How to produce the best crystal clear video to be displayed from a projector?

[hajime]

Hello. I want to use part of a movie (from a DVD) in my Keynote presentation. What looks good on my MBP 17" may not look good when projected from a projector. Is this true? I can think of two approaches:

1. Play the DVD on my MacBook Pro 17". Use softwares such as Camtasia to do a full screen capture of the movie. Then, trim the unused parts and save in QuickTime format.

2. Use "Silisoft DVD Copy" to copy the content from the DVD to the desktop. Then, use softwares such as "VOB to MOV Converter for Mac" to convert the VOB file into Quicktime format. Then, trim out the unused portions under QuickTime.

Could you please tell me which approach leads to the best, crystal clear, video to be played back by a projector? What are the recommended softwares for both approaches? I tried "VOB to MOV Converter for Mac" but the resulting movie made me sick instantly. The images in the movie somehow did not move smoothly.

In Camtasia, one can save the video using Share->QuickTime export. Do the following default parameters produce the best results?

Video
Compression: H.264
Quality: High
Frame rate: 30
Frame reordering: yes
Encoding mode: multi-pass

Sound
Format: AAC
Sample rate: 44.100 kHz
Channels: Stereo *L R)
Bit rate: 128kbps

Thank you.

 

[Mal]

Why not use Handbrake to rip directly to Quicktime format (.mp4 video would probably be best), and trim to the section you want? The more conversions you introduce, the worse it's going to look.

jW

 

[hajime]

Why not use Handbrake to rip directly to Quicktime format (.mp4 video would probably be best), and trim to the section you want? The more conversions you introduce, the worse it's going to look.

jW

Thank you very much for your advice. By default, the file to be saved is in .m4v format. Under Video Codec, should I keep it at H.264 (x264) or change it to MPEG-4 (FFmpeg)?

 

[Mal]

I'd keep it as H.264. Good quality and efficient compression. Biggest things you'll want to do is get the resolution and framerates right too, they should match the DVD's native.

jW

 

[hajime]

I'd keep it as H.264. Good quality and efficient compression. Biggest things you'll want to do is get the resolution and framerates right too, they should match the DVD's native.

jW

Thanks. Looks like Handbrake is better than Silisoft DVD Copy to copy from DVD to the Mac HD. However, it crashes very very often.

 

[hajime]

How to produce the best crystal clear photo then?

Hello. After I saved the movie under the QuickTime format. I can just copy and paste individual frame to a graphic application. Then save it as a picture file. How can I make the resulting photo as crystal clear/high res as possible? Thanks.

 

[hajime]

About movies clips of different sizes

Hello. Maybe some of the experts in video productions could help. I used Handbrake to save parts of different movies into QuickTime format. Then, drag and drop to different slides in Keynote. I noticed that the size of the clips are different. For example, one clip is 800x450. The other is 857x368.

1. Could anybody please explain the reason?

2. After drag and drop into Keynote, is it a good idea to enlarge the size of the videos? I prefer the video clips to be of the same size and at the same center of each slide. When I dragged the corner of the clip, both the horizontal and vertical dimensions are changed accordingly. It seems that I cannot enlarge only one side of the video clips. I suppose it is better not to do this as this might distort the video images.

3. Will it degrade the quality of the video images if I scale both dimensions of the video clips? I cannot tell the difference on my 17" MBP. Maybe the difference will become noticeable when the Keynote presentation is displayed via a projector? Certainly want to find out before it is too late.

Thanks.

 

[Dave Braine]

For example, one clip is 800x450. The other is 857x368.
Could anybody please explain the reason?

Different sized original files?

is it a good idea to enlarge the size of the videos

Up to you. Obviously as you make them bigger the quality will suffer.

When I dragged the corner of the clip, both the horizontal and vertical dimensions are changed accordingly

Open the Inspector, click on the Ruler tab and untick the Constrain Proportions options. You can now alter just one dimension.

this might distort the video images.

Maybe. Try it and see.

 

[hajime]

Different sized original files?

Thanks for the reply. So, there is no industrial standard for movie makers to fix the size? I played the movies in full screen mode. Most of them filled the screen. A few of them have black on the top and bottom of the screen.