Poor quality in preview??

[Jamesemt]

I've got some video footage which I am currently editing in Windows Movie Maker. When I click on a full screen preview, the quality isn't very good - really REALLY grainy.

I transfered the footage by firewire, and even tried re transfering it with Vegas, to see if it was the software. Is the preview not full quality? Or is it that I've got a crap video camera? (It's a Panasonic NV-GS44).

Is it new video camera time? I've struggled to find a single review of this camcorder, but judging by the fact I paid £120 new last year, I'm wondering if its simply not up to the job - can anyone give me any more information on it?

[senu]

Preview within software is not full quality and all software allow you to specify the quality of preview in order to maximise good use of system resources

If the footage looks good in the camcorders viewfinder , you need to play the natively captured DV AVI file in WMP or similar (GOM or VLC) to see what it looks like
Note that WMM does sometimes make you capture as WMV
and
Within Vegas Preview is always smaller ( and frame rate may be less) than full quality
Don't ditch the camcorder just yet

[Jamesemt]

Thanks for that...errr...I think (was just about to buy a HV20 at £630 )

Pretty sure the footage isn't in WMV - I remember fighting it and picked the largest file size out of the lot.

As a bit of a side issue, how good is WMM? I've trialed a lot of the 'big' software, and couldn't get on with it (Vegas, Pinnacle, Ulead, Showbiz, Movie Factory). Are there any software packages that behave similar to WMM but with greater functionality? I've got an all singing-all dancing PC with 2GB Ram and a Terrrabite of storage itching to be used

Edited to add: What I really like about WMM is the ability to drop video into the timeline and then edit it while its playing. Only thing I don't like is its very limited with graphics and seems a bit basic.