Windows Movie Maker Quality declines significantly... DVD vs .MSWMM format

I prepared my first slide show using Windows Movie Maker. It looked
wonderful as I previewed it in Movie Maker. I used my own photos, which
I shot in RAW with a Canon 40D, processed in Adobe Camera Raw, and made
final adjustments in Photoshop CS4. I converted the files form .PSD to
.JPEG, each being about 1.5 megs, though I could have had them be
significantly larger.

The photos were sharp and the colors were accurate when I viewed the
previews in Movie Maker. I then saved the project to a DVD, using
Windows DVD Maker. The photos lost their sharpness and the colors
became muted. Additionally, some of the Movie Maker Effects looked
strange. How do I get the .MSWMM quality in a more portable format?

I published the movie as follows: (1) Clicked “Publish to DVD”, (2)
Clicked “Options…” (3) selected “Start with DVD menu,” “16:9,” “NTSC,”
DVD burner speed “Slow,” “Next.” I then clicked “Customize menu” and
made some minor changes to the foreground only. When I expanded the
dialog box to full screen and clicked “Preview;” the photo quality was
quite good. (4) I clicked “Burn.” I did not see any options to save at
higher quality levels.

As noted, the photo quality when I viewed the slide show from the DVD
was not good.

I am using Vista 64-bit. I have a Dell Studio XPS 435MT desktop with
8 Gigs of RAM, an Intel Core i7 processor, and an ATI RADEON HD4670
512MB graphics card.

What can I do to get the same quality that I saw in the .MSWMM
previews, but in a format that others can use, like a DVD?

Thanks, Don


--
Don100

I like the Intel processor!

When you save as jpg, that is a lossy format.

DV-AVI is highest quality format. Of course LARGE file.


--
lemur

Please click on rep icon if I've been of any help.
Thanks!

I'm not that concerned about file size, but I am very concerned about
getting the highest quality output. I'm using still photos, not movies.
Instead of jpeg I could have used tiff, which is lossless. I wonder if
that was the problem. I would not have guessed that this would have had
such a dramatic impact. Any other thoughts?


--
Don100

High quality standard DVD is about 1/3 of a megapixel in frame size. High
Def would be about 6 times that, but still less than the pixel dimensions of
your images. And video compression blends the pixels from frame to frame....
it might be mostly about calbrating your personal expectations.

Beyond that, all standard video DVDs need MPEG2 files on them.... that's the
final compression step in the process. MPEG2 compression codecs vary in
quality and home made discs use the lowest of them.
--
PapaJohn
www.papajohn.org


"Don100" <guest@unknown-email.com> wrote in message
news:a58e2aa124140f95bb475add3ae9adbc@nntp-gateway.com...
>
> I'm not that concerned about file size, but I am very concerned about
> getting the highest quality output. I'm using still photos, not movies.
> Instead of jpeg I could have used tiff, which is lossless. I wonder if
> that was the problem. I would not have guessed that this would have had
> such a dramatic impact. Any other thoughts?
>
>
> --
> Don100

Thanks for the response. Also, thanks for the link to your site:
'www.papajohn.org' (http://www.papajohn.org/). This, along with the
link I found there for brighthub.com, provide wonderful guidance on
Movie Maker. If anyone else is reading this and wants to learn more
about this subject, *check out these sites!*

I neglected to mention some info in my initial post: I’m using Movie
Maker 6.0 and Sony DVD+RW media.

Back to my challenge. I’m not yet ready to throw in the towel on
quality, if that is what you meant by “…calibrating your personal
expectations.” I’m encouraged by the fact that my images look quite
good when previewed in .MSWMM. What is frustrating me is that I don’t
have a convenient way of distributing my movies to family members, while
still retaining this quality. One work-around that I came up with was
to email the .MSWMM file to people, along with the directions below:
·Save the .MSWMM file to your computer
·Double-click the saved file… this will open the content in Windows
Movie Maker
·Make sure the sound on your computer is on
·Press Alt-Enter on your keyboard… this will play the slide show in
full screen mode
This results in the same, very good quality that I referred
to when I’m previewing the movie. Surprisingly, the file that I email
is reasonably small: 557 kb for a 3 ½ minutes movie, complete with
sound. This requires, however, that the recipient of my email have
Windows Vista, as XP will not play it.

This leads me to the conclusion that the problem is not being created
in Movie Maker. Do you have any suggestions for an approach that would
retain the .MSWMM quality, but be more user-friendly for those that I
want to send my movies to, either via email or any other method?


Thanks, Don


--
Don100

Mailing the .MSWMM project file is like inviting someone over to dinner and
mailing them the recipe of the main dish, and expecting them to taste it by
reading the recipe.

You need to make the movie from the project file and somehow get the movie
file to them.... via DVD, online at YouTube, letting them watch it on your
computer, etc.

As standard video DVDs must be 720x480 pixels in size... unless you go to
HiDef discs... putting videos online in HD quality - to YouTube, Vimeo and
other online sites, might be better than sending a disc.

The quality of the saved movie varies with the choice (profile) you pick. In
addition to the standard choices built into Movie Maker you can use custom
ones for higher quality. See my website's Save Movies > Custom WMV Profiles
page.

--
PapaJohn
www.papajohn.org


"Don100" <guest@unknown-email.com> wrote in message
news:5bf6b5312149cf6666c9a20e6f599851@nntp-gateway.com...
>
> Thanks for the response. Also, thanks for the link to your site:
> 'www.papajohn.org' (http://www.papajohn.org/). This, along with the
> link I found there for brighthub.com, provide wonderful guidance on
> Movie Maker. If anyone else is reading this and wants to learn more
> about this subject, *check out these sites!*
>
> I neglected to mention some info in my initial post: I'm using Movie
> Maker 6.0 and Sony DVD+RW media.
>
> Back to my challenge. I'm not yet ready to throw in the towel on
> quality, if that is what you meant by ".calibrating your personal
> expectations." I'm encouraged by the fact that my images look quite
> good when previewed in .MSWMM. What is frustrating me is that I don't
> have a convenient way of distributing my movies to family members, while
> still retaining this quality. One work-around that I came up with was
> to email the .MSWMM file to people, along with the directions below:
> ·Save the .MSWMM file to your computer
> ·Double-click the saved file. this will open the content in Windows
> Movie Maker
> ·Make sure the sound on your computer is on
> ·Press Alt-Enter on your keyboard. this will play the slide show in
> full screen mode
> This results in the same, very good quality that I referred
> to when I'm previewing the movie. Surprisingly, the file that I email
> is reasonably small: 557 kb for a 3 ½ minutes movie, complete with
> sound. This requires, however, that the recipient of my email have
> Windows Vista, as XP will not play it.
>
> This leads me to the conclusion that the problem is not being created
> in Movie Maker. Do you have any suggestions for an approach that would
> retain the .MSWMM quality, but be more user-friendly for those that I
> want to send my movies to, either via email or any other method?
>
>
> Thanks, Don
>
>
> --
> Don100