trakAx

I’m creating a movie from a number of sources, one is a very colourful and busy avi file outputted from Flash. The avi file is uncompressed, but when I bring it into trakaxpc, in the preview pane it already looks heavily compressed with loads of artifacts in. When I export the whole movie, sure enough, it looks pretty awful and over-optimised. Could you point me towards where I can fiddle with the settings to stop or modify this behaviour? Thanks!

Hi andrewsheerin

Thanks for your mail.

Does the video play okay in VLC or windows media player?

When you click on the file and preview it in the Media Browser does it play okay?

If you would like to send it to me using dropsend http://www.dropsend.com/ to . I could have a look at it here and get a better idea of what might be happening.

I look forward to hearing from you.

Best regards

Cormac

I bring it into trakaxpc, in the preview pane it already looks heavily compressed with loads of artifacts in. When I export the whole movie, sure enough, it looks pretty awful and over-optimised. Could you point me towards where I can fiddle with the settings to stop or modify th

Hi Trako

I think I might understand what is happening.

When you preview a file in the Media Browser, you will view the file in the quality it was created in. When a video/photo is brought into the Mixing Screen for editing and mixing, we display the video in a 320x240 resolution for maximum PC performance. This is in order for users with any spec machines to be able to mix very large files (both resolution and frame rate) comfortably. When you export your file to MP4 H.264 level 4 or 5, you will notice that the quality of the file will be superb and very little quality has been lost.

I presume the photo looks small because you have the Stretch to Video Frame button turned off the video output window. (see screenshot)

If you turn off this button you will see the video in the clear 320x240 resolution. It will look small but clear.

Another option is view your video in 640 x 480 or 1280x720 in the Mixing Screen..

You can do this by clicking on: Options/ Mixer Configuration ( see screenshot)
and in video mixing engine performance area: Select Medium (640x480) or Low Performance (1280x720):

NOTE: this option will require a reboot of the application and it will re-parse all the media that you are using. Also if you do not have high spec machine it might effect the playing of your video mix in the mixing screen. So generally it not really recommended but the option is there

Maybe your video could be rendered with a low quality frame rate and codec level?

To improve the quality of your video, select the file format you would like to use (I would pick MP4), increase the quality level in the video codec drop down box

(see screenshot)

and increase the frames per second in the frames per second drop down.own box:

(see screenshot)

Then click save.

Hopefully your video will be presented as you wish.

To learn more about exporting, please see our wiki with a video included.
http://www.trakax.com/software/wiki/Category:Exporting_Media/

Also what media player are you using for playback? VLC, windows media player or quicktime?
I would recommend VLC, http://www.videolan.org/vlc/. A great free player that plays all file formats.

I hope this helps please do not hesitate to contact me with any questions on this.

Best regards

Cormac

Somewhat related. I make a lot of HQ videos with Fraps which I then convert to HQ MP4 1920x1080 with Sonne Video Converter (fast and awesome!). But the “video output” in your program displays in uber low quality so it is very difficult for me see some details in the video I am editing. This happens even if I put it on my other monitor or high quality stetched in fullscreen.

Additionally, when I export it even to a level 4 MP4 file (which is not as good as my source MP4 video) the file size is a full 1/3 larger even though I removed the audio track.

First time trying your software and I’m scratching my head. Wish I could try out some of the pro features before buying as this looks much easier to use than Sony, Adobe or Pinnacle’s underwhelming software; but so far it looks too good to resist.

Hi gamesturbator

Thanks for your mail.

The video that displays in the mixing screen is only brought in at 320x240 so large video files can play easily within the mixing screen and eases the pressure on your processor especially if you have a lot of files in the mixing screen that you want to mix. These will look blurry if you decided to stretch the video frame within the video output screen.

Another option is view your video in 640 x 480 or 1280x720 in the Mixing Screen..

You can do this by clicking on: Options/ Mixer Configuration ( see screenshot)
and in video mixing engine performance area: Select Medium (640x480) or Low Performance (1280x720):

NOTE: this option will require a reboot of the application and it will re-parse all the media that you are using. Also if you do not have high spec machine it might effect the playing of your video mix in the mixing screen. So generally it not really recommended but the option is there

What frame rate is the original file being converted in by your converter? 30 frames or 60 frames?

You can always lower the frame rate/target frame size or codec level to render the file to a smaller size.

If you would like me to have a look at one of the files from Sonne so I can have a look at here and do some tests myself?

You can send it using dropsend to http://www.dropsend.com/

Best regards

Cormac

I have Fraps to record at 60 FPS. Not sure that is useful considering that the mp4 it gets converted to ends up at 30, but with very little loss of quality (does AVI look better anyway or could it be the difference between 60 and 30?). The Mixer Configuration set to medium looks much clearer though I prefer perfect duplication in my previews

My goal is to render the file at the exact same quality as I started with, so dropping frame rates, frame size is counter productive. The MP4 level 4 output is already lower quality than my original MP4 but ends up quite a bit larger, as I had mentioned. And this is true of Sony Vegas, even after removing all audio from the file (ended up 4X the size LOL), so it’s a common result with video editors, I take it.

Sent you the original mp4 with audio intact.  Many thanks!

Edit: Upload complete! Cox used to give me 2 Megabytes upload speed back before Fios. Now that I have 52Mbit down, they only give me 670KB up! :(

Just purchased it due to your awesome support. I don’t usually blindly buy software until I’ve gotten to see the pro features first, but your support is pro all around! :)

Hi Gamesturbator

Firstly, thanks a million for purchasing trakAxPC.

You can up the preview to 1280x720 by using the low performance option. This might slow down your PC somewhat depending on the spec of your PC

Doing some playing around with the file now. The difference in file size can be traced back to the data rate which is bigger in exported video that the converted video. This can be lowered by bring down the codec or frame rate.

Have you thought about using format factory for conversion of FRAP files which is free. Supposedly it is excellent for this procedure. http://www.formatoz.com/

Here is a video on youtube about it: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RhRxaFUFqyw

We will be offering the ability to render to 60fps in the new update which is free to current users and the beta will be out extremely shortly. (see screenshot)

Sneak Peak http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e7Xb5PbRHoI

If you would like to ask me any questions personally, you can contact me at

Best regards

Cormac

Looks like Format Factory fails to decode to MP4 repeatedly, but it does reduce the size if you go from AVI to AVI, albeit it takes almost an hour to work with 4 minutes of video. LOL It does have a very clean interface for a free program Thanks for pointing it out to me anyway.

EDIT: Actually got it to convert a 4 second Fraps avi file to mp4 (HQ settings) which took 13 minutes! The quality was horrid! I’ll stick to Sonne and your software.