Mexican Riviera cruise video

Hi all:

I finally got my cruise video put together from our Diamond Princess Mexican Riviera cruise in January. It's uploaded to google video. Google must compress the file quite a bit because the picture quality is not what I would like. Does anyone know how to upload so the picture quality is good? Or is this just the way it is with free public video websites?

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=8943010728162609075

This video was done with Photostory3 which is a free download from Microsoft. I like the end product, but the way you have to construct the video is a but cumbersome.

WARNING: This is rather a long video (almost 15 minutes).

I noticed you had Marius as your cabin steward...he was an interesting dude...not very experienced but did what you needed when you told him...your pics were blurry but you know, you can consider it as an impressionistic collage-arty farty....however, i have been told you need to make your original pics as sharp as possible and then when you made a video of your pics you need the highest resolution you can get withing limits of google or youtube limits....thanks again for your efforts at sharing your trip..

ralph in san diego

Hi all:

I finally got my cruise video put together from our Diamond Princess Mexican Riviera cruise in January. It's uploaded to google video. Google must compress the file quite a bit because the picture quality is not what I would like. Does anyone know how to upload so the picture quality is good? Or is this just the way it is with free public video websites?

 

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=8943010728162609075

 

This video was done with Photostory3 which is a free download from Microsoft. I like the end product, but the way you have to construct the video is a but cumbersome.

 

WARNING: This is rather a long video (almost 15 minutes).

Thanks for your reply, Ralph. :)

Yes, Marius was very pleasant. We talked with him quite a bit. He wasn't the best steward we've ever had, but as you say, he was willing to do whatever we asked.

The version of the slideshow that I play on my computer looks really good. So the original photos were fine. I am pretty disappointed in the google version, though. The file was large enough as it is that it took a really long time to upload. I'm still wondering if there is something else I can do.

I'm thinking of buying the Photodex slideshow program. If I do that, they have free hosting and the quality looks really good. That would solve the problem for future shows, anyway.

Any other suggestions, anyone?

Very nice video :cool: I really liked the music you chose.

I 'm booked on the Golden Princess-Mexican Riviera in late September and I needed a cruise fix this morning. I could almost hear the Gull cries and smell the suntan lotion. Now were's my hammock :confused:

Thanks very much for your kind feedback, RubyLee.

Have a great cruise! :)

I just checked on my video and was bummed-out to see that one person had bothered to rate it and comment. The rating was one star out of five and the comment was: "nothing special about this cruise". Seems rather rude, doesn't it?

I made sure to title this video so that only people from cruise critic would be likely to find it.

Please, if you don't care for someone's video, don't make them feel badly by posting a dumb comment. Most of us are just sharing our vacation pictures and don't need negative feedback. We're not professional videographers.

I guess that's the chance you take when you post something on a public site. :(

Susan, you have some very nice photos and have done an excellent job of putting together your slide show. I know just how time consuming it can be.You should just ignore any bonehead comments from experts like 'Carlos'.

As regards the resolution of the photos...

I downloaded the entire file and opened it with a couple of different video players, then checked it with Gspot ( a codec information program). Since you encoded it using a program from Microsoft I assume you saved it as a wmv file but Google appears to re-encode video using the Divx codec.

What size is your original video file? The one I downloaded is 89 mbs and I suspect it has been significantly compressed. The resolution is now only 320 x 240 pixels so when viewed on Google each pixel is being blown up and thus appears blocky.

I think you have enough photos to be able to break the slide show into a number of smaller shows; maybe one just for ports of call and another for things on the ship, fun and games, scenery or whatever. That way you can limit the file size to less than 100 mbs so that Google will not need to do so much compressing.

File size with the wmv format can vary considerable depending on the particular codec used. The best way to find out and compare quality / file size it just to experiment with whatever you have installed, I would suggest Micosoft Video 1 as you should have that on your system by default. You also might reduce the audio bitrate, at the moment that's 128 kps. Even half that rate would give acceptable audio and would help reduce your file size by quite a bit.

