I will try to give everybody as much info as I can. The videos I am trying to edit are from my Hava (placeshifter) and I'm trying to upload them to Vimeo. I can play my vids back in all of my players including Windows Media with very good quality. No issues at all. After I edit however, the quality goes to the toilet! All I am doing is cutting out small clips from my Hava recordings. 30 sec vids to about 1 1/2 minute vids. Now Vimeo has setting they recommend when uploading to their site. Here they are:
Codec
Choose H.264 for the video codec. Choose AAC for the audio codec.
Frame rate
This is usually 29.97 for USA/Japan/Canada, while in Europe and rest of the world it's usually 25. If there is an option that says "current" just go with that. Please note that Vimeo converts all HD videos only up to 25 frames per second in order to optimize playback performance.
Keyframes
Every 30 frames. This is basically how often the compressor references your uncompressed video.
Data rate
1800 kbits/sec for standard definition 4:3 video , 2500 kbits/sec for widescreen DV, or 5000 kbits/sec for high definition. Making these numbers higher will increase both quality and size.
Size
640x480 for standard definition 4:3 video, 872x480 for widescreen DV, or 1280x720 for high definition. It is also best to export 1920x1080 or 1440x1080 video as 1280x720 too.
Deinterlace
Yes. If you do not deinterlace, you will often get weird-looking horizontal lines in your video.
Sound sample rate
44.100 kHz
Audio quality
You want audio with a bit rate of 128 kbps. You can set your audio to really good quality without increasing file size too much.
First, I cannot choose the H.264 from Video Pad. It allows me to choose H.261 and H. 263. The audio, while it is fine, can't compress to AAC. I can do everything else though. My video quality is junk!
Just so you know how I'm doing this, I have my Xbox 360 hooked up to my Hava. The Xbox is not outputting in HD as I still use my rather expensive and large RCA tv. I don't know if this is the reason I'm having these issues or not. It doesn't make sense to me that it would because before I edit, I can view my vids on the Hava player or even Windows Media Player and the quality is just fine. It's after I cut out my vids that the quality declines. My guess is that I'm either doing something wrong, or Video Pad just doesn't produce quality vids.
Am I just editing it the wrong way?
Do I need to convert the video files before I edit?
If there is anybody that could throw some advise my way, that would be great! I have had my Hava for a month now and really feel like it was a HUGE waste of money for I have not been able to put it to good use simply becasue I cannot edit.
Thank you in advance!!
