Pixelated video in playback

[torchfire]

The videos downloaded since I installed the Beta prior to 5.01 release, and the current 5.01 release (I re-installed twice, to the same effect) play out heavily pixelated in all three platforms I use - Real Player, Windows Media Player, and Windows Media Center.  Until I installed the beta and 5.01, have never seen this occur before; also updated the converter (#3) several times.   It is not the players listed above, since I tested all three with older converted videos.

[mig]

Can you share the URL of the page containing the video ?

Is it a YouTube video ? If so you may have picked a low quality variant.

Did you use the converter ? This may also degrade the quality if you don't specify a bitrate big enough.

[pnamdeerf]

I am having the same issue since the upgrade.  Conversions used to always look great regardless of the website and the quality.  Now, the original looks great but the conversion is almost not viewable.  How do you specify the bitrate to improve the quality.  I found conversion quality in the settings but it only allows you to order file types.  I'm not sure how that improves video quality.

Thanks in advance.

[mig]

When you are in the Download & Convert panel (or Convert Local Files after you chose files), click "Configure output details". In the new panel, you see a parameter "Bitrate". Click on its checkbox. An input field appears, enter "2000k" (without the quotes) in it.

Try again to convert, the result should be much better.

[torchfire]

This is happening on multiple playbacks from different websites including youtube - none of which I had a problem with before the upgrade, and to the same degree as 'pnamdeerf' is describing.   I usually picked 'medium' on the download tags, because anything more increased the file-size, but I still got a clear picture and sound; converting to WMV.

[mig]

Assuming you picked a reasonably good quality variant in the list (medium correspond to 640x480), the loss in quality is due to the conversion parameters. Can you try the bitrate change trick i described in the previous comment ?

Note that next version will come with additional high-quality conversion presets.

[Shaun McClelland]

It used to be that all data rates were at 192k.  That finally changed and still, all conversions are heavily pixelated, not matter where the source vid comes from, no matter HD or not.  Any ideas?

[mig]

What preset are you using exactly ? If you configure the bitrate manually, do not forget the "k" at the end, otherwise you will indeed something very pixelated !

[Shaun McClelland]

I've been using whatever the highest "download" number is (including when it says HD720) but still the outcome is the same, heavy pixelation.

[mig]

HD720 appears in the variant you download, but if you then convert to another low bitrate format the quality is degraded. So my question remains, what format are you converting to ? If you need more explanations, this link may help: http://www.downloadhelper.net/conversion-manual3.php