If you need any other help you can email using Google's email and stevejames18.

Good luck.

Steve

Thanks, Steve! I will keep those ideas in mind when downloading any other videos (and putting them together). Hopefully the next one will be better.

Thanks also for the kind words...:)

Excellent video as far as I'm concerned. We are doing this cuise on the NCL Star at the end of September so now I have and idea of the place.

BTW, I just make slideshows of my pictures- nothing fancy but I too add music apppropiate for the show. I am into doowop music so the songs already picked out are of that genre, like Hey Senorita Adios, and Mexico .

I enjoyed your slide show. We have done this cruise three times on Princess and we love it. We are booked on the Golden next March...dh likes to drive there in less than an hour..and the Captain drives him around for a week. We did Las Calitas also and we liked it..Have done the Pirate ship in one port...Randi/s happy horses in Mazatlan. Dd wants to see dolphins next trip for an excursion...:rolleyes:

Great video Susan ! :) Thanks for sharing with us ... we'll be heading down Mexican Riviera this winter ... sure hope we see some whales like you did so close up ... the Diamond Princess looks like a beautiful ship.

Dave

Thank you also- I can't do these things with cameras at all let alone use our new digital.

Our new one on our last trip was stolen from our hotel room in Bangkok (on our last morning-due to fly out back to Auckland that day)while we were at breakfast- one months photos of Thailand and bali.My husband was gutted about losing river Kwai and cemetery photos.

We are looking at sailing on Carnival Splendor April 26 2009-7 nights- and it was good to see your pictures as we have never cruised or been to the Mexican riviera.

If i could do anything like that blurry or otherwise I'd be rapt.:rolleyes:

Susan......thanks for the video...beautiful !! I've cruised to Mexico 6 times, your video captures it all !!

Rosemary :) :o :(

Thanks very much to all of you who voiced such kind responses about my cruise slideshow.

I don't know where to post the next one since the Sticky at the top of this forum won't allow slideshows here in the future. I think we need a separate slideshow option somewhere. There doesn't seem to be one on the photography message board.

Again...glad you enjoyed the slideshow

It's off to the Caribbean for us in January!

Susan,

I loved your video! And I loved the music that went with it. Well done!

We're considering the Mexican Riviera for 2009. Now I can't wait. We also want to tour LA while we're there.

I'm glad this made it to the front page of the Boards or else I wouldn't have seen it.

Thank you again.

Hi all:

I finally got my cruise video put together from our Diamond Princess Mexican Riviera cruise in January. It's uploaded to google video. Google must compress the file quite a bit because the picture quality is not what I would like. Does anyone know how to upload so the picture quality is good? Or is this just the way it is with free public video websites?

 

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=8943010728162609075

 

This video was done with Photostory3 which is a free download from Microsoft. I like the end product, but the way you have to construct the video is a but cumbersome.

 

WARNING: This is rather a long video (almost 15 minutes).

Wow, I am really impressed,great work!!

How about trying with Vimeo or Stage6 sites. I prefer using it there to show your videos. For those of you that already tapes in high definition, the site really does some justice to your vacation videos. I stumbled onto this thread while searching for opinions before my upcoming cruise. I'm bringing my rig onboard and should have good materials to post.

I thouroughly enjoyed your video.Good Job!!! I even sent the link to a couple of friends. We are sailing there on the Sapphire Princess in October. My 3rd time to mexican riveria and my 3 friends and co-workers 1st time and they are more excited after watching your video.

Thank You for sharing

Kim:)

How nice of you to post your thoughts about my slideshow.

Glad you enjoyed it!

Happy sailings...

Try this new link. I downloaded it to Vimeo like Head Shot suggested. The quality is still not perfect, but it is much better.

WOW! that's an awesome video! We are doing the Mexican Riviera in April...looks like fun! Thanks so much.