How can I improve video preview quality?

[djalzy]

When I upload a video preview from xlights the colors are very dark and no where near as vibrant as in xlights or on my house.
Without videoing my actual house (which I might do but have problems with a streetlight washing my video as well) is there any fix I can make in the upload process?

 

[Dave]

@djalzy Do you have 'House Preview' window as large as it can possibly go before you start the video preview? I've found this helps.

 

[ListenToOurLights]

First I keep the preview window smaller while the preview video records. I pull the preview into Adobe Elements and set the brightness to max. The other thing you can do is on your model set the size of the pixels to be larger (a major pain).

 

[djalzy]

@djalzy Do you have 'House Preview' window as large as it can possibly go before you start the video preview? I've found this helps.

Been doing it as large as I can. If I make it small the quality of video drops.

 

[lsilas]

I believe it is largely based on the machine you are on, the monitor you place the preview window on and the window size. I played around quite a bit the last few days on my Mac with two monitors. I have a very powerful Mac Studio and I was getting 720P. I had the preview window on my cheap 1080P monitor. I moved it to my Studio Monitor, which is 5K and I got 4K videos. The size of the preview window is also important, make the preview window large . Also, In xLights Preferences>Other, there is video export settings. The manual reads: "Set the Video Codec and bitrate used by the Export House Preview Menu Dropdown. H.264 is recommended new Macs (M1, M1 Max, M2) with hardware video rendering. MPEG-4 is an older/slower standard that will create large video files.". However, there is also H.265 which has a higher video compression rate without visible deterioration of video quality. H.265 generates the video faster on my Mac. Your results may vary depending if you are on Windows and have different hardware. Hope this helps!

 

[Sequences by Mel]

I was using Adobe after effects, but have started using Windows clip champ and adjusting the brightness that way. I use OBS to record the xLights screen then adjust the brightness of the video.
I watch most sequences on my phone, and my phone screen brightness is usually pretty low, so when sequences aren't bright I can barely see them.
I also try and record as many sequences as possible on our actual display, while it's up, so it's a true representation of the colour output from the sequence.

 

[scuba]

A little help. I'm using a projector to simulate a large (expensive) Matrix. I used the Model Export feature within my sequence but the resolution is very poor (I'm guessing 480). Is there a way to UP the resolution of a exported model video?

 

[Javito]

Hi

A little help. I'm using a projector to simulate a large (expensive) Matrix. I used the Model Export feature within my sequence but the resolution is very poor (I'm guessing 480). Is there a way to UP the resolution of a exported model video?

Hi. What resolution has the matrix you want to export? I think xLights exports just a video with the resolucion of the Matrix. Look at the exported video of these two matrices, one is 15 pixels high and the other one is 30:

The size of the video is just 1 centimeter on my screen, so it is very small. If you wand a video with more points, you need a matrix model with more points.
I think there is also a limit defined by the model buffer. I recall it is 400x400 pixeles per model. If you define a big matrix model with e.g. 2000x1000 pixels, I think the max render resolution is still 400 points. I recall also that the bufer can be increased so maybe you can try this.