1500 or better you usually get a reasonable image when using an mpeg4 based encoder but you will have to play with the bitrate cause it affects the file size.

[youdontseeme]

ok thanks guys. Filled in my profile. Im using a analog jvc camcorder.

This is what I have been doing.

1 Using vegas video to capture video
2 Use virtualdub to edit avi
3 Use vegas video again to add music
4 Use Adobe Premiere to compress for the web ...OR I use Avi2Vcd to convert it to mpeg.

Im thinking my problem might just be the source (analog camcorder)
What do you think?

[BJ_M]

why dont you use vegas video to both edit and re-compress your video instead of using 2 other programs to do so ..

vegas editing capibilities are much better than v-dub and you would be using the same compression abilities as with premier ...

also vegas video capture is primarily aimed at firewire capture .. so what cap card are you using ? or an analog to DV convertor ? with that info it helps to determine if your vid recorder (is it 8mm or vhs ?) or I/O is more of your problem.

you dont need premier at all in what you are doing ..

[gll99]

How did you come up with the strange resolution of 320x352?

I have never heard of someone using that before or was it a mistype?

[youdontseeme]

im using some off brand analog tv tuner/capture card. The camcorder is a JVC VHS-C

The picture is pretty clear (nothing like digital) upon initial capture.

Question. When I buy the Panasonic DV52 I plan on getting.....will vegas be able to capture via firewire if i bought any firewire pci card?

Also, will any of my "steps" listed above differ once I swtich to digital (besides the actual capturing). Meaning, will the resolution be different?

[BJ_M]

im using some off brand analog tv tuner/capture card. The camcorder is a JVC VHS-C

The picture is pretty clear (nothing like digital) upon initial capture.

Question. When I buy the Panasonic DV52 I plan on getting.....will vegas be able to capture via firewire if i bought any firewire pci card?

Also, will any of my "steps" listed above differ once I swtich to digital (besides the actual capturing). Meaning, will the resolution be different?

use a good firewire card -- ads pyro is a good one .. they are all cheap anyway ..