Why does this happen?

[HST Power]

I have had a Kodak Easy Share M550 camera for two months now.

The photo quality of the camera is quite good. I don't know how it sums up in comparison to the rest of the market, but the camera was cheap, and the quality seems fair enough to me.

Unfortunately, I seem to be having a slight issue with my videos. I can make videos, but when I come to upload them onto my PC the quality of the video is rather poor. The screen is not pixelated, but the picture is jumpy and seems blurred.

I have to play the videos in QuickTime format, because Windows Media Player complains that the file type might not be supported, or there could be a problem with the coding. I tried to sort the problem out using Movie Maker. There was sound in the background, but the screen was all grey, and I had no picture.

Any idea what's going on, and what I could do to sort it out?

Thanks in advance.

 

[eastwestdivide]

According to the specs on the web for that camera, it records video at 640 × 480 pixels (a lot less than the resolution for still photos), so if you view it in a window bigger than that, it won't look great.
Aside from that, how steady are you holding it? Try letting it record something, even just yourself walking past, leaving the camera on a fixed surface, and see if the results are the same as whatever you're doing to get the disappointing results. At least then you might be able to narrow things down to the way it's being used or the camera itself.

 

[142094]

If it is not the camera itself, then it will almost certainly be camera shake - therefore you need to invest in a tripod.

 

[scoope]

I had that problem with useing a camera rather than a camcorder to film videos. It is the resolution thats the problem. Some more costly stills cameras can record video at a larger res. I am not an expert with cameras or camcorders but have become interested in videos...........it seems a general rule that the size of the lense (diameter) is important, larger the better...most compacts seem to have small lenses. Just like you can get 1080p HD camcorders that shoot poor videos against other 1080p camcorders, when you look at them side by side it is often the lense size that differs..........................................I think

 

[HST Power]

Thank you to all who responded.

Having fiddled around with the player, it does seem that the video plays better in a smaller resolution window.

 

[Bevan Price]

Another problem that can occur with videos is that the computer is too slow to process & play videos at the correct speed - that can give unsteady images, or periods of stop/start motion. If this problem is suspected, try increasing the computer memory to the maximum value it can contain. If that fails, you may need a faster processor or video card (or a new computer...)

 

[eMeS]

... The screen is not pixelated, but the picture is jumpy and seems blurred. ...

That sounds similar to a problem I was having with video shot on my Eos 5D Mark II - which every body else seemed to be raving about. My videos were jumpy and blurred.

I downloaded the free VLC media player, and followed the detailed advice given here. It worked for me with my HDV videos, and I guess the jumpiness was due to a missing codec problem.

Edit - prior to this, I'd assumed the jumpiness was due to my PC not being fast enough.