Hello, I'm a newbie, this is my first post. I have been playing around with videostudio 11 plus (the trial version). I recently purchased a sony hi-def camera and want to start editing videos. I created my first video (standard def) and loved it, I added titles, music, etc. The software is pretty user friendly, however when I play the video on my hi-def tv the video is very pixely, it makes me extremely dizzy, it looses sharpness and the picture is darker than the original. I have tried saving on different formats but they all look identical.
Can someone tell me what my settings need to be? Getting help from corel is almost impossible, I really want to buy the software but I am very disappointed with the end result and their support. Help please.....

When you encoded your video, did you use the BEST setting in the encoding options.... What brand of media are you using.

to tell you the truth I am not sure what you mean, bare with me, I'm very new at this.
Here is what I did.
I had already saved my movie from the camera onto a DVD. I imported the video using capture from dvd. Then when I saw the clips in the library, I dragged them to the timeline, edited them (added titles, music, cut some clips), named the project (file-save as), then saved when I made changes (file-save) and went to share, create disc, burn. I played around with the upper field, lower fields (dont even know what that means) but they all came out the same.

I have used vertatim (dvd-rw) for testing and memorex (dvd-r). Both get same results, lost of sharpness, brightness and very pixely.

The original dvd is sd, but sharp, bright, not pixely on my hd tv.

A lot of your problem, is that you are taking a video which is already in DVD (mpeg2) format, and then you are re-encoding that video, which will cause loss of quality. As I don't have Ulead up in front of me, I can only tell you, that when you go to Create Disk, Ulead will encode the video (which was already encoded once by your camera). If you check preferences and/or options settings, there should be a setting as to how you encode your video, and I believe that there is also an option for 1 or 2 pass encoding. If you don't know what any of this means, you should not be playing around trying to edit a video, you should be reading tutorials and guides which will help teach you what to do.

There are two ways to learn to work with video.
1. Fumble your way through using the help function and asking questions (which will take you forever), and you still won't understand what you did.

2. Spend about 4 - 6 hours reading/viewing tutorials and guides, and breeze through creating your video, and understand what you did, so you can do it again next time..

Thanks for the input. I did read the manual which I downloaded from corel, and I have searched online for tutorials, I've seen some for other versions but I have not found one for the 11 plus, most teach you how to use the software but I have yet to find info on encoding and loss of quality. I spent all weekend reading forums and trying to find the answer, as well as to educate myself, this is all foreign to me.

I am going to try and capture from the camera directly and see if how it goes, unfortunately the computer I am using is not home that's why I was using DVDs.
Thanks for the input, I will continue searching for tutorials. I will figure this out, its way too much fun to miss out on.

Search the forums here for ulead studio 11, and you will find a link for takeone video which has some excellent Ulead Studio tutorials. Anytime you are editing, it is best to start with the original footage. I know it is frustrating to have to search, but trust me, it is the best way to learn (besides tutorials)

Thanks again for your help. I'll go search for it right now.

harley2ride finally I found some info. Thanks for the link. It is wonderful, just what I was looking for.

Glad I could help. Good luck with your video..

Thanks. Hopefully soon I will be able to offer help to others

Once you really learn how to use this program you will love it, I am just learning and I love it already.

harley2ride, I just finished testing my video capturing. I did one capturing directly from the camera and one from a dvd (like I was doing originally).
Thank you for your help. As you mentioned, importing the video from a dvd degrades the quality. I spent countless hours trying to get corel to give the information to no avail. You helped me figure it out. I loved the tutorials, they are awesome.

alan1476, I totally love it now that I figured out my settings. Now I want to create all the cool videos I saw on the tutorials. Enjoy!!!!

i to have this exact problem my files are mpeg 2 when taken from camcorder but like you when dvd is made it makes me dizzy when watching can you please tell me if you got a fix for this and if so what was it please many thanks in advance

What kind of camcorder to you have nannysue... When you create the dvd, are you using the wizard to capture the video and then create the dvd?

i have a sony hdd camcorder dcr sr52 i can only transfer files via usb port as has no firewire connection i then open the files in videostudio edit etc then create dvd with the wizard i cannot capure the vidoe direct with the camcorder does not show in capture box
the quality is good but like the other member the completed dvd just does not seem right makes me feel giddy watching it ! i know it sounds strange but that is the best way i can put it
thanks for quick reply by the way!!!
ps if i transfer footage direct to standalone recorder and burn a disc then put disc in pc and edit files in ulead etc then burn edited footage again onto disc on pc the dvd seems fine when played any ideas on this?

Capturing video via USB, can be challenging.. You could try booting up to safe mode, then capture your video from the camera. You may also want to check the settings on your camera, and make sure that you are recording the video at the highest quality setting.

I am not a fan of mpeg2 cameras. I like my video in avi or dv-avi. Much easier to work with. You might want to look into a dedicated mpeg2 software such as Womble Mpeg. But first check camera settings for recording options, and try the capture under safe mode. Don't start Ulead and then hook up the camera. Hook up the camera, and turn it on. It should be auto detected, and ask which software you want to use for capture. That is when you select Ulead...

hi again and many thanks have checked camera settings and am recording in the highest quality i cannot capture at all from my camera as does not show i have to transfer the files first with the sony software onto my pc and then load the files into ulead!!
have just paid out £60 for ulead so am really hoping comeone can sort this for me
also sorry to pick your brains but is it best after editing etc to create a video file first or can i go straight to create disc would this make any difference i have read all through the tutorials of takeone video but not really anything about this on there
i really do appreciate your help in this
sue

I think I'm the neweset newbie here...was trying to do simple video editing of combining 2 separate MP4s into one using this application. Each file has the lowest settings like
Video data rate: 15 fps at 320x240 size with 216 Kbps,
Audio data rate: 48 kbps, 24KHz and 16 Bit Mono.

I chose the lowest settings to keep the size small. However, when I try to combine the 2 MP4s into one, I can't change the output to a lower setting. The output file has the following setting of
video data rate: 30fps at 320x240 size with 768 Kbps
Audio data rate: 128kbps, 24KHz ad 16 Bit Stereo

Can I change this preset settings to anything that I want? The output file size is too big for me.

Sorry it took so long.. Make sure you have panasonic dv codec installed. Make sure that your camera is turned off, no video software open. Connect firewire cable to camera and pc. Turn on camera. Screen should pop up on pc, asking what software you want to use to open/capture file with. Select Ulead Studio. Ulead Studio will open. Select capture and press start and at same time, press play on the camera. You may have to check your camera, and make sure you are in playback mode. Never go direct DVD using create disk. Transfer to pc first

Some softwares will allow you to set the output settings to various rates. You just have to make sure that whatever you set it to, is a valid rate and is acceptable for whatever you are using for playback. You should be able to find quite a bit of information on MP4 settings at www.videohelp.com, in the forums..

sorry...may be I was not clear...I am using Ulead to combine 2 video files with minor editing...but the output file is bigger than the summation of the 2 individual files. I realised the settings in Ulead are at a higher rate and that's why the output file is so huge. My question is whether I can change the preset setting of MP4 in Ulead to a lower one so that when I combine the files, the output file is not so big. Thanks much !!!