Screen capture resizing

bulj · #1 (**permalink**) 03-17-2005, 12:44 AM

My first post here so hi to all.

I'm currently trying to capture video from my desktop using various screen recording programs. This part is going ok and I've been capturing uncompressed AVI's at resolutions of 1280x1024 and they're looking mighty fine. I do however, need to edit these files in Premiere Pro in PAL format and I've used VirtualDub to resize them to 760x576 although the results aren't as desirable as their former. Is this an issue with square and non-square pixels? Ultimately my dilemma is that I need to capture full desktop windows, that will be edited as PAL video, without losing quality at the resize/conversion stage. What is the best way to go about this? Am I asking the impossible here or am I just a noob that needs a little direction?

mrlipring · #2 (**permalink**) 03-17-2005, 04:03 AM

well, what's the problem, exactly? care to pop a few screenies on here?

Are you using nearest neighbour (or whatever) resizing? try with bicubic if you are, you'll see a hell of a lot better image quality.

What you're doing is perfectly possible, although do you NEED to capture the desktop at that resolution?

bulj · #3 (**permalink**) 03-17-2005, 11:07 AM

Ok I have been reading up since I posted this so have a bit of better idea now, don't let this stop you though

. I don't need to capture the images as this size no, but I'd prefer to still capture at a 4:3 ratio if possible.

I have used different settings as you suggested and these are better, but still nowhere near as nice as I'd like to see them. I have captured at 800x600 and the resize of this looks a lot better:

than the former:

I'm still concerned about how it will react to transforms and effects in premiere though. Is it not possible to edit the whole thing in sqaure pixels at its native resolution and convert to PAL later, without quality loss?

Marc Peters · #4 (**permalink**) 03-17-2005, 01:14 PM

Think about it logically; if you resize to a different aspect ratio, you have two options:

1) distort the image (either squeeze or stretch the image to fit), or
2) crop the image or insert black bars at the side.

Generally graphics cards don't do "custom" resolutions without 3rd party support. Your best bet is to capture a region of the screen in the dimension you want.

bulj · #5 (**permalink**) 03-17-2005, 01:26 PM

I thought that might be the solution. I have tried this but it was difficult to get it as clean as I wanted it. There's a lot of split screen transforms going on in a short space of time so it's easy to make it look messy by using cropping etc.

Marc Peters · #6 (**permalink**) 03-17-2005, 01:44 PM

What are you trying to capture (waht application) and what will the final output be (DVD, web etc)

bulj · #7 (**permalink**) 03-17-2005, 04:47 PM

Different web based applications, IE, Firefox, file sharing programs. Final output onto VHS primarily.

mrlipring · #8 (**permalink**) 03-18-2005, 12:33 AM

onto vhs? good luck. It'll be hard enough at dvd-res, but at vhs? Jeepers.