SNM: video clips work but....

[bethj]

The quality of the intensity series clips is not nearly as good as the older ones! the background is so dark I can hardly see what's going on and the film looks grainier also. I have a cable modem and the latest XP media player 9 etc. Is there any way to improve the darkness of the picture? Is anyone else experiencing this? I compared cardio/weights with a slow and heavy clip and there's just no comparison- S and H is much better quality!
Beth

 

[SNM Videos]

It's something on your end if it looks that bad. We've tested the clips on DSL and Comcast cable and were not seeing what you're seeing.However, The CW clip will not be as clear as Slow and Heavy for several reasons. #1) There is not much movement in Slow & Heavy #2) The Camera shots are in tighter in Slow and Heavy, and #3) The blue back ground is painted on the Slow & Heavy set while lights are used on the Intensity series set. All of these things mean it is harder for the encoding software to render a quality stream for the Intensity series as it did for S&H.

 

[Madonna]

I too agree that the quality of the new video clips is not as good as the older ones. I have an awesome Del computer with a cable connection. The size of the video on the screen is much larger but it looks rather fuzzy.

Madonna

 

[SNM Videos]

RE: Different encode bit rate

Okay, I see what you're talking about. The only difference I see is on the 200k clips. The 200k clips from last year were actually encoded at nearly 800k (I don't remember doing this as it is a huge file), while the 200k Intensity clips were only encoded at 282k. I'll try doubling the encode rate and that should do the trick. I'll start tomorrow, but this may take a few days.