6.2. Outputting to the PC
Publish is handy when you want to go directly to the
Web, but the resulting files are pretty low quality and they're
certainly not good enough for archival purposes. A better option is to
output the video to the PC, and this is true even if you eventually
intend to publish it to the Web: the resulting video file can be of
much higher quality than what's available via Publish.
Windows Live Movie Maker can output video in just two formats:
Windows Media DVD quality:
This is a Windows Media Video (.WMV) file encoded at 2.8 Mbps with a
resolution of 640 × 480 at 30 frames per second (fps). Technically
speaking, this is actually sub-DVD quality (as DVDs are encoded at 720
× 480 in the U.S.) but it's close enough for horseshoes. You should
generally choose this option when outputting to disk.
Windows Media portable device:
This is a Windows Media Video (.WMV) file encoded at 1.5 Mbps with a
resolution of 320 × 240 at 30 frames per second (fps). This file will
play well on a limited range of Windows Media–compatible devices and
Windows Mobile-based smart phones.
To output your video to the PC, you can click the
down arrow below the Output button in the Home tab to choose between
the two aforementioned formats, as shown in Figure 24.
Or, you can just click the Output button. When you do so, the
higher-quality Windows Media DVD quality format is chosen for you.
NOTE
Not to beat this to death, but Windows
Live Movie Maker's output options are woefully limited compared to what
was possible in the Windows Vista version of this application. Back
then, you could output in AVI as well as WMV, at standard definition
resolutions up to and including 720 × 480, and in Hi-Def (HD) at 1280 ×
720 (720p) and 1440 × 1080 (1080p). Our understanding is that Microsoft
will update this product regularly, however, so it should become more
powerful—and more interesting—in the future.
