This tip was printed from the MalekTips Computer and Technology Help and Tips website at http://malektips.com.

Windows 95 Movies and AVIs - Keeping Movies Big

SUMMARY: Increase the size of videos played in Windows 95.

Multimedia Movies (such as .AVI files) are great ways to show off the multimedia power of your PC. The human eye automatically focuses on animation rather than static images, so animated clips are sure to get peoples' attentions. Due to current technology, unfortunately, movies tend to be small, slow, and jerky. While faster CD-ROMs and video cards hope to improve on these problems, there is a "quick and dirty" way to make the movies larger.

Click on the "Start" button, choose "Settings," then "Control Panel." On the window that appears, double-click "Multimedia." Click on the "Video" tab on the "Multimedia Properties" multi-tabbed dialog that appears. You should now see a picture of a skier on a simulated Win95 screen. This is a simulation of the size of .AVI videos. To make the skier bigger or smaller (and to make your videos default to a larger or smaller size), click on the pull-down next to the word "Window" under "Show video in" and make your selection. Or, click on the "Full Screen" radio button to force the movie to play in full-screen mode. When you are satisfied with your selection (again, look at the skier!!!) press the OK button. Now, anytime a movie is played, it will default to the size you have selected.

Note that by changing the size of the movie, detail is NOT increased to that of the movie size. What this means is that larger movies will tend to look fuzzy as the single pixel elements which make up the movie are converted to multi-pixel elements when played on your system (giving movies the "blocky" appearance).