Need video/photo software editing help

[wems2371]

Okay, I'm hoping there is some geeksquad type member here that can help me. I've been using Adobe Photoshop 6 without issue for some time. Absolutely love it. A couple years ago I tried using Adobe Elements to combine photos with my Sony handycam video footage, and immediately noticed all the photos became pixelated. Since Windows Moviemaker didn't do that, I stuck with it without issue. It created nice multimedia videos that didn't lose photo quality and didn't suffer too badly on Youtube.

This summer I got a GoPro HD POV camera, which is not compatible with my version of Moviemaker. I am not a computer nerd (wish I was lots of times) but did some googling at the time and saw where the file type needed to be converted, and something about codec, and yadayadayada. Tried a few internet suggestions but couldn't make it happen. Easiest option was to purchase software compatible for HD editing, so I bought the inexpensive Pinnacle Studio HD.

I went on a hunting trip last week and am using Studio for the first time to combine pics and video from the trip. It was very easy to jump right in to Studio, but I immediately noticed as I put photos in the timeline that they were pixelated similar to my previous experience with Adobe Elements. I hoped that was just temporary and would clean up when I did the final step in making the movie. Unfortunately it did not in regards to uploading it to Youtube, and I used the specific command directly from Studio to do so. In other words, I didn't choose the quality or settings, it has that sharing function built in. Now the DVD I made tonite plays beautifully on my 42" TV with crisp photos and the HD video segments only get better with size. But when the movie is shrunk into a smaller format, like Youtube, photos suffer greatly with pixelation. Video suffers minorly, but I'm guessing that has to do with Youtube's 480p, when the GoPro is set at 960p? I am mostly frustrated with the pics, since I know what they should look like. I read a little bit about bitmap smoothing for photos, but don't see how I would need to go to that extreme. Is resizing the answer for guaranteed crisp photos with what I'm doing? And if I do that for Youtube sharing, will it lower the DVD playback quality for the TV? Currently, I save my edited photos at 4x6" size and 300 res, unless I need another size for prints. I know that's much larger than the normal internet recommended sharing size , but I hadn't had a problem until now, and didn't want to be saving files at multiple resolutions.

PS--Please make your advice simple. You can probably tell that I'm really a drag and drop kind of person!

[postoakshorthairs]

Sorry I don't have an answer but I love using the windows movie maker! Last year i was volunteered to shoot some video of a local HS girl for a recruiting video for Volleyball. I decided to try my hand at creating a movie for her and was surprised that in a few short hours it was done..complete with music, slow motion effects and all! I did the same thing for my son this year playing baseball and he's had two offers from places that would have never driven to see him play. Photo and video editing has come a LONG way in the last few years for simple minded folks like me . Too bad the Pro POV footage can't be converted to use in the Movie Maker program.

p.s.-your FB photos of Brandi are awesome!

[isonychia]

Adobe photoshop and sony vegas would be your answer. Sony vegas comes in two formats, the production sweet and pro. As far as I know pro just lets you use more tracks (unlimited vs 4 on production). I've used PRO professionally and loved it. Haven't used production sweet yet but am about to be using it this week for my current job, thinking about buying a copy myself for when I get a GoPro HD hero 2 sometime soon.

[wems2371]

Marc, I was wondering that too, if maybe I could splice and edit clips on Pinnacle and then save them in a format Moviemaker accepts. Not sure if I'm saavy enough to do that, but I get computer lucky sometimes. I love Moviemaker for it's simplicity and still maintaining quality!

Thanks for the FB compliment. I paid out the nose for those studio pics! It was a bad day, since someone intentionally broke a 3 pt major. That's all I needed to finish Brandi's CH, so unfortunately we went home with Winner's Bitch and just 2 points, without the opportunity to compete for a major. We don't get many chances at majors around here, so I was bummed/disgusted :roll: and decided to gift myself.

Isonychia, thanks for the advice. I love Adobe and it's always served me well with photographs. I'm either doing something wrong in bringing photos into video editing or the editing programs I have aren't capable of quality at a smaller viewing size. If it's the programs, I'm just sol at the moment, but at least happy that they made an excellent dvd for the tv. If it's me, I need some help to know how to better prepare the pics.