Resolution for YouTube Videos

I am trying to pair an MP3 playback with screen shots to create a youTube video in VideoStudio. All my attempts come out blurry with missing staff lines. Can someone help me figure out what resolution and format to use so I can import the screenshots into VideoStudio?

I have the advantage of a 43" monitor with 3840 x 2160 resolution, which is great most of the time but really messes me up in this case.

Thanks in advance for any help you can offer.

Take a full-screen shot, 4K.

Or set a window to 1080, and position/zoom the score to fill it.

I’ll try the 1080 solution; the 4K one doesn’t seem to work for me (so far).

It’s probably the rendering process. How are you encoding it?

I’m not sure. All I know is that it looks fine when I import an image to VideoStudio, but as soon as I start the video (so I can hear the music behind the image, the image distorts. (You can tell I have virtually no expertise here; writing music is one thing, and visuals are another.)

As long as you render the video at the same resolution you imported, it should be pixel-for-pixel (mostly).

A lot of video programs cut down resolution for in-app playback.
I would try to export a short snippet and see, if the distortion persists in the export too

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It persists. On page two the staves actually jitter in addition to being blurred. I see this kind of file on YouTube all the time and cannot figure out why mine are going wrong.

Sorry to hear. I think I cannot help you further though, as I don’t know VideoStudio at all.

YouTube usually has tutorials for different video editing programs.

Also, maybe try OBS studio open source,

Another option might be DaVinci Resolve. It is super powerful, but free in the basic version afaik

I’ve used the free and open source Shotcut for some simple video work and it’s very good, though not super-easy to get started with.

If you’re willing to pay, I’ve found Cyberlink PowerDirector works great. I use it for everything. ~$60

Try decreasing the resolution of the screenshots rather than maximising it… :question:

Thank you for all these suggestions. Needless to say, I’ll need a little time to try them all; but again, I thank you.

I’m sorry to be so discouraging when folks have been so helpful, but the same “clear when adding, blurred when running” happens in this program too. Something must be faulty in the format I am importing. Currently it is JPEG, but I have also tried TIFF and PNG.

(I realize this is not really your responsibility to troubleshoot, and I do appreciate your taking the time and making the suggestion.)

Reducing from 1080 vertical to 720 gives me the blurring in the still shot similar to what I was seeing when I ran the video. I have seen projects like this (same size, arrangement of the same piece for almost identical instruments) run on YouTube. I clearly am missing something, but I do appreciate your suggestion.

If you take a screenshot PNG at 1080 and import it at 1080, and then render it at 1080, it really shouldn’t blur in the slightest…

Did you actually render it and it’s blurry? Often video production software plays it back in “preview” resolution to reduce CPU load.

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Sounds like the video output bitrate is too low to me, and/or bad/low quality CODEC.

@dan I asked that before too. It seems like it persists in the final export too.

@tylere when using the h.264 codec, which is pretty standard, still images usually look super sharp, as almost no Bitrate is needed to encode them.

For me, one possible cause could be aliasing. Basically, when downscaling, a Video software needs to decide how to deal with small details. This becomes especially q problem with thin lines.
I would suggest, that you try setting your screen resolution to 1080p, taking the screenshots, and then back and try with these?