Can I customize dimensions of saved video PE11?

Question

I've been trying to do this for some time but not found a way.  I often download video clips from the web and many of these are pixel dimensions 1200 x 720 (although not always, but the principle is the same).  I often want to edit these to upload to my Dropbox so that friends can view them, but the various standard frame sizes for Playback to Computer or Burn to DVD don't scale down in proportion (unless I've missed the right ones).   This results in considerable distortion.
Perhaps one could crop the entire video, I don't know, I've never tried that -- wouldn't it degrade the whole thing badly?
Is there any way to downscale, say, to something like 720 x 405?   Doesn't have to that, particularly, but something to reduce the size so that people can download it quickly?
Thanks in advance for help on this
all best
Brian

Answer 1

OK, so at last I've had a chance to look at this, and spent the last couple of hours finding out (or trying to get to grips with it).   I made notes as I went, and I'll just copy / paste them here, maybe with one or two corrections.
Downloading clips from the web to edit and forward to friends is a somewhat laborious process with me (and almost certainly must degrade the quality, but for most everyday purposes I don't mind so long as it's not very noticeable -- although that is *not* the case if I'm really working on something I want to look as good as possible) -- here, I'm really talking about those video clips I want to download from the web, perhaps edit a little bit, and forward to friends who missed the original.   I don't own the copyright on them and so wont be putting eg on You Tube and suchlike.
So the problem I've been having is really only about the downloads.
The 'laborious' process is that I use LiteCam t www.litecam.net/  (in my case it has /en for the UK after it)
I can record using preset fps buttons from 10 - 100 fps, but usually use 25fps, probably because that's the way my own videos come out of my Canon DSLR. But I suppose if I wanted a high quality recording, I'd use 50 or 60fps.  I've not done that.  (Although many of the web clips I want are in 30fps and also of course NTSC.  I have to make this PAL in my output.)
There are several options under 'Video Recording' for LiteCam (one can also record Games direct from the monitor, but I'm not into that):
Microsoft MPEG-4 Video, MS Video 1, Intel (2 sub-types), Cinepak Codec by Radius (whatever that is) and so on ...
See for example http://www.litecam.net/en/support/online-guide/litecam-hd/converting-and-extraction/convert-video -file/
or http://tinyurl.com/ocpqj99
I've only been using LiteCam for a few months and as far as I know, it always* records in .avi, with which I don't think PE11 is compatible, or at least I find it gets the audio, but not the video (there was some discussion of this on the Forum a while back, I recall).   *Yes, .avi is invariable with LiteCam.
So that means I use the LiteCam facility to convert to MPEG-4, although actually now I think of it, I've often used another bit of software I have, Any Video Converter.   http://www.anvsoft.com/
This converts formats into a wide range of other formats, including for Apps, phones &c, but when I've used it, I convert to MPEG-II, and this works with PE11.
But LiteCam converts it into MP4 (I'm still not sure if MP4 is the same as MPEG-II, although I've read it up twice!)   Incidentally when I did this just now to confirm what I'm writing about, PE11 gave a pop-up message to say it was activating some component, but I didn't see what the component was.  This was after importing the MP4 converted video.
The problem I often have with this is that it puts the video and audio sightly out of synch -- often unusably so.  So I must find a better way, ie rather than this laborious method.
Now to the nub of the problem.  Trying this just now, I recorded with LiteCam a short clip, sizing the recordable area frame to exactly cover the size of the clip on my monitor.
PE11 'Properties' tells me that the px dimensions are  956 x 552
I could actually stick with that, but suppose I want to reduce the size to make it easier for people to download it when I send it to them?
Here's an example of a clip I downloaded, PE11 tells me it's an MPEG Movie, Image Size  720 x 404, Frame Rate 29.97, Average data rate 119 KB/second
Following up your suggestion, I've had a look at the Export Settings dialog box.   I've seen it before, but never used it.  Thinking about it, it's quite a revelation.
And by the way, I thought I'd see what Steve Grisetti has to say about it in his Muvipix Guide to PE11.  While there I read his very useful note (p 246 - 247) on exporting JPEGs for web use or printing (as distinct from using in videos).   I did a comparision with a Freeze Frame against a JPEG made using Steve's instructions, and there's a huge difference, which I'd not really noticed before.
But I digress.
Here I must make an embarrassing confession.  I did not realise that right at the side of the panel, on the far right, one can slide it down to reveal more options.  Up to this moment, I thought the only ones for the 'Computer' option were Flash Video, MPEG and AVCHD.  Oh dear!  (But really, Adobe, why don't they put a little visible ARROW for people like me -- but perhaps there are no people like me ...  Moving quickly on ...)  Anyway I spent 15 minutes trying to follow Steve's directions and not getting anywhere until I re-read them for the n'th time.
And I could have saved myself endless time had I known there was a "Use for email and playback on Windows PC", ie a Windows Media option.   I really must read things more carefully.  Problem with the early 21st century -- information overload, which can mean (for some of us) a tendency to skim things quickly for the bare essentials:  can be a huge mistake.
I must do some more work on this, but, ATR, I think you've helped me to solve this little problem, so many thanks again.   But I'd still like a much more direct method of screengrabbing videos on the fly in a way that doesn't mean having to convert them for PE11, with the loss of quality, and above all the occasional synch problems.
All best
Brian